Do You Need God to be Good?

Here are a couple of questions I was independently asked recently about whether you need God to be good, and why a person can't just lead a decent and kind life without having to worry about spirituality or whether there is a Creator or not.


Q. I often encounter 'decent,' well-meaning humanist types who disarmingly suggest to me that in the absence of a clear verifiable affirmative for the existence of deity, then surely it's reasonable just to believe in love and do good deeds: charity, putting others before oneself, etc?  What is wrong with just focusing on the core messages of the spiritual traditions instead of worrying about whether God exists or not? Sometimes I find myself sympathising with this perspective and asking myself how do I really know if these things are real?  How would you respond to these doubters? I ask for myself but also through a desire to be better armed against uncertainty and doubts along the spiritual path. 

A. Here are a few thoughts on this. Aren’t such people just saying obey the second commandment (love your neighbour) but ignore the first which is love of God? But the second only has any basis or reality to it in the light of the first.  There is no love in the real sense outside God.  He is the tree and it is the fruit. No tree, no real fruit. There's only human emotion which can be nice and warm and friendly but is not divine love because at root it is self-centred (not necessarily the same as selfish) even though it may appear otherwise. True love only comes from going beyond yourself, or even other people, to a higher, transcendental truth and that is God. In effect these people are counselling the horizontal path without acknowledging the vertical but the horizontal without the vertical keeps you firmly in this world with its falsehoods and illusions, and you will never find height or depth. 


So I would counter them by saying their approach is based on nothing more substantial than good intentions and will never last without something deeper to support it which can only be acknowledgement of the reality of a higher power. In the absence of an absolute standard of goodness and truth (which can only be God) everything becomes relative and conditional which means subject to change.

And even if their humanism helps them do kind things in this world where does that really get them or anyone else? They still remain in this world and the true spiritual aspirant can never be satisfied with this world because it is not his real home. Any truth here only exists as a reflection of the reality of the higher spiritual world. 

Even Jesus (in Mark 10:18) denied being good of himself when he said "Why do you call me good? There is none good save one, that is, God". If Jesus could not be good without God how on earth can anyone else? Is there any individual who can really look into his heart and say "I am a good person"? All goodness flows from God. As the Masters told me "The Master Jesus and all the Masters of old knew they were as nothing and that all they were came from the Creator." Where does the assumed goodness of the humanist come from? Is it a reality or an aspiration?


So the answer is that certainly you can lead a good life, up to a point, without a sense of a higher reality but how good will it really be and on what is it based? Goodness which does not have God as its foundation is not real and can never last.

And, by the way, the core message of all spiritual traditions is that God exists. That is the central truth of them all and the rest depends entirely on that to have any meaning. Even Buddhism, the one exception, points to the Unborn, Unmade and Uncompounded as the reality beyond this world. The Buddha may not have talked about God possibly because he was reacting against the mythological speculations of the Brahmins of the time but the fact that it does not acknowledge the Creator is the great flaw of Buddhism and why it is not really suitable as a religion for people in the West unless it is supported, supplemented and seen in the light of Christ.

Here is the second question with just some additional points in my response so as to avoid repetition.

Q. Why does it matter whether you believe in God or not? Why can't you just be a good person, care for the sick, feed the poor or whatever it might be? What extra would believing in God add?

A. The extra is critical because it has to do with the work of spiritual transformation. Only if you believe in God can this spiritualising work start to take place within you and you be recreated as a spiritual being rather than a limited earthbound material one. Of course, you already are a spiritual being but not in full consciousness. You are spiritual in your origin and potential but not in your current state. Belief in God is necessary because without it you cannot be pulled out of earthly darkness and into the spiritual light. It is like the sun that makes a seed planted in the earth grow.

Q. But many believers aren't transformed. They remain they same petty, selfish people.

A. True but I would say two things to that. Firstly, the process is a long one and depends on the base level at which you start. And secondly, many people only believe in their heads but it is the heart not the mind that matters. Theoretical belief is of little use if the heart and the imagination are not involved. That is because only belief in the heart and the imagination affects the whole person.