Theistic Religons and God: Should Believers Question the Messengers More?

The historic Lichfield Cathedral, UK.

According to Psalm 14:1 of the Christian Bible, 'The fool says in his heart' , "Their is no God."  The inference is therefore that there is a god or gods. This might be reassuring for Christians and others who do believe in the existence of a prescient god, yet, an alternative and probably scientific approach to contemplating whether or not such a god/s exist, might be to begin by asking the question: Is there such a god? Or even to stipulate that such a god does not exist.

Today is Sunday, and millions of Christians will be making their regular journey to their churches to meet with each other and give praises and thanks to god, while beseeching him/her, again, to heal the sick, protect those who are at risk of harm, and to bring peace to the conflicted people and areas of the world.

The congregations of these churches will be made up of people of all races, nations, genders and ages, with all of them having one thing in common; their belief - probably with varying degrees of certainty - in the existence of their god. The fact that, for non-believers, all or most of the apparent 'evidence' - people usually cite the beauty and complexity of the human body, the earth, the universe, who 'created us', etc. - might point to there not being a prescient god, does not discourage Christians. Probably because their belief is based on them having 'faith' in the lord.

And this belief in god is not limited to people's gullibility and insecurity alone, as many of them pursue their faith by going to colleges and universities to study religion as a profession  For some minutes this morning, I had the opportunity of watching a few minutes of a televised lecture by one of the ministers of In Touch Ministries, as this amiable but clearly dogmatic man, pointedly told his audience that "Jesus Christ is the only person who can get you to heaven." He was certain of that, and it was just not good enough for anybody to be telling anybody anything different, or that something might be alright, when, for him, it clearly would not be the case.  This softly spoken man lectured his audience, which included people of different ethnic groups, all dressed nicely in their best outfit and seeming to be coming from all social statuses, as they diligently made notes in their note pads. 

Would any of the have the courage to say, hey, man; what will happen to Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Jews, et al, if you can only get to heaven through Jesus Christ? Probably not, as faith groups, some of them, tend to be mutually exclusive of others; seeing their way as the only way to 'their god', who, unfortunately or conveniently, also happens to be 'the only true god.'

Thus, for them, serving their god is something they are putting a lot of thought, time and energy into. What was not clearly evident, is whether this audience, in common with, say those who attend televised services by other celebrity church leaders like Joseph Prince and Joel Osteen, challenged this man about what he was saying about this 'received and personally reinterpreted scripture, or simply absorbed it like sponge?  Do they see themselves solely as 'vessels' for this and that religious 'expert' to pour their their version of 'the spiritual or scriptural wine' into, and for them to drink it without interrogating it and its bearer to try and ascertain its integrity and quality?  And if so, is this because they so badly want to 'believe in god and go to heaven', even without knowing whether either really exist?

So, would there be no place for churches in our lives, if god does not exist and people did not have to worship him/it/her, in order to try to 'get saved' and go to 'heaven'?

This is certainly something which needs to be pondered, and the potential could be huge, if it could mean that some or all the effort which human beings are committing to the 'god industry' could be redirected into improving our lives.  I will be sharing my thoughts on this next.

In the meantime, work at enjoying this day.

An impressive church in Wrexham, UK

OWOHROD