Physician and best-selling author Deepak Chopra asserted in a recent blog post that a "revision of God" is necessary in order for a powerful transformation to take place.
Dr Chopra said that giving God a human psychology is a mistake made by many believers, and that rejecting that humanisation combats atheism and leads to a higher level of consciousness.
"A personal God shouldn't be seen as human," he wrote on BeliefNet. "On Earth we have fathers and mothers, so God is projected as the ultimate parent. On Earth we care for the people we relate to, therefore God must be caring for everyone. To humanise God comes so naturally, it's hard to conceive of an alternative.
"What if God doesn't care, not out of indifference, callousness, or malice (doubters worry about all of these) but out of an infinite capacity to accept. If God is infinite, by definition nothing is foreign to him. Nor is there any reason to separate divine reality from everyday reality. God permeates both."
Instead of viewing successes and tribulations as rewards or punishments from God, we should deal with our own circumstances, and see God in the "most valuable but hidden qualities" of life, Chopra explained.
"In this conception God becomes far more personal than the projection of a loving parent," he continued. "You discover the God within, which allows for the merging of yourself with a divine Self that is also you, but on a higher plane. I don't mean the plane of Heaven. 'Higher' points to a state of being that transcends the conflict and confusion of our present existence.
"So in saying that God doesn't care what you do, one door is shut while another is open. A God who sustains existence from the level of pure Being will transform life in a way that the old image of God never could."
Dr. Chopra's newest book, "The Future of God," will be released on Nov. 11.
