The Personification of God

If God is not a human being, why is he said to possess so many human qualities, emotions and humanlike traits? While it states in the Bible that God created man in his image, many people of the Abrahamic faiths commonly believe that God is, in fact, not human. So, why in the Bible and the Koran, are there so many references to God accrediting him with imperfect human traits?

The Bible and the Koran, though they are said to inspired by God and written by man, continuously seem to ruin God’s image of absolute perfection by attributing him with so many of humanity’s greatest behavioral faults, including jealousy, hatred and impatience, just to name a few.

One would be led to think that because God is perfect, as stated throughout the Bible and the Koran, he would not have allowed the human authors of his inspired word to portray him in such an imperfect way. And yet, several billion copies of these texts exist worldwide, and no doubt there is probably some theologically apologetic explanation for each one of these references.

My question however, is that if, as stated in these holy texts, God does possess these negative human qualities, how can God still be said to be perfect? A perfect being would have no need for jealousy, hatred and impatience. A truly perfect God that is omniscient and omnipotent would most likely be more accepting of basic human behavior because he would have been present with humanity from its conception, and would be well aware of all of our imperfections. Why would God set us up to fail to meet his expectations?

If our main goal in life is to be as Godlike as possible and our perceptions of God are shaded with these imperfections, how could we possibly meet God’s supposed expectations for our behavior? Is it possible that God is not perfect? Or is humanity so flawed that even our perceptions of God are skewed?

We may never know the answers to these questions, but if we didn't ask these questions and continue to live our lives based upon texts, whether inspired by God or not, that are filled with flaws because they were written by the hands of human beings, we would be living in sheer ignorance. People tend to perceive God as what they want them to be; as extensions of themselves. These perceptions of the nature of God, though most likely written with every good intention, attribute God with many humanlike, misconceived attributes that may or may not be accurate. It is important, that as we read through these religious texts, we consider that humanity is flawed, and that what we are reading is most likely is written based on the original author’s preconceived notions of the nature of God.