Each person invents God in his or her own image. No two people worship exactly the same god. For those who do believe in a god, there are two versions in their mind. One version is the doctrinal or theological god. That god is the one they talk about in Sunday School or Sacrament meeting. The theological god is the one they reflect on when they stop to reflect.
The other god is the practical, day-to-day behavioral god. This is the god of impulse, of instinct of no-time-to-think about things. This, of course, is the real god because this is the god that governs or rules the mundane activities of life.
Now I'd be surprised if there is one at all, but when I was TBMish I came up with three possibilities.
1. Marionette God
He pulls all the strings. People pray to him at the end of church when they say, "and please bless us that we will get to our homes in safety".
See this god makes some cars move out of the way and crash into other cars, not the cars of the people in class that day. He controls everything, including food poisoning.
If you suck up to him, he'll protect you better. He makes HR give you the job etc. because you prayed better than the other applicants. He's a bit of a pushover, but can be a mean bastard too.
2. Lazyboy God
He sits in a big comfy chair reading the paper and smoking a pipe. He set it all in motion, then let it run its course. He glances down every now and then to see how it's progressing, but doesn't step in to move cars out of the way or make food safer. Praying to him makes you feel better, but he doesn't dole out blessing, he just watches.
3. Grandfather God.
This one is a little more hands-on, but not as much as marionette God. He helps where it's needed, but is choosy about when to step in. He would do it because he cares, not because people sucked up to him and complimented him in prayers ("our kind and gracious heavenly father" etc."
americangirl406 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > DNA: very insightful! I realize that I still > picture him as marionette God.... Hmmm you've made > me think I like it :)
Most Mormons do pray to that God. And they tend to think that they are one of his favorites.
I remember two boy scouts getting lost in the mountains of Utah, separate incidents though. One boy was eventually found, they other was never found. As they were both in the news at the same time, it caught me by surprise when the parents of the boy that was found were gushing to a news reporter about how it, "proves that God answers prayers". Normally that wouldn't catch my attention, but there was another LDS family praying just as hard for their boy to be found also. So what, God was just a bastard that liked one family's prayer better, so he maneuvered searchers closer to that kid, and wouldn't do it for the other family?
That God doesn't give a damn about some people, and because of it their cars crash, they get food poisoning, their child dies, etc. But those who have sufficiently sucked up to him get jobs, do better on their tests, their food is safe, etc.
Another peculiarity about Marionette God is that when he moves the strings in a helpful way, he's great and wonderful. If he doesn't do it for a devout person, then he is off the hook due to the person, "needing to learn something."
But if a person who isn't devout doesn't get the help, the devout say that the person wasn't worthy of blessings.
So, if he helps me... I'm good and he loves me.
Doesn't help me..... I need to learn some things and he lovingly screwed me over.
Doesn't help an exmo.... they suck and God is humbling them by letting bad shit happen to them.
Yup, he's up there pulling strings and making stuff happen.
As a Mormon I pictured God as the old guy in the Old Testament with a white beard. I pictured Jesus as the nice young guy in the New Testament. I pictured the Holy Casper as an invisible gas.
When I dumped Mormonism, I started from scratch. Looking at the Bible and from what I gathered from a pastor and more reading, I pictured God as a sort of cosmic amoeba that had spiritual pseudopods that formed his three forms. I tried to buy in to the mystery of it and roll with it.
When I dumped Christianity I viewed God as a power, a force, laws, or undefined source of everything.
When I dumped needing answers, I viewed gods as man's attempt to explain and validate their own values using mythology.
Now I don't picture a god at all. It doesn't add or solve anything in my life.