God, the Invisible King By H. G. Wells Cornell University Library Large Print ed, 2009, 218 pages Genre: Religion

Reviewed by Israel Drazin - February 8, 2011

The January 24, 2011 issue of The New Yorker had a cartoon that expressed the feelings of most people. One character said to another: "I'm in the market for an easier religion." Readers of H. G. Wells' God the Invisible King (1866-1946, written in 1917), which is not a novel, but expresses his views of God and religion, may think that he reflects this attitude. Actually the reverse is true. He writes that people must learn to act, not passively wait for divine aid. Some readers may disagree with his views, but they should find them thought-provoking.

Wells states that he is not a Christian and his ideas are not Christian. He says that he believes in a "personal and intimate God." He rejects the widely held dogmas, especially the "disastrous" idea of a trinity. There is "no revelation, no authoritative teaching, no mystery." Ideas such as a virgin birth and resurrection and sin are untrue. These dogmas prevent people from thinking about the truth, make them passive, and discourage them from living a proper fulfilling life.

The word "God," he writes, could mean God as nature or God as helper. The first, he says, is the God of Spinoza and the second the God of the human heart. Wells believes that if a person accepts the first understanding there is no problem, but he prefers the second. When people petition God for help, the same God that helps everyone, no matter what the person's religion. God is not a being attached to a particular religion. All people are, metaphorically speaking, God's children. God is not found in a building, but in the heart.

Wells defines God as "boundless love," a "friend," "courage," and "salvation from the purposelessness of life." God "works in men and through men." He does not intervene in this world to help people. He neither rewards nor punishes. People do these things to themselves. Prayers do not help. God lacks the powers and knowledge attributed to him.

Wells states that God "is as real as a bayonet thrust or an embrace," he is the king, we must do what he wants us to do. Yet, he also says that he is not the God of old, but the God of youth. "He looks toward the future," he loves us "in the sense of" wanting us to achieve the best. God's "nature is the nature of thought and will." These statements suggest that God is a human invention; God is that which is in humans that causes them to strive to better themselves and the world. Obeying God means striving to better ourselves and the world.

Thus, for example, the current behavior of lawyers and judges is outdated, incompatible with "what God wants," with the human goal. The lawyer shouldn't seek to present only his client's view in a dispute and hide facts that support his adversary. He should only take cases that he considers just and seek the truth, justice, and the common good. So, too, judges should not decide cases based on conformity to technical rules, but truth, justice, and the good of society.

Thus, Wells sees the idea of God as a challenge to humans to be all that they can be and to improve society to become the best it can become.

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