Bear with me on this one. It's a meditation on God and how human beings relate to God and whether or not that relating has anything to do with God. Somehow, I think all this has something to do with right wing Christianity being the ideological carrier of our new American fascism a'la George Bush and his merry band of incompetents.
So here goes. If you're an atheist, just pretend for a while.
The only empirical statement that can be made about God is simply this: "God Is." That's it. Any description of God, of the characteristics of God, (God is love, God is this or that) reveals something about the human being doing the characterizing, not about God.
In this vein, John Dominic Crossan is a former Catholic priest who has written extensively about the "historical Jesus." He compares the God of the Roman Empire with the God of Jesus, and then asks "Which God do you choose?" Do you choose the God of conquest and empire or do you choose the God of justice and righteousness? That question is appropriate in 21st century America.
American Right Wing Christianity tells us God is pro-rich, prayer of Jabez type God who rewards "his" people with wordly goods if they only ask.
Lest we think this God is a new creation of Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson or some other lunatic preacher of the television right, this kind of thinking comes right out of Deuteronomy. American Right Wing Christianity tells us that America is the holy remnant, that America is God's chosen people. American Right Wing Christianity tells us that if you are gay, or a poor, single mother on welfare, or someone who had an abortion, or anyone who doesn't fit into their cookie cutter mold of acceptability, you will go to hell and roast for eternity. But of course the God that would do this to you loves you. (If this vision of God is correct, the best thing about hell will be that all those right wing Christians won't be in it: it will undoubtedly be a better place for that).
On the other hand the God that was discovered as Yahweh said "I am that I am" and left it at that. But Yahweh, in the minds of the prophets, was also a God of justice and righteousness as opposed to the old Gods of fertility and renewal. Yahweh is concerned about the right conduct of life, not simply cycles of birth and death, renewal and decay.
Jesus talked of a God of righteousness and justice who called him to hang out with prostitutes, even with collaborators with the empire, with working class people, and definitely not with the rich, or the warring class or the established theocracy.
The "Daimon" of Socrates, on whose behalf the democracy of Athens killed him, was a God of justice and the right conduct of life.
God is not a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist or Lakota (although personally I'm going with this one). God simply is.
All the definitions of God tells us what kind of people we aspire to be and what kind of society we aspire to create and sustain. Is this a God of empire or a God of justice and righteousness? Is this a God who is only concerned with personal behavior or who is also concerned about the quality of the lives human beings fashion together?
Choose.