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Concept
Personal god
Summary
A personal god, or personal goddess, is a deity who can be related to as a person instead of as an impersonal force, such as the Absolute.
In the scriptures of the Abrahamic religions, God is described as being a personal creator, speaking in the first person and showing emotion such as anger and pride, and sometimes appearing in anthropomorphic shape. In the Pentateuch, for example, God talks with and instructs his prophets and is conceived as possessing volition, emotions (such as anger, grief and happiness), intention, and other attributes characteristic of a human person. Personal relationships with God may be described in the same ways as human relationships, such as a Father, as in Christianity, or a Friend as in Sufism.
A 2008 survey by the Pew Research Center reported that, of U.S. adults, 60% view that "God is a person with whom people can have a relationship," while 25% believe that "God is an impersonal force."
A 2019 survey by the National Opinion Research Center reports that 77.5% of U.S. adults believe in a personal god.
The 2014 Religious Landscape survey conducted by Pew reported that 57% of U.S. adults believe in a personal god.
Jewish theology states that God is not a person. This was also determined several times in the Old Testament, which is considered by Jews to be an indisputable authority for their faith (Hosea 11 9: "I am God, and not a man". Numbers 23 19: "God is not a man, that He should lie". 1 Samuel 15 29: "He is not a person, that He should repent"). However, there exist frequent references to anthropomorphic characteristics of God in the Hebrew Bible such as the "Hand of God." Judaism holds that these are to be taken only as figures of speech. Their purpose is to make God more comprehensible to the human reader.
In the case of the Christian belief in the Trinity, whether the Holy Spirit is impersonal or personal, is the subject of dispute, with experts in pneumatology debating the matter. Jesus (or God the Son) and God the Father are believed to be two persons or aspects of the same god.
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