© 1985 Debra York
© 1985 The Urantia Book Fellowship (formerly Urantia Brotherhood)
Some of the obvious problems that occur when humans personalize or humanize their concept of God is to give human attributes to Him. Since we as humans feel anger, righteous indignation, fear, jealousy, hatred, and all manner of negative emotions, we picture God reacting to us in a similar manner. Also, it has been proved by psychologists that human beings tend to relate to God, their Heavenly Father, in the same way they relate to their earthly fathers. Since God is given a male connotation, we relate to him as though he were a male figure. So if an individual had a challenging relationship with men, particularly an earthly father, or if one found that he or she could not depend on him, or had a lack of trust in him, then it would be likely to transfer these same negative feelings of distrust, etc., to a relationship with the Heavenly Father. Very often this creates barriers to allowing a close personal relationship to develop between the person and the Heavenly Father because there is so much fear involved. If we instead understand that God is neither male nor female, and does not have our negative human reactions, this will help eliminate the fear and blockages we put up unconsciously.
If we believe that everything in the universe is happening due to universal laws which are self-acting and self-explanatory, and we reject the idea of a universal sovereign will, then we inhibit our chances of experiencing God’s personal and deep abiding love for us, and the joy that relationship brings.
We need to ever leave our concept of God open to change and to evolve as we grow spiritually toward Him in our awareness. All of God’s personal traits can be better understood by observing them as they were revealed in the life of Jesus while He dwelt among us.
—Debra York
Memphis, Tennessee