Reza Aslan’s “God: A Human History,” is a thought-provoking treatise about who were as human beings and who God is; or at least what human’s perception of who God is across time. The breadth of Reza’s knowledge is astounding and his creative ability to make us think about religion is paradigm-shifting. Whether you agree with all of his conclusions, this book is a must-read for those interested in the psychology, sociology, and anthropology of religion!

https://bookriot.com/2017/09/27/god-reza-aslan/

“ARE YOU THERE, GOD?” IS NOT THE MOST INTERESTING QUESTION
COMMUNITY
09-27-17
This is a guest post from Shaun Manning. Shaun is a writer and publishing pro living in Ann Arbor with his wife, daughter, and cat, all of whom have eclectic tastes in reading. He holds a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Glasgow, where he won a bottle of whiskey for a public reading. Shaun is the author of three graphic novels and assorted short stories in several media—perhaps you heard him on Radio 4, but probably not. Follow him on Twitter @FasterthanShaun.

It seems pretty unlikely that my wife will ever let me live down wearing that WWJD bracelet my senior year of high school. That period of about six months in 1997–98 was the only time I could really be called a Believer, a Person of Faith, a Christian. But religion itself, the story of God or gods and how belief influences people’s lives—that is a lifelong fascination. The first stories that truly sucked me in were the legends of mischievous Greek gods, and the stoic horror of their Egyptian counterparts. As I grew older, I experimented with the Protestant faith of my family, and in college I read most of the Bible in a series of literature courses. As an author, my fiction frequently touches on religious themes, whether in comics or prose.

There are so many angles; there is so much to unpack.

So Reza Aslan’s upcoming book God: A Human History ticks a lot of boxes for me. Aslan, who is Muslim but relates in his book previous tinkerings with Christianity and atheism, is an incredibly gifted scholar, writer, and television presenter, working in exactly the sort of perspective that gets me excited. His previous book, Zealot, piecing together a story of the historical Jesus, is one I find myself paraphrasing and referring back to pretty frequently. In God, he’s looking at how monotheism developed and achieved dominance after any number of false starts throughout history, debunking along the way popularly held beliefs about cave art, the origins of agriculture, and more. It’s a brief book, not much more than a hundred and thirty pages before you get to the end notes, but in that span Aslan covers basically the whole of human history.

It’s light, by necessity and by design—anybody can read this, and everybody should be able to find something new and interesting. If you want to dig deeper, that’s what the endnotes and bibliography are for!

Aslan begins from the idea that humans have a “deep-seated need to experience the divine as a reflection of ourselves.” God did not so much create man in his own image as man created, or at least expressed, God in terms that made sense to how humans interpreted the world. Thus, to use Aslan’s example, Eve—the author’s representative of early human women—seeing out of the corner of her eye a tree that resembles a person, first startles at the possibility of a predator or rival tribe and, finally realizing that it is just a tree, comes to personify the natural world. She tells Adam (any early man) about this event, and a system of belief is born.

From here, Aslan posits how his Adam and Eve created cave paintings “not to paint the world they know,” but instead “to imagine the world that exists beyond here.” His argument is compelling, if unverifiable; in Aslan’s view, early humans “did not so much draw pictures of bison and bears on the rock as they release those pictures from it.” This is supported by the placement of particular types of art upon the stone canvas, as well as the images themselves. “The cave becomes a mythogram; it is meant to be read, the way one reads scripture.” Aslan guides us through the caves, designed in such a way that, in the author’s view, they could be nothing but sanctuaries and places of worship. It’s giddy-making stuff, even if none of it can be conclusively proven.


And on and on. Aslan’s discussion of how the singular Jewish and Christian god emerged from at least two earlier known deities—and the artifacts within the Bible we know that attest to this—is riveting for folks who care about how we come to believe the things that we believe.

There is the question, though: is this sort of knowledge damaging to faith, or does it at least alter how a believer would come to worship? Quite honestly, if I had been a Christian when I read Zealot, I struggle to imagine how I could have continued to be one after. It’s not that it disproves Christ’s sacrifice, his divinity, or the existence of the Lord our God. But by contextualizing Jesus’ words, it presents some uncomfortable questions about the life of the savior and the stories that became his legend in death. Likewise, God has very little to say about whether Yahweh, or Allah, or Brahma, is in fact watching over us all from on high. But what does it mean for Christians, who—after dire schisms on the very topic—have been told for more than 1500 years that “God is one,” to learn that their canonical stories draw from two distinct gods, Yahweh and El? What does it mean to reopen questions about the Holy Trinity? When Aslan comes down in the corner of Sufism, that “nothing can come into existence that isn’t also God,” are other Muslims convinced?

