Personal god

"I cannot prove to you that there is no personal God, but if I were to speak of him, I would be a liar."

"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious, then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."

"I have suggested that it is the eternal, timeless, transcendent God that appears to fill the gaping hole left when our deepest desires encounter the world. This may be true enough, but it is very incomplete. The philosophical vocations of the and Roman eras also sought out eternity and transcendence. Yet their stories have quite a different flavor. One might seek tranquility in the face of inevitable death, as the s did; or unity with a cosmic source of wisdom, as the s did; or a prophetic rejection of human pretense, as Diogenes the Cynic did. The Christian God is transcendent, but also lives intimately with us. Intimacy with a transcendent and timeless God is a difficult thing to understand or to articulate. Yet we must try, since the religious we have described are evidently acting on a passionate, personal love, as befits a personal God."

"Is it possible that there are people who say "God" and suppose they mean something shared by all? — Only consider two schoolboys: one of them buys a knife, and the other buys an identical one on the same day. And a week later, they show each other the two knives, and they turn out to be only remotely similar, so differently have they been shaped by different hands. ... Is it possible to believe we could have a god without making use of him?"

"A man's personal god is a shepherd who finds pasturage for the man. Let him lead him like sheep to the food they can eat."

"A man without a personal god does not procure much food, does not procure even a little food. Going down to the river, he does not catch any fish. Going down to a field, he does not catch any gazelle. In important matters he is unsuccessful. When running, he does not reach his goal. Yet were his god favourable toward him, anything he might name would be provided for him."

"Thanks to the word of his personal god, the fate of the man who speaks just words is favourable, and he is with him throughout the day."

"You should not question the words of your mother and your personal god."

"If you do not believe in a personal God, the question: 'What is the purpose of life?' is unaskable and unanswerable."