On God-Shaped Holes

When I was a Christian, one of the major points my church espoused was that humans are born with eternity in their hearts or, in other terms, a "God-shaped hole" that nothing but God could fill. This was the explanation for why people, despite all their struggles lacked satisfaction. The thinking was that people try to fill the hole with money and pleasure, but the empty feeling returns no matter what. It follows that this rationale was also used to demonstrate that atheists were really nihilists and miserable.

There are problems with this idea, which is clear to me now. Looking back, it seems to be cut from the same cloth as the myths developed by primitive man to understand where lightning came from or why the sun rose. Just like those myths, simple logic can demonstrate the hole in the God-shaped hole idea.

The idea that all it takes is God to fill the void is shattered when you think about all the people who have "found" God, but still feel that emptiness and lack of purpose. No matter how many meetings I went to, how many times I read the Bible, and how many times I prayed and petitioned God to help, the feeling not remained, but got progressively worse. It was if the problem had a more complicated solution than just believing in God and praying.

It wasn't an instant fix and things actually got much worse before they got any better, but realizing that I was the one who was responsible for my own happiness and sense of purpose was the best thing that ever happened to me. The emptiness I felt inside wasn't due to some cosmic manufactured flaw that kept people coming back to God. I just needed to go out and live my own life, not the life that a 2000 year old book wanted me to.

Though there are the usual ups and downs, I can certainly say that a life without God certainly doesn't feel emptier.