Roots

Why bother to think about religion?

Religion can give people a sense of peace, an anchor in an uncertain world, or maybe certainty (deaf to new ideas or perspectives).  Some people have a greater need for certainty than others.

Religious certainty combined with religious zeal …

Theology (God-talk) – reflection – requires a willingness to read, think and discuss – open to new ideas – an ongoing search for truth!  All theology is human, tentative and provisional!

Why bother to go to church?

Men have always been conspicuous by their absence!  What do people get out of it?

What really matters to us?  Do people ask the important questions?  Are we just carried along?

The church was the centre of community – but people are no longer willing to follow like sheep!

Life is seen to have a spiritual dimension and instead of laws people want companions in their attempt to make sense of it.  They want their questions and doubts taken seriously.

Why bother to read the Bible?

Either study it or leave it alone!  It needs intelligence and imagination – a very human book with an oral tradition – but the written word becomes ‘set in concrete’!  The Bible = a series of books edited by a committee!  What was left out and should some books such as Revelation have been included?

What about the stories of miracles and of creation?

Many find anti-intellectualism the strongest reason for having nothing to do with Christianity, but others are able to take both the Bible and the modern world seriously – but we have to use our intelligence and not read it all in the same way.

Why bother to take God seriously?

Many claims made by Christians are so odd and so simplistic that many thinking people just shake their heads and walk away!  What about the other great world religions?  Where is the convincing evidence?  Who or what is God?  What place symbolism?

If the only version of God some people know is the one heard in Sunday School …

The understanding of physics by the primary school child is very different from that of the university student!  Adolescence usually marks the end of religious education!

Instead of encouraging people to believe in God we should perhaps encourage people to explore their spiritual hunger.  The baggage of religion will not speak to the spiritual needs of our time!

Why bother to pray?

Prayer might be seen as a one sided conversation with an invisible person whose replies are inaudible – with many wondering why their prayers don’t seem to be heard (prayer and meditation are often seen as separate activities).

Some (theists) think of God as a separate being – conservative religion is often concerned with the trivial and fails to encourage people to explore and grow.

Some (non theists) may think of God as ‘the ground of our being’ or ‘the sum of our values’ or as the creative and healing power of love.  Prayer might then be seen to move like an exploration into the mystery at the heart of human life (with no real distinction between prayer and meditation) – the need for perspective – open to new possibilities.  Life without prayer condemns us to remain forever earthbound, unable to imagine doing or being anything else!

Why bother to say the creed?

The creeds are pointers to the faith of the past – a convenient shorthand summary of the primary symbols of Christian belief – but as an introduction to Christianity or as a help to faith they are almost useless (we don’t see life in the same way as the people who wrote them).  They are seen by some as the ‘football song of the church’ – ‘I’m a member of the gang’ – but others cannot repeat all the words.  They might be seen as a clammy hand of the faith of the past reaching up and threatening to squeeze the life out of the faith of the present!  The understanding of the faith preserved (fossilised) in the creeds may be historically important but can never be the last word.

The number of timeless truths of religion is very small and they are wrapped up in historical packages that mask what is underneath!

Why bother to think about evil?

The fewer assumptions we make when trying to make sense of the world we live in, the better!

In general we have a fairly clear picture of what counts as evil, but it gets tricky when people talk about the existence of evil.  Institutional evil comes in all sorts of guises (Hitler, Stalin etc) but each of these systems depended on ordinary, decent people to keep it all working (showing the potential for evil if the circumstances are propitious – the idea of ‘original sin’!  But this implies that our capacity to behave in dreadful ways is more central to the human condition than the capacity to behave generously and lovingly!  Evil is what can happen when normal social and psychological restraints are removed – not something other than the normal human condition.  It is easy for some people to pass off the dark forces within themselves as an external ‘devil’ (especially those who are deeply disturbed, or fundamentalists, or both).

The holocaust was a turning point for many.  How could a loving God have watched and not acted?

Much of the suffering in the world is due to deliberate human intent (wars, ethnic cleansing and the like).  How often do we choose to behave in ways that are morally wrong?  What place freewill?

Could we have a world without evil?

A great deal of theology is a matter of trying to find reasons to continue thinking in the way that we already do, rather than trying to advance our understanding of things (a lot of theology is concerned with trying to deal with obstacles to faith).

God is usually thought of as an independent being who is both good and all-powerful.  Remove any of those three assumptions and the problem disappears – but so does the God of conventional Christianity – which is an impossible threat to many people!