If god were an adult?

​If god was an adult?
 
As a parent and someone who has contact with many teenagers in my personal and professional life, I often remind myself of the normal or healthy developmental characteristics of teenagers. Of course, these are often culture and circumstance specific. Some individuals are forced through circumstances to move from infant or child to adult responsibilities.  For those who do not have to skip this developmental stage the following characteristics are normal:
 
·       Frequent and quick change of mood.
 
·       Self-centered and prone to take behavior of others personally
 
·       Creative
 
·       Impulsive
 
·       Fearless regarding physical danger.
 
·       Emotionally fragile
 
·       insightful
 
·       Suspicious of others – especially adults
 
·       impatient 
 
·       All or nothing thinking
 
·       Concerned about what others think of them while needing to pretend as if one does not
            care what others think.
 
·       Protective of their own boundaries while often insensitive to that of others.
 
           
Depending on the home and general cultural situation expectations of teenage males and females may vary.   Very often, even in this age of lip service to feminism, more is expected of girls in terms of nurturing chores and more is expected of boys in terms of physical chores.  This may not be as true for those living on a family farm or ranch when it is all hands on deck much of the time,
 
At any rate my experience with teenagers is that they are delightful, funny, insightful, challenging, frustrating, and engaging all in the space of five minutes. 
 
We hope, of course, that teenagers will become responsible, creative, loving, interdependent, other centered, insightful, patient, adults with a good sense of humor.    Sadly, when addiction, some other mental illness or trauma interrupts developmental stages of human development one may not move through developmental stages but stay stuck in adolescent or even pre-teen stages,
 
It often seems when us humans posit a concept of a higher being or God we assign them the most frustrating characteristics of teenagers while calling them father, teacher or some other adult term.  The Greeks, on the other hand, often  posited gods who were unabashedly delightful, impulsive, fun teenagers.   Native people in many parts of the world posit spirits or Gods who often are both ethereal and very practical.    The God of Western culture seem to have all the most frustrating characteristics of human teenagers.    Some of these characteristics are:
 
·       Self-centeredness of only children who know they are the center of the universe and expect to be treated accordingly.
 
·       Jealous - strong need to be the only god and for others to honor that fact.
 
·       Quick to anger if one displeases.
 
·       Punishing - often for eternity
 
·       Moody
 
·       Insecure - always testing
 
·       Perceptive - sees and hears all.
 
·       Score keeper
 
·       He or she who cannot be viewed but wants to be the center of attention.
 
·       Delightfully creative
 
·       Wise
 
·       Ever present - is leery of privacy of others.
 
 
One wonders why we posit or envision a God who develops or morphs into the human version of a normal teenager.  Creators of artificial intelligence are often concerned that AI will morph into an adolescent god instead of “the healthy adult”.
 
If God were an adult he or she might have more of the characteristics of a Jesus or a Buddha.  The characteristics of such a god might me:
 
·       Quick to laugh at self.
 
·       Non-judgmental.
 
·       Unsurprised that humans are humans.
 
·       Owns his or her own issues.
 
·       Focused on learning and teaching and not punishment.
 
·       Conforms to the laws of expanding views and knowledge of science.
 
·       Fun and creative.
 
·       Responsible and dependable - a little less mysterious
           
·       Non-sexist
 
·       Non-binary
 
·       Non-homophobic
 
·       Not so enamored of meditating and harp playing
 
·       Plays nicely with others
 
I am sure each reader can add to this list of characteristics or design one of their own.  The bottom line is us humans need to decide whether we want to be adults or forever teenagers. If adults, perhaps we need to envision or posit a god who has adult characteristics.  Perhaps if women were more often in charge of positing or envisioning god(s) they would be closer to our idealized version of a healthy adult.  Perhaps then humans could adopt adult characteristics  while working, laughing, creating and crying together.
 
Written My 21, 2021
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org