‘God’ Is a Social Construction Like ‘Race’ and Gender Roles

Exploring how concepts like God, race, and gender roles shape hierarchy, power, and division in human society.

Photo credit: iStock

By Warren Blumenfeld

Somebody on one of the social media platforms that I subscribe to posed the question: “Do you love God?” I responded in the negative.

The concept of “god(s)” is a human construction in the realm of the concepts of “race” and “gender roles.” Some people may claim that their conceptualization of “God” helps them cope with the struggles and changes in their lives within an unalterably changing and uncontrollable world.

That’s fine for them. But I think that the concept of “God” was constructed to divide people by imposing a hierarchical positioning of people and groups into “us” (people who believe as I believe, the “ingroup”) versus “them” (the “others,” the marginalized, the heathens, the unbelievers, the “outgroup”).

That question on social media could have asked whether we like the concept of “race” or “gender roles,” and I would have given the exact same response since all of these concepts divide people into hierarchical positions of power and privilege versus marginalization and oppression.