GOD IS NOT MAGIC

One of the most universal of these natural misconceptions of God is to
consider him as something magic serving the ends of men.

It is not easy for us to grasp at first the full meaning of giving our
souls to God. The missionary and teacher of any creed is all too apt to
hawk God for what he will fetch; he is greedy for the poor triumph of
acquiescence; and so it comes about that many people who have been led
to believe themselves religious, are in reality still keeping back their
own souls and trying to use God for their own purposes. God is nothing
more for them as yet than a magnificent Fetish. They did not really want
him, but they have heard that he is potent stuff; their unripe souls
think to make use of him. They call upon his name, they do certain
things that are supposed to be peculiarly influential with him, such
as saying prayers and repeating gross praises of him, or reading in
a blind, industrious way that strange miscellany of Jewish and early
Christian literature, the Bible, and suchlike mental mortification,
or making the Sabbath dull and uncomfortable. In return for these
fetishistic propitiations God is supposed to interfere with the normal
course of causation in their favour. He becomes a celestial log-roller.
He remedies unfavourable accidents, cures petty ailments, contrives
unexpected gifts of medicine, money, or the like, he averts
bankruptcies, arranges profitable transactions, and does a thousand
such services for his little clique of faithful people. The pious are
represented as being constantly delighted by these little surprises,
these bouquets and chocolate boxes from the divinity. Or contrawise
he contrives spiteful turns for those who fail in their religious
attentions. He murders Sabbath-breaking children, or disorganises the
careful business schemes of the ungodly. He is represented as going
Sabbath-breakering on Sunday morning as a Staffordshire worker
goes ratting. Ordinary everyday Christianity is saturated with this
fetishistic conception of God. It may be disowned in THE HIBBERT
JOURNAL, but it is unblushingly advocated in the parish magazine. It is
an idea taken over by Christianity with the rest of the qualities of
the Hebrew God. It is natural enough in minds so self-centred that their
recognition of weakness and need brings with it no real self-surrender,
but it is entirely inconsistent with the modern conception of the true
God.

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