I’ve been thinking lately about God, assuming He exists. Mainly, I’ve been thinking about the Judeo-Christian biblical conception of God, and asking myself, crazy as this sounds, if He exists, Is God a sociopath?
I pose this question seriously, and apologize in advance for offending anyone by probing this idea. But consider:
You are expected to worship Him.
You are expected to acknowledge His perfection.
You are expected to live by His standards.
You are expected to fear His Judgement.
You are expected to please, not disappoint Him.
You are expected to do penance when you’ve strayed from His rules.
You are expected to be in awe of, and fear, His omniscience.
You are expected to be in awe of, and fear, His omnipotence.
You are expected to prize His love, and fear His wrath.
You are expected to seek, and follow, His guidance.
When He feels unheeded, He licenses Himself to unleash cruel, violent, devastating rages (see the Flood, among countless other examples).
He is a punisher.
He is perfect.
He has no guilt; yet He instills guilt.
He “made,” and he “works,” the world and universe from “above,” sitting in Judgement of all who deviate from Him.
He is infallible.
He is unaccountable.
He is callous—a cause of, and silent witness to, untold violence and suffering in the history of humanity.
He is “entitled—”to judge, and punish, as He likes.
He is controlling to a highly pathological degree, for all the reasons stated above.
He is merciful, so long as you heed Him. Otherwise, He can be merciless.
He expects to be idealized and treated like a God.
He rages, and inflicts the cruelest of punishments, when He feels defied.
His word is the bible.
Now you tell me: If I were describing a human being in these terms, what conclusion would you draw? I suspect, if you weren’t feeling defensive, that you’d conclude that we’re talking about someone with a case of seriously malignant narcissism edging, perhaps, into the realm of sociopathy?
But, of course, I’m describing the Judeo-Christian God.
Think about this: from the earliest age, this is your almighty Father figure. You are taught to worship Him, seek His love, His mercy, accept His perfection and infallibility.
You are taught that His word is final; His wrath is justified; to feel shame before His eyes.
You are taught to have to work hard to earn your way back into His good graces, and to be grateful for His forgiveness.
His judgement is final, and even terrifying.
Now if this is the Father figure we’ve been raised to heed and idealize from birth, is it not fair to wonder how much this relationship—with God—might predispose us to end up with a sociopath?
Does one’s adult relationship with a sociopath not replicate, in certain ways, one’s relationship with God?
I pose this as food for thought, nothing else. But I will follow-up this post in the next several weeks, to further flesh out my thoughts, factoring in, as well, your initial feedback.
(This article is copyrighted (c) 2010 by Steve Becker, LCSW.)
Hi Witty!
Yes I TOTALLY read Steves last paragraph and in fact referred to that a few posts above!
Havent been on in a long time…
MISS THE OLD DAYS HERE, but so happy to be on a healing path that causes me to be back out in the world more often than not… dare I say life is better again… life is refreshing again… because of the choices I am making and aware that they are there every minute of every day … choices to surround myself with good positive healthy people and to make sure I am taking care of myself to be able to breathe it all in again.
Living and learning go hand and hand that is what healing is all about. A willingness to open ourselves to the good and not so good in life, in others and in ourselves and allowing our experiences to shape us into who what and how we want to be going forward.
I hope you are doing well. I will never forget my LF journey and “meeting” some of the most incredibly bright, strong, kind people along the way. Your posts are always so wise and balanced… take care!
OK Steve, now that you are dusting the cobwebs off my gray matter, here it goes.
God created us in His image. Knowing this, He specifically told us to stay humble and read His letter He sent us (the Bible). The info you listed is what He can and will do to those that refuse His requst of staying humble and focus on his spiritual teachings.
Those of us that abided in His request, love and respect Him. Those that don’t are the ones that need to fear His wrath (some of what you listed above). Now, do you believe any of us on LF care that God will pour His wrath out on the Spaths that destroyed our lives? I think NOT!
Hi, Witty! Long time no hear from you! HOW ARE YOU GF?Ive missed you and Im sure lots of us have missed you . How are things with you? How is your spath teenager son? is he now living with you, and if so, hows it going?Let us know! We care about you! {{HUGGS!!}} Gem.XXX
I don’t have a problem with what Steve has written, I love being tipped on my head for a while, look outside the square and ponder personal new thoughts and ideas……. But I would not comment on what I believe in because what’s the point? I would hate to offend anyone on this site that has became sometimes a life line and my sanity. The LF bloggers are more important to me than a religious argument. So I will get off this thread now and go elsewhere LOL
Steve,
Interesting muse. “Don’t bogart that joint, pass it over to me…..”
