A Few Thoughts On "God A Human History"

Author Bio

I was first introduced to this book and author while viewing a Super Soul Sunday segment on OWN.  Oprah was interviewing Reza Aslan about this somewhat controversial book on his concept of God.  Mr. Aslan has an impressive bio and I've provided a link for your convenience.  As a practice, I usually present books that I find interesting on my sidebar with links to reviews and occasionally will do a Goodreads review on my sidebar sites of interest. This one particularly held my fascination and I wanted my subscribers or those who've not heard of his work or his background to read and share their impressions.  I must say, that this book also provided a more succinct language acumen for my own questions and perplexities about "The Almighty" and other names associated with this omnipotent force 'from which all knowledge flows.'




Briefly, Dr. Aslan cites:

That we ascribe our various virtues and vices, feelings and flows to God.  We humanized God and that we are 'hardwired' in our brains to do so.  He further states that the very process of conceptualizing God compels us to knowingly or fashion "him" in our own images. The humanization of God by making him (gender bias) us.  This force begs our predilection to say we are fashioned in his image, however, humans have fashioned him in our image.

I've wrestled for many years on this subject and believed how can one satisfactorily explain an omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient force in such limited terms with emotions that have not only enhanced the human experience but also exposed the evil and inhumane attributes of mortals.

This book is a scholarly approach with extensive research on all the major and less known religious groups which led to his most recent beliefs about GOD. I'm sure it will be viewed as 'New Age' stuff by the more conservative and established religious believers, that is if they decide to read it. 

I believe that until the day of my final transition; my lifelong question will continue to be; what was all this about?  There are many religious scholars and philosophers who have given their thoughts on the how(?), but the why(?) will remain a mystery and as Deepak Chopra cites that the latter keeps him humbled and in awe.  Me too!