When I first started seriously questioning the validity and truth of my now past faith, I created a list of hard questions. These were questions that I didn’t have the answer to, and most, if not all of them, held the potential to dislodge my world view. One of those questions was:
“What’s the difference between Jesus and an imaginary friend?”
The question at first seemed absurd, but I knew it had to be answered. When I initially researched it, I found out that the official psychological term for it was “imaginary companion.” I thought companion was a fitting word for how I and most Christians view their relationship with Jesus.
The more I pondered my own belief in Jesus, and what it meant to have an imaginary companion, the more it looked exactly the same. I would constantly ask myself how this could be. How could so many people have the same imaginary friend? Not only that, how could rational adults believe in an imaginary friend, let alone, the same one?
Imaginary friends, which are usually experienced by children to combat loneliness or an emotional deficit in their lives, have names, unique characteristics, and most of all, provide companionship. Even though imaginary friends can’t be seen by the person who is imagining them (except in some rare hallucinatory cases), the person fully believes in their existence. They talk to them, depend on them, and often love them. The alternative to life without them is loneliness, and in some cases, despair.
In Christianity, if you bring together groupthink, a tendency to be superstitious (which includes every human being), religious doctrine, and the desperate need for hope and meaning in your life, then congratulations, you’ll be getting a new imaginary friend named Jesus.
The idea that everyone perceives Jesus in the same way is a fallacy. Jesus is experienced differently by everyone, even for those who are indoctrinated in the most homogeneous of religious sects. While the experience of Jesus may appear identical, that illusion comes from a religious group’s structured archetype of Jesus. The who and what of Jesus is a well defined social construct. The rest is completely up to your mind’s imagination. That’s why Jesus talks to people in different ways, and why they ultimately experience their relationship with him in very unique ways.
During my journey into becoming a rational, logical freethinker, I had the opportunity to meet with a very popular Christian author. This person is very intelligent, has a background in psychology, and is someone who I continue to have great respect for. We met privately, and I presented him with my list of questions. As with most of the questions I presented to him, he didn’t have a reasonable answer for it. When I asked him what the difference was between an imaginary friend and the belief in a relationship with Jesus, he quickly conceded that there wasn’t any difference.
That “Freethinker” header is really damn annoying. It’s not part of the layout, so when you hit the space bar to page down, it covers up part of the text.
@mythogen: It’s a fixed header (using a fixed position) and it’s by design. I explain it on the Modest Theme page. I’m assuming you’re using some sort of mobile browser if it’s not allowing you to read the content well.
“What’s the difference between Jesus and an imaginary friend?”
I can see why you think Jesus and an imaginary friend are the same, because you cant see the person but you feel as if they are right there for you. But they are different. Jesus is the son of God, and an imaginary friend is someone that a child makes up when the do not have anyone around. As for an imaginary friend when I child gets older they do not talk or think about their once imaginary friend. If a child is brought up in a church, they may leave and go away from the church, but when times get rough they will go back. Proverbs 22:6: Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.Jesus is may not be physically, but he is always there… the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. -Deuteronomy 31:6. All you have to do is call on him and he will be there in the midst. He may not be there when you are want him but Jesus will be the one time.
Kiara, thanks for leaving a concrete example of what I’m talking about. That was perfect!
Kiara, I understand what you’re trying to point out, but the Jesus you are talking about fits exactly my personal definition of ‘imaginary friend’.
To me, imaginary friends are imaginary beings we create ourselves that isn’t a physical being but we feel that he/she/it exists. It is usually created when we are lonely and in need of companion, which occurs quite often in children. But that doesn’t say they occur only in children–older people can have them as well (who psychologists sometimes label them as having a mental disorder). We think only children creates them because they are usually the most prone to loneliness and in need of support.
And I also think that we shouldn’t pave the way for our children, but rather they should make their own. This means they can think for themselves and it also helps bring fresh, new ideas. That is very important to progress and innovation.
I was raised Buddhist, but I have little care for the religion. My country is far too dogmatic and shortsighted to realize that making laws not to insult the ‘main religion’ (which should be Hinduism, not Bhuddhism) of Thailand may limit innovation, development and creativity.
Hey Jon–
This is a really interesting post. I’ve had similar questions (I’m a Christian still). This one and “Why does a good/powerful/loving God allow human suffering on the scale currently extant in the world?” are two of the more troubling questions I think about.
I wrote a book about this, too, which just came out recently. I was amazed that a Christian publisher was interested. But it turns out a lot of people wrestle with these questions, even in the church.
Anyway, thanks for the post.
Matt