But since we’re musing I have to ask why do we insist as human beings to manifest our ideas about GOD as an EXTERNAL being who behaves like a person.
This isn’t possible. It just isn’t. Especially because when we speak of God, we speak of the spirit and not the flesh. Humankind are flesh and mortal. God isn’t.
So, to rationalize the omnipotent and divine in the context of human characteristics, I think we fall short of understanding. And I think its a very difficult thing to understand, but something that we all strive to.
So I pose this question: If God is outside us, then when we pray or petition God, what is the difference between that and making a Santa Claus list and sending it up the chimney on fire?
If God is internal in the spirit, then when we reach for him, what do we really connect with?
I don’t know the answers, but I think it may be all about the questions.
And speaking from the position of recovery, I think that the whole experience of dealing with the disordered has everything to do with reaching deep inside to understand what happened, how it happened, why it happened and who made it happen.
We can only know that these people are in the world. And we can only deal with them and the experiences they create for us. It points to reaching for deep seated answers, guidance and wisdom.
The changes that make us better over the long run only come from within. And to me, the miracle of being able to make them and to be free from the abuse of person, mind and spirit has to come from the kinds of revelations that are inspired by the Divine.
And the Divine is accessible to all of us, maybe because it is internal.
So pass the number and let me know your thoughts because one thing the disordered enjoy doing is debating and wagging the dog over religion and fundamental belief systems.
Its recreational debate over a territory that is inherent with risk and rising to the debate in itself is a pointer on the status of one’s vulnerability.
So, I’m going to re run the Other Boleyn Girl, drink a toast to Good King Henry and catch the high road on Religion out of the Book Of Common Prayer. Good enough.
Nice chattin’ with you Steve, as always.
witty, hi there!! Nice to see you! 🙂
Have missed you & been thinking about you.
Hope everything is going well for you.
WITTY!!!!!!
DAMN GIRL…..you just poofed!
I hope your enjoying some summer….and getting out to the ‘shows’ and making some money.
I actually was really worried aboutcha……I’m glad you checked in.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I think LF is an evolution…..peeps come and peeps go…..but the ones you really connect with stay in your heart and mind as the days/weeks/months/years roll past!
Just want to know your okay!
YOU OKAY?
XXOO
EB
When I saw the title of this posting, I couldn’t believe that someone would actually blog about “God being a sociopath.” God gave us our own free will and we are allowed to express ourselves, but I totally DISAGREE with what he wrote. Yes, I am offended, but even more so; I hurt for God. No, I don’t have to defend God, but anybody who writes and believes that “God is a sociopath,” I believe, has to be a sociopath themselves. I’m sorry. I agree with Twice Betrayed and Shana, Changed Forever, and others, I can’t remember. God is Love and that means that He loves you too. Jesus died on the cross for you and all who reject Him; He died for all. God gave us our own free will because he doesn’t want us to be robots. God does NOT force anybody to know Him. It is His desire for all of us to have a Personal Relationship with Him – NOT RELIGION! Religion is man made. God is the truth. If you were the only person on earth, Jesus would have gotten on that cross and died for you. Allow me to use my free will and express myself, what Jesus said in the Gospel of John, and what I believe to be true: “The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come to give life and give it more abundantly.” The thief is the devil and he uses people to steal, kill and destroy = sociopaths, etc…I used to be a minister, studied my Bible inside and out, taught The Word of God, had a close personal relationship with The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit, because Jesus made that available. I chose life (Jesus) and not death (the devil). Right now, I feel like I don’t even have a soul because the ex SP sucked it out of me. In the beginning, he claimed to be a Christian and he believed, etc…Being involved with him, my relationship with God and my spirit started to die little by little. I didn’t realize it until later, but I made the SP my god. I also didn’t realize that I replaced God with him. After everything God did for me (many blessings and miracles), I chose to “serve” this monster, and Jesus said, “you can’t serve two gods, you will hate one and love the other.” That is what happened to me. Although I have not been in that toxic relationship for 1 1/2 years now, I still don’t feel anything about God. I believe He is and I know He is Truth and Love and Peace and Joy and that His mercies are new every morning. I know a lot in my head, but it’s not in my heart anymore. I can’t even pray anymore. I feel saddened for you and all those who do not believe that God exists and that God loves you, Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father praying for you. God is not a punisher. He disciplines us in love, as parents should, not with sickness, disease, heartache, etc…We can either choose Life (God) or death (the devil). God gave us free will so we choose (even when I knew