How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others

How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others by Derek Perkins

This is an interesting academic work that looks at how people believe in God. The belief in deity is different than belief in immediately visible physical things. Even going back to time periods like ancient Greece, the people likely did not think of Zeus as somebody that would encounter in their daily activities. They would still ascribe some events as caused by the gods, yet would still work on their regular activities. People will often "believe" in the divine, while "think" about the materia.

Today, some people have a greater propensity to see the hand of God in their everyday activities. The belief in God seems to develop with age, with stronger belief coming in adulthood. There are general similarities across different groups, with Western Christians and aboriginal religions in developing countries being generally similar. However, there are differences in the degrees of attachment of events coming from God. People will often go to church to help "remind themselves" of the importance of God in their lives. They must still do work, but can have the nudeges and help from above in the process.

Overall, this book takes a very objective look at how the personal belief comes about. It tries to take a universal view of religion while still respective the beliefs in the devine.