For people like me, the question is easy: is reading a book that is really interesting, seemingly tailored exactly to your interests, worth it? Answer: yes. But for people of faith, I wonder. It seems to me that, if you’re staking your immortal soul on a belief system, you would want to interrogate it as thoroughly as possible—not to disprove it, but simply to know what you believe and why. But if, on the other hand, we are to accept that there is a Divine Plan, that however the systems of belief that we know as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, came to be, that it was all in line with a singular and indivisible God’s design, then possibly knowing the hows and whys is less essential, less urgent.

Or perhaps it presents simply a different reading: isn’t it interesting how the creator led His people through animism, to polytheism, through to knowing God as El or Yahweh, before finally revealing Himself?

I’m a long way from wearing WWJD bracelets, though I remain somewhat uncomfortable discussing what exactly I do believe. For me, knowing the origins of Christianity and its road to preeminence, not just from Aslan but from other reading, is enough for me to conclusively say, no, that’s not where I am. But there is something, which Aslan identifies as “an innate sense—untaught, unforced, unprompted—that we are more than just our physical bodies,” that keeps me engaged in the question, that continues to fascinate me about the things that people belief and how that belief shapes their lives. I want to know more, I want to explore it through writing, I want to understand what it means to dedicate your life toward a set of principles and parables prescribed thousands of years before.

Why God? Why faith? Let’s find out.

This was a surprisingly quick read, yet thorough enough where I didn't feel cheated. It is heavy on religious theories by various scholars and ends with the author's view on spirituality. Overall, an interesting journey on the concept of god from cave paintings to various sects of Islam.

Impressions

A monotheism experiment – the climax of the fairly recent belief in a single, singular, nonhuman, and indivisible creator God as defined by postexilic Judaism, as renounced by Zoroastrian Dualism and Christian Trinitarianism, and as revived in the Sufi interpretation of tawhid; God is not the creator of everything that exists. God is everything that exists. ~ God A Human Story

Nothing prepared me for this uplifting treatise on the intelligence of our evolution. We may be nature’s experiment, but humanity has always initiated its own exploration of the neural pathways that explain not only who we are but also how we are to each other.

The author Reza Aslan offers an explanation on how religions are constant constructs in evolution and is the creation of our civilizations. So I ask have we engineered religions as guideposts to our evolution. Or is religion an organic living thing that progresses with civilizations.

This essay is not a read for those who understand or live religious dogma as an unchanging thing written on stone tablets. Rather this author explains concepts of the many religions we’ve embraced in clear and unambiguous terms. And his book is the brilliant product of much work. It comprises mountains of organized, substantive research and a discourse on the evolution and sometimes devolution of humanity’s faiths.

Divine humanization

From Lord of the Beasts to a redefined god stripped of carnal form to become a dehumanized god…”without shape or form – utterly transcendent and apersonal.” From God A Human Story

It is reasonable to surmise that the growth of religions becomes part of a learned pattern of thought that manifest by way of cellular memories. The disparate events in discoveries of cave art depicting similar objects of deity in other times and spaces begs the question, is there cellular memories embedded in our DNA. And, do these objects contain a formula for organized religions necessary for humanity’s socialization?

Although bioresearch has evolved to a place that aggressively challenges what we don’t know about the cell and the intelligence fueling its organelles, it is safe to say that they may harbor information about the origin of the phenomenon we call organized religion.

For me the most compelling argument made by Mr. Aslan on how we struggle to awareness is in the advent of Marduk. He was central to one of the longest lasting religions that arrived during Babylonian times when humanity was grasping for an inclusiveness. In a society led by Cyrus the Great and when Judaism was still new and Yeshua ben Joseph (Jesus) wasn’t born yet, the kernels of a culturally changeable society came to be.

The preponderance of evidence reasons that Cyrus the Great constructed an inclusive nation that respected values of a culturally fluid civilization. While slowly dehumanizing its center of worship, a god name Marduk.

Our imagination driven by what we understand dictates our need to make gods in images and traits we know best…ourselves.

It requires a brave heart

One must enter into the labor of religious research with an open mind and heart. Reza Aslan owns both with a healthy dash of skepticism and bravery.

In my opinion, to argue the relevancies of the constructs of our belief systems requires extreme courage. The evolution of religion is the tender under belly of all human cultures. They compose the most personal self-identification of societies and sovereignty. It composes what we understand as the collective reasoning.

I wouldn’t, shouldn’t and couldn’t comment on this read as an essay on opposing religions. Rather it’s a talk on how our ‘systems of faith” evolved to reflect our relative truths.

This author delves very little into the nature of the societies that constructed these religions. In my opinion because Mr. Aslan’s course of study and this book is centered on the far more important stuff of explaining how religions work and its mind numbing effects on human progress.

Survival

Our objects of worship served to explain the unexplainable while aiding our survival as a specie. Are we in the midst of embracing and expanding the precepts of a dehumanized religion?

This is genius writing on comparative religions and the processes of its creators and inheritors.

