Sydney Harris

We’ve been reading The Essence of Christianity in class, and the author Feuerbach has stated some intriguing facts.  He believes as he states, “As in Jehovah the Israelite personified his national existence, so in God the Christian personified his subjective human nature, freed from the limits of nationality.”  He seems to be insinuating we as Christians have made God to be a simply pure and perfect version of us as humans.  He also says “But nature listens not to the plaints of man, it is callous to his sorrows.  Hence man turns away from Nature,” explaining we defy nature and the way the world is supposed to work by creating God.  He appears to say we only imagine Him in our minds to satisfy our own needs and insecurities.

He goes on to talk about prayer and how when we pray we are praying to a nature-like being.  He goes back to how nature doesn’t shift to accommodate the needs of us as mere humans.  Therefore, he concludes God doesn’t listen to us so our prayers are simply a way to make ourselves feel better, which is wrong to me.  As Christians we pray to God because He is alive and working in our lives.  He loves us and is a relational God who answers our prayers.  He doesn’t always answer in our time, but He is always on time.

Feuerbach states our religion is a selfish one and we think we are bigger and better than everyone else.  He says “what is prayer but the wish of the heart expressed with confidence in its fulfillment.  What else is the being that fulfills these wishes but human affection, the human soul, giving ear to itself, approving itself, unhesitatingly affirming itself?”  This point really bugs me because our religion in whole is shown through love, service, and sacrificing our time and ourselves for the betterment of the kingdom.  When we pray it’s a demonstration of us being humble and thanking and asking God to help us through situations we know we can’t accomplish by ourselves.

To say we live our lives separate and thinking we only care about ourselves and our salvation is incompatible with all we stand on.  We as Christians are as the Bible says “in the world but not of the world.”  We don’t (or shouldn’t) exclude others apart from the religion because our mission is to win those souls to Christ.  We simply don’t get intertwined with the sinful ways of this world because of our morals and because we always want to continue to grow in Christ.

“God is the affirmation of human feeling,” he states later.  He goes on to say prayer alters the course of nature due to the fact we are praying for God to change the course of how things are going.  This is false because we know whatever God does in our life is for the good.  He says all good things go to the ones that love Him. We ask God simply have his will in whatever situation that happens.  Whether it be the continuation of whatever is going on at the moment or if God would intervene and, yes, defy nature, in that He performs miracles to show His power.

Feuerbach also says, “But audible prayer is only prayer revealing its nature; prayer is virtually, if not actually, speech.”  This personally made me really upset because our religion is not a practice; it’s a relationship with our creator.  To say us talking to our Lord and very real Savior is only speech to ourselves is very rude.  Nothing we say at any time in our life is simply meaningless.  The Bible says out of the heart the mouth speaks.  Whether our words have power or not they display what we are thinking, and when we pray we’re displaying our issues and our gratitude to God.  It is really ignorant to say just because you don’t believe in something it’s completely wrong and the people who practice it are just selfish people trying to make it all up for themselves.

As Christians we are not to condemn anyone like most other religions do.  We are to love and spread God’s Word.  You can’t be mad at people because of how they were raised.  Some people are born into Muslim, Hindu, or Atheist families; it’s not their fault.  They obviously are going to believe the religion they are taught from birth.  But, the other religions don’t have relationship with their God.  They are left in question of how this all came to be and if their religion is true because they have zero contact with the deity; it is all mere faith.

The Christian religion is based a whole lot on faith, but we have the amazing opportunity to talk and be spoken to, to experience His presence.  This is how we know He is alive and in us because He is with us at all times, the one thing no other religion can say.

The few things Feuerbach stated I do agree with are prayer is a concentration and dismisses all other distractions and ideas floating in our mind.  When we pray we are focused on one thing and one thing only, connecting with our Heavenly Father and spending quality time with Him.  I also agreed partially with the statement, “He who feels himself only dependent, does not open his mouth in prayer; the sense of dependence robs him of the desire, the courage for it….  But the child does not feel itself dependent on the father as a father; rather, he has in the father the feeling of his own strength.”  To me this said those who typically need the help are always or more often too scared to pray and ask for help because of the fear prayer might not get answered or for other reasons.  But, the one who is confident in their situation is more likely the one praying because there is nothing to be afraid of.  I know, at least for myself, I tend to do this a lot.  When everything is going okay I simply pray thanking God and I sometimes don’t have the right heart while I’m praying; I’m not sincere.  But when things get tough, I sometimes pray for help but it can be hard when you hear time and time again if you simply ask it will be given to you and it doesn’t happen.  So it’s not that I take God off the shelf when I need Him but more of the opposite sometimes.  The last part of his quotation goes along with what I just said in that when we are solid we pray sometimes just to look good and thank God for what we think we have done, and we’re simply giving Him credit because that’s what we think we’re supposed to do.  This is wrong and his generalization is actually a real problem in the church.  We often have too many Christians and not enough believers.

He ends saying this sweeping generalization based on his tiny bit of knowledge on prayer: “Omnipotence does nothing more than accomplish the will of the feelings.  In prayer man turns to the Omnipotence of Goodness; which says simply, that in prayer man adores his own heart, regards his own feelings as absolute.”  This statement isn’t true, because the whole point of us putting aside our pride and praying to God isn’t because we love ourselves.  It’s because we are trying to get closer to the God we know and serve.

Ludwig Feuerbach tries to discredit our religion in so many ways, but none of them are valid when you think about our doctrine and what our practice actually entails.  It makes sense he wouldn’t understand because he doesn’t know the relationship we have.  We know and are sure in our religion so we don’t have to spend all of our time trying to defend ourselves and disproving other religions with no real support.  So far I have accepted his arguments because, sadly, that was his view, but I will never understand how he could have thought that and believed it his whole life.