The Therapist's God

And commentary from my audience

First, some housekeeping: I had the pleasure of talking to Rajeev Ram of The Cactus Brahmin Testimonials. We discussed the varying experiences of God, suicide and mental health, masculinity, living with Bipolar II, my journey as a post-Satanist, and much more. It was a great conversation, and I hope you will give it a listen and subscribe to his publication:

Suicide, Sangha, Satanism, & Sonnets

Last week’s article A Field Guide to the Divine got a big response, and I’d like to unpack some of the responses here. For a brief rundown, I argue that people use the word “God” to mean a vast spectrum of experiences of the “divine”, including:

1. The Confessor’s God

2. The Storyteller’s God

3. The Conservationist’s God

4. The Shaman’s God

5. The Philosopher’s God

6. The Mystic’s God

There was an additional God which, in retrospect, I wish I had included. I call this God the Therapist’s God, and it lords over what might be termed Therapeutic Theism. You know you are in the realm of the Therapist’s God when someone primarily argues for theistic belief and practice from personal fulfillment and happiness. Life without God is meaningless and frightening. Therefore, belief in God is justified. Therapeutic Theism is God-Shaped-Hole Maintenance – the Conservationist’s God at the individual scale.

I didn’t include this God because I feared that it would seem insulting, and I didn’t want to seem dismissive towards those who embrace the Therapist’s God. I’d already poked enough bears in the article as it was. I was also unsure if the Therapist’s God warranted an entry, or was just a subset of the Conservationist’s God.

I’m of two minds about the Therapist’s God. I don’t think the Therapist’s God needs to be insulting. It does, after all, point to some of the deepest eternal longings of the human heart: purpose, structure, belonging, and love. Are these needs insulting? I don’t think so. In a way, I admire people who admit to believing in the Therapist’s God: they know what they need. Belief in the Therapist’s God is not weakness; at least, no more or less weak than the rest of humanity. I have, at many points, been extremely close to returning to my Christian faith, if only because I miss the light and comfort it provided me for so long.

On the other hand, I don’t think the Therapist’s God gives us much insight into what is true about the universe beyond human consciousness, and it is here that Therapeutic Theism breaks down for me. Theists will no doubt disagree with me, arguing that the human yearning for God points to cosmic truth. I disagree. The history of the modern era is one great unfurling of destabilizing truths about nature that run counter to human intuition.

Ideally, we do or don’t believe in God because the truth matters in itself, not because the truth feels good or is amenable to living a full life. Facts don’t care about your feelings, as Ben Shapiro is wont to say. I see no reason why the truth, at the cosmic scale, should be gratifying to humans. Despite this, I have a conviction – one might call it faith – that the pursuit of truth is its own reward. Coming into alignment with the truth, no matter how hideous, does provide a sort of peace. It might not be the peace that the acolyte of the Therapist’s God hopes for, but it is peace nonetheless.

Let’s move on to feedback from my audience.