Story/Plot/Conflict
An extremely ambitious book becomes an easy read on the roots of religions and thoroughly researched story of comparative ideologies.

The cultural timelines and borders appear almost a blur. The author clarifies those lines that seem to disappear in the miasma of disparate teachings of scholars separated or compromised by secular belief systems.

The book explains in simple terms how the conflict lies in man’s reasoning for living and the need to look elsewhere for guidance and comfort.

The human story preaches how the varied forms of deification and religious fables have endured and colored how we see experience our religions. This author makes this 12,000 to 14,000 years tale seem like mere steps in discoveries of whom we are and how beliefs have inform our lives.

Main Character

God

My Critique: Even for the most august of theologians can experience epiphanies in this read. This writing has the rare flavor of pure objectivity.

Genre: General audiences and an enlightening read.

As part of my Bible study/spiritual time, I always add supplemental Christian themed literature to help me broaden my mind and get closer to God. I was very excited to add this book to my study schedule.
God: A Human History looks at how humanity put their gods in human forms. From the earliest cave painting to modern Christianity so much of religion is designed to understand god by anamorphizing him. Reza Aslan looks at a variety of religions and studies the history of the religions, their path to monotheism and how their sacred books were written.
I really liked learning the history of early religion and even how Christianity went from being the god to follow to being the only God. I also loved learning more about Islam and how they took the same basis and changed it; it gave me a better view of how they are fundamentally different as religions.
So if I enjoyed learning so much why did I only give it three stars? Well, the book ends just when it gets interesting, creation of Islam. There is no modern look at how Christians like to make Jesus in their own image, etc so it really ends before it begins. In fact Goodreads told me I was 410-something percent done with the book when I finished the actual content. The rest of the book is bibliography and notes. So I only got about 130 pages of actual information.
Though provoking but not a complete, God: A Human History looks at our psychology to make man like us even before Genesis was written.

I requested this title because I enjoyed Aslan's book Zealot and was intrigued by the premise of this one. As with Zealot, the writing in this is outstanding; Aslan has a knack for taking dense, complicated material and making it clear and accessible. My one disappointment was that the focus was primarily on the Abrahamic faiths and their predecessors. I would have liked to have seen more about Eastern traditions and their methods of conceptualizing the divine. This is a minor quibble, however, and I would heartily recommend this to anyone interested in reading about religions.

What does God mean to mankind? Why does man search for a God and how do we construct him? These queries are delved into with well thought studies. The history of multiple Gods are explored including idols. Some research on the inclusion of Bible books and what beliefs are held there. This read left me with reflections on who we are and why we believe. I do not carry the same belief system as the author, but her text is not to sway you, but to educate you and take you for a look around religious thoughts. Although some chapters did not interest me as much as others, I think each person who reads this book will enjoy other chapters than I chose. It was worth the new ideas in my mind.

I enjoyed this book immensely. I felt that it was on par with his previous book Zealot and that it was an in depth examination of the history and evolution of the human idea of "what is God?". The read went by quickly and I found the book very engrossing and appreciated the easy way the subject matter was presented.

This was not a book I'd typically read, but gave it a shot anyway, partially due to the controversy about the aghoris.

This is a huge topic, and there's a lot that's not covered. I was surprised that little was said about Hinduism, Buddhism or any of the Chinese beliefs. What is covered is covered well and is easy to read. It's not entertaining, but not dry either. The book seemed impartial without demonizing or elevating.

A part 2 covering other belief systems would be welcome.

I should compliment Reza Aslan for a very lively narrative of human god obsession from Palaeolithic times to present. Crunching in historical and philosophical aspects of developing the concept of god is challenging task. However, in this book, we have a page turner, full of wit, yet acute treatment of complex concepts.

The book starts the historical treatment of god from upper Palaeolithic cave paintings produced by pre-historic people over 40,000 years ago. How god got human form and traits has been analysed from various angles through the neolithic and when modern religions become prominent during the historical past. From polytheism, the journey continues to monotheism and pantheism. Reza Aslan profoundly influenced by Sufi branch of Islam arrives at dehumanisation of god in monism that sees the problem of “one and the many” in a new light.

This book is a remarkable testament to the creative writing, a good example of how to present the dry topic of god and religion refreshingly. Many may not agree with Reza Aslan, but detailed end-notes support all conclusions. In fact, almost half the book is made up of references and footnotes. Therefore, this book is an excellent reference source for experts and laypeople alike.

The only drawback is the traditional geographical treatment of the subject, the near middle east and Europe entered view. There is a little examination of the rich ethnographic sources of information. Eastern “dharmic” regions viewpoint, including “god-less”religions of India and China, are relegated to the footnotes. There were many god-denying religions, living and dead, some of them drawing from the shamanic Palaeolithic past which was ignored in this book. The analysis could have been improved if a more balanced treatment of the eastern religions could have been included.