Why do we need God?

Image Credit: flickr.com/photos/danferb

Being a human being is not easy! We have got the most complex hierarchy of needs that any species on earth would have. And for every successive step towards a happier life, we generally believe in fulfilling those needs. While there are many needs that relate to essentials (aka survival, further extended to comfortable survival), the fact is many don’t and they are created. One such need is God, one of the most desirable needs of human being on the earth. But why do we need God?

Looking back in our primitive times will make some sense here. Most of the world today is managed by government run institutions. However in the early ages of civilization, governments didn’t exist or were too incapable of taking charge of masses. At such times, fear of God reinforced some rule and order. God was the only supreme power that could see everyone, everywhere and every time. We needed God because it enabled an ordinary person to behave acceptably. Moreover, the very belief that God knows everything and is fair in all its decisions has helped us seek God as one of the most powerful catalysts of justice and retribution, for it rewards virtues and penalizes vices. Perhaps, without God, things would have been (and will be) much difficult for those who run the show. 

Not Surprisingly God is the ultimate hero and epitomizes our idea of perfection to many of us. God also represents the highest order of wisdom to us. This conviction gives us strength and motivation to keep chasing our better selves, irrespective of our current situation or capability. And the best part is that this hero is someone we can call as our own and treat him (or her) in our own unique ways. We can speak to him anytime, seek solutions to our problems and have him accompany us to any place. Such is the charisma of God that it can seemingly help us overcome any mammoth problem; and if facing reality is still difficult, we seek his shelter, considering it a divine design. The very reason that God is beyond definition and omnipotent helps us utilize him for anything and everything, from conveniently explaining the inexplicable to righteously attributing matters of chance to him as destiny. On the contrary, this is perhaps a compelling reason why we see most of the atheists as very headstrong people since they don’t need a God for guidance and their emotional well being.

A very interesting observation is that with our development, our need of God has undergone vast shift. While the earliest religions preached worshiping natural forces like sun, the most modern ones preach some kind of ideology on how to live. Definitely the earlier Gods were needed to help us survive, but the modern ones are needed for sophisticated needs like enlightenment and peace of mind. 

Human being has always been dependent upon something, something that it can always look up to and adore, something that is much grander, powerful and beyond its comprehension, something that can eternally inspire it. Simply put, God fulfills that ‘One Need’. And in coming decades, as we progress naturally, religions will evolve; older ones will get weakened, newer ones will arise, new forms of God will be conceptualized, the focus will shift from deity to philosophy and from religion to spirituality, all because our needs from God will also evolve.