better) somehow I got sucked in, and that is not the only wrong choice I made; I make wrong choices every day. None of us are perfect, YET, God still loves us. He doesn’t stop loving us because we made a wrong decision. He is always there ready to forgive us. Look at the traits of a SP – GOD IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE!!! How about the posting on LF, “I looked into the eyes of the devil or evil.” That is so true. I actually saw the sp’s eyes turn a different color when he went into one of his “I’ll kill you rages.” He looked EVIL and DARK. I saw it and I felt it, and I am not the only one, others did too. This place is supposed to be a healing place. I believed it was God who led me here. There are many loving, caring, empathetic, compassionate, patient, kind, etc. people here (traits of God). I want my relationship with God back again. He has forgiven me; I haven’t forgiven myself, which is very difficult for me to do. Jesus did not come to condemn us; He came to show us the Love of the Father.What you see and read about Jesus and what He did, He represented the Father. Jesus is the Way, The Truth and The Life and no man comes to The Father except through Him. You can believe it or not. It’s your free will and choice. A posting such as this “Is God a sociopath?” is offensive and evil…just like the sociopaths and psychopaths…I may be having a difficult time getting back to a personal relationship with God, which is what He desires, a personal relationship, NOT man made religion that leads us away from God, but my God is faithful even when I’m not and He is my Help and my Strength and for some reason, He did not allow me to die the two times I tried to take my own life because of that evil SP so there is a reason why I am here. He never gives up on us, never. God loves all of you. I enjoy coming to this site to read and I feel safe here and I’ve learned a lot. I don’t feel alone when I read this postings. What the sps did to us IS EVIL. But when I read the postings of those who are healing, close to healing, healed; I am so happy for those lovely, brave people who did not give up, but kept going, with strength they didn’t know they had. I rejoice with you. For me, I wouldn’t still be alive, reading these postings, talking to new friends, if it wasn’t for the GRACE of GOD!!! As others said, we are here to heal. I do not find any healing in reading this disgusting, sick article, which reminds me of something only a sociopath or someone evil would write. I’m sorry, but that is how I see it. Now I have to think about whether I want to visit this site anymore. I thank you all and I love you all with the Love of God. God is Love and Jesus is Lord!!! My prayer for all of you who believe and agree with this sick article is that God would take the mask off your eyes so you will see and believe in your heart that God loves you; He sees your tears; He knows your fears; and that all who call upon the Name of Jesus will be saved…Peace and God’s Blessings be upon each and every one of you. You know what, just writing this makes my spirit feel alive again and I’m not angry and I don’t feel like avenging the sp and, most importantly, I don’t think I even want to focus on him anymore and write about all the negativity. I may just read only those postings, which I need to heal, but I’m not sure I want to post anymore. I find that when I do, it only keeps him alive in me, and I don’t want him in me. I want God’s Spirit in my spirit. I feel great right now and I know it’s because God’s Word is Life and Healing…just writing His Words brought life and healing to me, and I praise Him…He is setting me free little by little.
Dear Alicia,
Well spoken, and I am glad you are being set free from the “bondage” of the psychopath, because BONDAGE is what it is. Enslavement of the soul, not just the body and mind.
God bless.
Hi everyone! I missed ALL of you guys. So many of you will always be close to my heart.
I was still checking in from time to time. Not often enough, but enough to at least check up on some of my peeps. I just couldn’t post for awile. I was not in a good place and just didn’t have anything to offer.
I was trying to manage my ptsd symtoms and I was just so stressed all the time. I took a break and really tried to focus on my work. I needed to focus on something other than what was stressing me out. And this seemed impossible at the time.
Because everything was stressing me. I felt like I was in a vicious cycle.
I needed to put all of my energy (and there wasn’t much) into something that I might actually have some control over. Because I felt that I had no control over anything in my life anymore, especially my emotional state. I forced myself to stay focused on work everyday. It wasn’t easy. But rinse, repeat, rinse repeat.
The end of the school year was pretty rough. My son was really acting up in school and of course the school kept calling me. And he kept getting angry about this as he wanted me to butt out of his life. However being that I am still his legal guardian, the school doesn’t really care where he resides. His grandparents house is just an address as far as the school is concerned. But school is over now, thank goodness.
Jr is not living at home. He is currently living at his grandparents house. Probably the worst place that he could possibly be. Because they are such enablers. But it is what it is.
My stress level is better than it has been for the last few years. Progress not perfection, right….. Emotionally I still ride the rollercoaster.