Is G!d a person — a being with a personality — or an impersonal force? Looking at Jewish scripture, where G!d is given quite a personality, one would assume Jews would answer that indeed G!d is a being with whom one can have a relationship. Not so according to a Pew Forum poll from June of this year. As you can see from the graph above, 50% of Jews defined the Divine as an impersonal force. The total however only adds up to 75%, leaving me wonder what the other Jews answered. Or what the other choices were.
The interesting thing to note is that just below the Jews are the Buddhists, 40% of those who answered said impersonal force. Less than the Jews. And 20% said a personality -- also less than the Jews, and on this answer, that was to be expected. That any Buddhists gave the "person" answer at all really disqualifies them as classic Buddhists. In fact, even the impersonal force answer isn't quite right, because it presupposes a being of some sort, which classical Buddhism does not accept. But in terms of available answers one can see from this graph, it comes closest.
Where do you fall on this graph? And what other answers do you think the poll ought to have reflected?
I'm glad you posted this survey, I find it very revealing. I was raised Roman Catholic and had an Orthodox gerus (conversion) several years ago. I have found myself struggling spiritually since that time, feeling very detached from G-d and just going through the everyday "rituals" or mitvas in a mechanical manner. Here are some of the adjectives and conceptions I would use to describe G-d prior to gerus and since:
Before:
loving
forgiving
close
friend
all-powerful
contradictory
peaceful
wanting the best for me
Since:
judge
demanding
nit-picking
foreboding
ego-centric
blood thristy
vengeful
archaic
far away
distant
condemning
wants me to suffer
never good enough
Obviously, this is overly-simplistic, but I wanted to share something that is happening to me and related to your post.
Thanks
Posted by: ME | April 17, 2009 at 01:34 AM