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? ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

A personal god is a deity who can be related to as a person instead of as an impersonal force.

Quotes

• I cannot prove to you that there is no personal God, but if I were to speak of him, I would be a liar.
  • Albert Einstein, in an interview (1948), quoted in Einstein and the Poet : In Search of the Cosmic Man (1983) by William Hermanns, p. 132

• 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.
  • Albert Einstein, in a letter to an atheist, written in English (24 March 1954), included in Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman.

• 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?
  • Rainer Maria Rilke, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge (1910), as translated by Michael Hulse (2009), p. 16

• 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.
  • Sumerian proverb, Collection III at The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, 3rd millennium BCE.

• 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.
  • Sumerian proverb from Urim, Text online at The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, 3rd millennium BCE.

• 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.
  • Sumerian proverb, text online at The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, 3rd millennium BCE.

• You should not question the words of your mother and your personal god.
  • Šuruppak, Instructions of Shuruppak (3rd millennium BCE). [1]

• If you do not believe in a personal God, the question: 'What is the purpose of life?' is unaskable and unanswerable.
  • J. R. R. Tolkien, Letter to Camilla Unwin (20 May 1969). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981), Letter 310

See also

• Devotion
• Divinity
• God
• Goddess
• Holy
• Prayer