Creating God. Unamuno, Life 7.26

Unamuno concludes this chapter emphasizing the idea that we need God, and make him, to feel purpose that extends beyond ourselves, that cannot be reduced to some merely material end.

Es tal nuestro anhelo de salvar a la conciencia, de dar finalidad personal y humana al Universo y a la existencia, que hasta en un supremo, dolorosísimo y desgarrador sacrificio llegaríamos a oir que se nos dijese que si nuestra conciencia se desvanece es para ir a enriquecer la Conciencia infinita y eterna, que nuestras almas sirven de alimento al Alma Universal. Enriquezco, sí, a Dios, porque antes de yo existir no me pensaba como existente, porque soy uno más, uno más aunque sea entre infinitos, que como habiendo vivido y sufrido y amado realmente, quedo en su seno. Es el furioso anhelo de dar finalidad al Universo, de hacerle consciente y personal, lo que nos ha llevado a creer en Dios, a querer que haya Dios, a crear a Dios, en una palabra. ¡A crearle, sí! Lo que no debe escandalizar se diga ni al más piadoso teísta. Porque creer en Dios es en cierto modo crearle, aunque Él nos cree antes. Es Él quien en nosotros se crea de continuo a sí mismo.

Hemos creado a Dios para salvar al Universo de la nada, pues lo que no es conciencia y conciencia eterna, consciente de su eternidad y eternamente consciente, no es nada más que apariencia. Lo único de veras real es lo que siente, sufre, compadece, ama y anhela, es la conciencia; lo único sustancial es la conciencia. Y necesitamos a Dios para salvar la conciencia; no para pensar la existencia, sino para vivirla; no para saber por qué y cómo es, sino para sentir para qué es. El amor es un contrasentido si no hay Dios.

Veamos ahora eso de Dios, lo del Dios lógico o Razón Suprema, y lo del Dios biótico o cordial, esto es, el Amor Supremo.

So great is our desire to preserve consciousness, to give personal and human purpose to the Universe and all existence, that even in our last, most painful and poignant sacrifice, we want to hear someone tell us that if our awareness does vanish, it is only gone to enrich the infinite and eternal Awareness. We want our souls to be food that nourishes the Soul of the Universe. Yes! I do enrich God, for before I existed, I never thought of myself existing: now I am another being aware of itself, even if I am just one of an infinite series, and I abide in the divine bosom, having lived and suffered and loved, truly. It is our ardent desire to give purpose to the Universe, to make it aware and personal, that has brought us to believe in God, to want God to exist—to create God, if you will. Yes! Create him. This utterance should not offend any believer, not even the most pious. To believe in God is always in some measure to create him, though He creates us first. For he is the one who is always creating himself anew in us.

We created God to save the Universe from annihilation, for that which is not consciousness, and eternally aware of itself as such, is no more than a fleeting apparition. The only truly substantial thing is that which feels, suffers, commiserates, loves, and desires: this is consciousness. We need God in order to preserve it—not to think it into being, in our rational minds, but to live it, in the flesh. Not to know why and how consciousness is, but to feel its purpose, the end for which it exists. Without God, love makes no sense.

It is time now to consider God in two different phases or faces—as the final form of Reason, a manifestation of perfect logic, and as the final form of Love, a manifestation of vitality that springs from the heart.