Skeptical Faith

Google Image Do you ever stop to think about who, or what God is, and where we get our image of God? The title of this blog, “Who or What is God?” itself begs the question. Is God a who or a what? I’ll get back to that later, but theologians say we know God only by analogy, that is, only by comparing him or her to what we know from human experience. I would say that we have three main sources for our knowledge of God, at least in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The first is the Bible, from which the majority of our ideas about God come; the second is philosophical speculation, and the third is “direct” experience with God. Mere Human Feeling? Let’s start with the latter. As I have written, I practice “Centering Prayer,” a kind of meditation one of whose goals is to help the pray-er be more aware of God’s presence. During 20-minute early-morning meditations, I sometimes feel God’s presence, sometimes not. To be honest, I’m not sure whether my sense of God’s presence is a mere human...

Google Image My friend, Ted Wolgamot, a retired psychologist, also writes a weekly essay on religious matters and last week included this anecdote. A priest received a phone call from an irate father who said he held the priest responsible for his newly graduated daughter’s decision to “throw it all away” to do mission work. “’She has a master’s degree and she’s going off to dig ditches in Haiti!” said the father. “I hold you personally responsible for this,” adding, “You filled her mind with all this religious stuff.” Didn't You Have Her Baptized? “Weren’t you the one who had her baptized?” the priest asked. “Well, yes,’” said the father, “but what does that have to do with anything?” “And didn’t you send her to our parish school when she was a little girl?” “Well, yes,” said the father. “And didn’t you allow your daughter to go on those trips to Appalachia when she was in high school?” asked the priest. “Well, yes,” said the father. “I thought it would look good on ...

Google Image A recent article in the New York Times reports on a new book by trauma therapist Amanda Gregory entitled, “You Don’t Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own Terms.” As in many other cases of therapists entering the field after personal experience with trauma, Gregory experienced what she describes as her parents’ physical and emotional neglect. “It wasn’t until much later in life,” says the article, “after becoming a trauma therapist in Chicago, that Ms. Gregory realized to what extent (it) had affected her. In the course of her own therapy, she began to wonder: ‘Do I need to forgive to make more progress in my recovery?’ Redefining Forgiveness? “She is one of several therapists, writers and scholars questioning the conventional wisdom that it’s always better to forgive,” continues the article. “In the process, they are redefining forgiveness, while also erasing the pressure to do it.” When I first read this article, I thought Gregory was applying her admoniti...

Google Image It’s strange what you remember, and don’t remember, in old age. I remember, for instance, the oddity of the snail darter – a tiny, seemingly insignificant fish that stopped for two years construction of the $487 million (in today’s dollars) Tellico Dam on the Tennessee River 45 years ago. The fish species had recently been discovered and environmental groups took the dam authority to court to stop construction. Protection of the snail darter at the expense of the dam construction was a raging controversy. But eventually, the dam project was exempted from the U.S. Endangered Species Act and was completed. The snail darters were also saved from possible extinction after biologists moved them to other rivers. What does this all have to do with the search for God? Nothing More Controversial? It’s just that in an attempt to help people who have given up on God and/or religion, I try not to shy away from controversies surrounding religious belief, and there’s nothing mor...