The search for God is the search for Father

These are just loosely connected thoughts, so please view them as such. In monotheistic belief systems, God is a remote, inscrutable being most often portrayed as male. In the mythology of the ancient Greeks the creator gods were the sky (male) and the earth (female). This has some logic. The sky father is remote and the earth mother is always near. The earth supports and nourishes us. We spring from the female body and it nourishes us as infants. On the other hand, when you are a child, where is your father? Above you and away from you, like the sky looking down on you. Before science, the natural world was alive with being and soul. It is logical that early man extended their relationships to interpret the systems of nature.


Many people are raised within paternalistic religions like Christianity. Some choose to believe and some choose to disbelieve. Even as a person who lacks belief, I know this is a choice. I don’t feel that choosing not to believe has much to do with logic unless you were raised outside of a paternalistic belief system. If you are raised within a belief system, I think you must make a choice to believe or not to believe, and having made the choice I think it often comes down to whether you trust the figures of authority in your life. I have an unscientific theory that atheists may be more likely to have existing conflicts or distrust with their fathers and other authority figures. I also have a theory that if you have a good relationship with your parents in which you identify with them you will tend to mirror their belief system, political, ideological, religious, or otherwise. And, if you have a bad relationship and/or loose identification you will tend to have a contrary belief system.

3 comments

  1. I have seen God, and he has Pizazz!!

  2. Pizazz, pizazz, cmon I’m gonna give it to you… pizazz pizazz.

  3. The guys will be ni–ice!

    What the hell is with the Xbox in the background?!