Agree/disagree: Bigoted people pray to a bigoted god, while decent people pray to a decent and tolerant god?

Question

Hat tip to Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars:

http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2007/05/mahers_eulogy_for_falwell.php#comment-438955

Answer 1

Totally true in my experience. Every god is js just a magnifying mirror for its devotee.

One of the many phenomena or lack thereof that caused me to disbelieve in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is that post-conversion, decent and tolerant people became more so and assholes got even worse, even though they sat in the same church, heard the same sermons, attended the same Bible studies, prayed in the same prayer meetings, worshipped the same God, read the same scriptures.

the decent tolerant folk go to the scriptures and find the humble Jesus whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light. The bigoted and hateful find Jesus the iron rod-bearing, pot smashing avenger of Revelations who demands martyrdom of post-rapture convertees and horrific death and eternal torment for infidels. Hitler was a Catholic given to bizarre Wagnerian mysticism, and the Jesus he found was the one taking a whip to the Jews in the temple. Compare that to a Thomas Merton and the pacifist faith he found in the same religion.

Religion doesn't bring out anything except what's already there and occasionally amplifies it.

Answer 2

I think that's probably right. On occasion bigots get challenged to change and become more moderate from the text he reads (eg. Bible, Koran, Shastra), but in prayer -- they're already focusing on their conception of God.

I don't know of too many who get a lightning bolt from heaven in their prayers and change their brains, but I suppose it could happen (the Bible records that God told Peter to loosen up with the Gentiles when he had a dream).

I tire of the types who use their image of God to blast people, instead of seeking to be changed into the true image of God themselves.

Answer 3

Only God is God.
There is only one God.

There is only one God, if one doesn't understand this it means that such a person is living in duality!

This is the "Truth".