Does God play favorites? I doubt it.

It’d be wonderful if God favored some people over others. So long as I was among them. Otherwise, I’d be on the outside of God’s Favor Party, wishing that I was part of the in-crowd.

As I’ve noted before, and surely will again, it’s amazing how almost every religion believes that its adherents are the only favored ones. Jews are a chosen people. Christians have been singled out for salvation. Muslims are beneficiaries of the ultimate revelation.

Eastern religions are less prone to believing in favoritism, but even in Buddhism there is the assumption that following the Buddha’s teachings is the best way to escape samsara and suffering. So if you’re not fortunate enough to be a Buddhist, you’ll be more likely to keep treading the wheel of reincarnation rather than relaxing in Nirvana land.

In John Horgan’s book, “Rational Mysticism,” this I’m-special attitude is called “the scandal of particularity.” He attributes the term to religious scholar Huston Smith, who in an interview with Horgan said that this refers:

To the doctrine that God’s doings can focus like a burning glass on particular times, places, and people(s)—in the interest, to be sure, of intentions that embrace human beings universally.

Horgan says, “To my mind, the scandal of particularity is the root of all religious evil. The conviction of certain individuals and peoples that they are divinely chosen leads to religious self-righteousness, fanaticism, intolerance. Also, what kind of God would play favorites? If such a God exists, do we really want to worship Him?”

Good question. Like Horgan, I find it difficult to believe that the marvelously consistent and all-embracing laws of nature have been created by a capricious God. Science has found that impartiality rules the universe. Gravity and electromagnetism don’t play favorites.

Horgan rejects as delusional any mystical vision, or derived spiritual doctrine, tainted by the scandal of particularity. “All of us must be God’s sons and daughters, or none of us. All are chosen—or damned—or none.”

Yes, I like this choice of all or none. It’s a 50-50 proposition, assuming that the alternatives are equally likely. But if I assume that God looks with favor only upon a single religion or spiritual path, then my odds of becoming buddies with divinity are slim. With so many options to choose from, how am I going to figure out which has earned a thumbs up from God?

In addition, there is something deeply paradoxical about considering both that I’m one of God’s chosen few, and that in humility I’m on my way to becoming one with the One. It’s going to be hard to discard my ego after feeling so special.

In 1971 I was initiated by an Indian guru, Charan Singh, into a very special group of God’s chosen souls. For many years I enjoyed the thought that out of six billion people on Earth, I was one of a million or so who had been given a “Get Out of Maya Free” card.

You couldn’t earn this card through any thought or action in this lifetime. No, either you were born deserving of it, or you weren’t. The guru spoke of the “marked souls” that God wanted to be brought back to Him.

Every saint is sent into this world for particular souls—allotted souls, and those souls alone will come to him. They alone will have faith in him. They alone will be receptive to his teachings. They alone will practice meditation and go back to the Father. So it is always with the grace of the Father that a disciple is drawn to the Master.

Well, who knows? This could be true. By now those lines reek of the scandal of particularity to me. Maybe I’m saved and my wife isn’t. Maybe I’m deserving and she isn’t. Maybe I’m God’s favorite and she isn’t.

But I doubt this is true. Even more: I hope it isn't.

Comments

[Edward]

After all, how does religion have anything to do with God? Religions carry and use the language of power: over individuals and societies, over cultures, over the beasts of the field.

The only reason to claim that any particular religion is the only true one is to settle arguments. There are lots of opinions, some turn into doctrine, but receipt of the "divine given" is simply meant to organize the society. If we think we need one set of rules, whose will we follow? Well, the divine rules, obviously.

So, let's take the idea of one God impartial to the way we categorize our societies. Of course, this God must be impartial to time and space, since science is the refined and refining tool of our modern discourse.

Then, can it be that God is also impartial to our sense of separation from the unity of the true reality? IMO, (or should I say in my "doxa") it is equally scandalous that God buys into our belief that we are separate and therefore need strenuosly to pray and meditate to get closer. Why focus that "burning glass" on my yarmulke?

