Design-a-God

There seems to be a movement of people who wish to make God into whatever they want him (or her) to be. Some people want God to be just love. Others want a God that will never sit in judgement of them but accept whatever they want to do. The common thread of this movement, which can be quite varied, is that these people decide who God is and what morality God accepts.

In other words, the people who are designing God (usually in their own image) are also throwing off the accumulated wisdom and revelation of traditional religion and deciding for themselves what our moral structures should be and how religion should be practiced. In a very real sense, they are taking the place of God. They are the ones making the decisions, not God. Logic would also tell you that they then consider themselves God or at least they consider themselves with God-like powers such as the ability to discern true morality.

I have no objection to individuals rejecting deism or the existence of God. God gave us free will so that we could make that choice ourselves. What does not make any sense, however, is that individuals would replace God with their own image of what they think God should be, not what he is. Narcissism is defined as excessive self-admiration. One would have to be narcissitic to believe that they can replace God with their own wisdom. By deciding for God what God should believe is to replace God's thinking with their own. They are elevating themselves to the status of God - no - actually above God because their sense of morality is higher than that of traditional God-inspired or revealed morality. What kind of ego must a person have to do that?

No, God cannot be whatever we want God to be. As God says, "I am." He is what he is. You can reject God or accept him but you cannot design God into your own personal deity.