A person that is newly embarking on the spiritual path often fails to realize that God has personality. To most of these neophytes, God is viewed as a characterless source of energy who one prays to for wishes. The neophyte believes this for many reasons.
The first reason the neophyte views God as some sort of inert entity is because he or she does not want to anthropomorphize God. In other words, they do not want to give God the petty attributes of human emotions that traditional religion often assign to the creator. Emotions such as jealousy, anger, susceptible to flattery by offerings and worship are all qualities one can view as not worthy of an all powerful God.
Another reason why the neophyte detaches God from having personality is because he or she tends to focus on the negative attributes of personality. They see the impulsive or fickle behaviors of human personality as a burden rather than a blessing. The neophyte fails to see that personality is neither good nor bad. It has both positive and negative applications but it is above these things. Furthermore, without personality an entity can hardly be said to be alive. It is an automaton.
While the viewpoint of a supremely indifferent God is certainly superior to the childish descriptions of an angry jealous God given to us by theologians, it is still incorrect. To keep it brief and simple, I will provide two axioms that prove God has personality.
Man comes from God. This makes God the source of man. It is impossible for something to have more than its source. In other words, you cannot get more out of the bag than what's in it. Therefore, if man has personality, God also has personality.
Although God has personality, it is important we do not confuse this personality for the one that is familiar to us. God has a personality infinitely more vast than the limited ones we are all well familiar with.
In truth, your personality is but a fragment of the total personality of the human race. Likewise, the personality of the human race is but an incomparable fragment of God’s infinite personality. To say that God has personality is a bit of a misnomer. God IS personality.
If God was just an automaton that responds to requests for energy and favors, then there would be no need to develop a relationship with God. You would just place your order to the cosmic mind and that’s it. This is, in fact, what the lower form of spirituality mostly is.
What I recommend instead is for you to recognize that God has personality. This realization will make you see the need to develop your relationship with this infinite intelligence. A relationship is the art of learning how to communicate and live with a personality. The way God talks to me is probably not the way it talks to you. You learn how God speaks to you, and vice versa, by cultivating your relationship with the source. As you relationship with God develops, you will see its sense of humor, irony, and the marvelous enigma God is.