In your post re: "Be Still and Know that I am God," you aver that, "If getting an aha! feeling after reading something interesting brought you closer to God, I’d be in his lap by now. So far as I can tell, I’m not."
Ego participates in be specially chosen, and in assuming that I am not chosen. Leave that petty intellectual trick aside, and there is God and us. Together.

That unreliable and unscientific "faith" thing that I have carried around has turned into a low hum. I kinda feel like I am always in God's lap, even when I don't think so. The "aha" moments kick through the maya at play in my simple mind. I am willing to suppose the same is true for you, but I am not willing to impose.

[ET]

Well Brian your point is well taken. I also was initiated by Charan Singh and follow the 4 vows of Sant Mat as best that I can. However, my personal interpretation of the idea that a saint is sent into the world to extract certain souls differs from yours.

In my view all souls are saved. The Supreme Father would be incomplete Himself without all souls returning from this grand adventure into the creation.

Also, outside of time there is no time. So if a soul returns in this life or a hundred lives from now what is the real difference?

And, how can we limit Him? Who can say what religion, or belief system He will present to an individual soul to make him/her realize God and return?

ET

[Nick]

The only sense I understand someone to be 'special' or a 'marked soul' in the spiritual arena is if they manifest a significant inclination towards spirituality from childhood, and seem to be significantly less burdened with the vicisitudes of ego and personality.
In this sense, sages such as Ramana Maharshi and Anandamayi Ma seem to have had a natural inclination to realise the one Self, and to been naturally free from egoic suffering.
Legends about the saints almost always describe a natural and unstoppable inclination for them to fall into rapture and Self realisation from childhood onward. This is the case east and west, Sri Chaitanya and Catherine of Siena represent this most clearly in the earliest hagiographic accounts.
For the rest of us, I guess we are not 'chosen' by whatever it is that allows such beings to be streets ahead in spiritual realisations. Call it Karma, destiny, alloted souls, DNA it is a profound mystery. The greatest of sages have stated their realisation of the Self is simply the natural state of us all, but in my experience most of us come burdened by significant amounts of 'stuff'.
Perhaps thats why Sri Ramana described the fulfilment of the path of Self enquiry as being, 'for those with little dust'.

[David]

Just a comment. If there is a God, would He have a right to make the rules? One thing people often don't think about is that the God of the Bible (whom I do believe in) is the Creator and Sustainer. Just because you and I don't understand it all doesn't mean it is meaningless. Philosophically and realistically there can be only one truth. Dave

[ET]

Yes Nick, I had not thought of your important point. In my case, I was always wondering about God since I was a child. Then when I grew up I was driven to search. I went from one religion, to anlther, and then philosopy and now mysticism trying to use them as tools in my search for the One. I am still doing this today and see all of these as stepping stones not an end or the only way.

On the other hand my brother, brought up in the same environment, has no such inclination.

Is it a gift, or what?
ET

[richard]

If one is lucky enough to be accepted into a University of Spirituality, or Science or Philosophy or Medicine it behooves
the student to practice hard and study,under the tutelage of
his or her chosen teachers.We chose to accept the teacher,didnt we?
We do not get a P H D by merely being accepted into the University.No under grad at med school starts practicing that day.Why criticise the teacher when the teacher offers education.
Again practice makes perfect whether in spiritual exercises or
in advanced mathematical or scientific experiments, it is not a good idea to criticise what one has never experienced first hand
especially from an undergrad who did not complete his or her finals finals.If one is so fortunate to be given a chance for self
improvement why waste time in trashing the teachings of any
respected teacher,it only reflects badly on the errant student.

[Roger]

To Richard. Is it truthful that being accepted to a University of Spirituality is a matter of Luck? If I am without "Luck", will I have no opportunity to be accepted?
At this University, is it truthful that all teachers actually offer education? Is it possible that many teachers do not teach, but merely lechure? May I ask, what is your definition of a Respected Teacher? Could you please give me the name of a Respected Teacher from the University of Spirituality? I am not sitting in judgement of you. I am just interested in the non-ambiguous details and answers. Many best wishes to you.