I haven’t been in the mood to do computer stuff this week. Instead I did some reading, and finished Who Needs God by Harold Kushner.
Kushner is a Rabbi who has written a few popular books, but I hadn’t heard of him until I saw this in the library and decided to check it out. The book is written for the people who have drifted away from religion and the agnostics and atheists that this Rabbi encounters. He works to create a case for religion in our lives. It definitely made me think, and I think it’s something that just about anyone on the verge of turning away from religion would benefit from.
Kushner is definitely an intelligent, liberal theologist.
In this book he focuses on some of the reasons for religion: loneliness, moral confusion, pointlessness of life, need for forgiveness, fear of death. And he explains why God in your life can sort these things out, whether you believe in Christianity, Judaism, or Islam (some other religions are mentioned in passing, but he focused on these three). Most of it was what I’ve heard before, people go to church to be a part of a community, people pray to God for forgiveness because no one else can grant it, people turn to God in times of hardship to give meaning to it all.
To me it still felt like weakness. Kushner mentions this feeling I have, and says it’s not weakness, but wisdom that leads people to God. He also contends that it’s foolish to believe that we can live our life without the help of God, passing up the offer of help when you severely need it. I can understand where he is coming from, but I don’t agree. Although “weakness” might be the wrong word.
I’ve also been reading The Road Less Traveled, which struck me as being freakishly similar. I guess I’d never looked at religion and the study of mental health as being deeply linked. On one side you have God offering a cure-all solution for life’s hardships, and on the other is a modern belief that we can work at perfecting ourselves so we can cope with the “loneliness, moral confusion, pointlessness of life, need for forgiveness, fear of death” ourselves.
So who is right? I think it’s both.
While I have the time and dedication to spend on cultivating my spiritual path and looking inward for answers and spiritual health, not everyone does. Organized religion and God offer an alternative that you can get very passionate about, but the steps are already in place and it’s easier to fit into your normal life to fit your needs.
There is nothing wrong with that. I completely respect that people choose to spend their time on other things, they still need to satisfy these spiritual needs somehow.
It’s just not for me.
Like many intelligent Christians I have spoken with, Kushner focuses on things that won’t change my mind. While I can accept that some of the stories in the Bible are just stories used for teaching, I don’t believe that Jesus is the son of God. I don’t believe that people actually have communicated with Angels. And at the end of the day I don’t believe in God.
They want to focus on overall mental well-being. Filling up that “empty” feeling that we have (“why do we feel this way if this space isn’t supposed to be filled with God?”).
I’m still stuck at “Hey, if God is real why doesn’t he make it obvious which religion is true? At least give some signals so that completely opposite viewpoints don’t all seem valid.”
Hrm, I was only going to write a paragraph or two. And now my lunch break is over and I don’t have time to refine this. I’ll need to do some meditating on it tonight. Maybe even start pulling together a second part to my As requested… why
I don’t believe in God post.