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I recently heard that Bernie Sanders described his views about God this way: “Everyone believes in the golden rule, and we call that God.”

That sounds nice, but I don’t believe it’s true.

Plato might agree with the idea that a “rule” may be God, but I believe that the best evidence suggests that God is a personal being. The golden rule, itself, is part of the proof.

The golden rule, of course, is the statement famously made by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, in part: “Do to others what you would have them to do to you.”[1]

The golden rule requires interpersonal relationship.

Bernie Sanders believes that the golden rule is universal. It certainly has universal applicability and universal appeal. But, it isn’t universally believed, and it certainly isn’t universally observed.