Some Thoughts on Religion

by Andrew Edgington

What Do I Believe ?

I would class myself as a Christian even though I have never belonged to any organized religion. I have read the Bible and I consider that it gives sound advice for living in this world whether or not you believe in an afterlife. I believe that the fundamental principle of Christianity can be summed up very simply - Jesus says that the most important earthly commandment is "Love your neighbour as yourself" which I interpret as an instruction to do as you would be done by. Wouldn't the world be a much better place if everyone followed this maxim ?  I also think that the idea of forgiving those who trespass against you in the hope that your own trespasses will be forgiven is a more healthy way of thinking than the Old Testament principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, which inevitably leads to an endless cycle of revenge. As Ghandi observed, it just renders the whole world blind and toothless, which doesn't really help anybody does it ?

The Bible also advises against being too materialistic, saying that you should build up treasure in heaven not on earth. Even if you don't believe in heaven, I still think this is sound advice: you can't buy health or happiness. People who devote their lives to building up wealth or material posessions always seem rather insecure to me; never content with what they have, they always need more and are constantly afraid of losing what they already have. In the modern world, however, it is difficult to avoid this way of thinking as we are bombarded with marketing that tries to sell us the idea that our unhappiness can be solved if only we can obtain whatever product they happen to be advertising. One of the reasons this notion is so attractive is that it is a lot easier to buy stuff than to acquire self-awareness which is what I feel is the key to happiness. I believe that happiness comes from feeling loved and this can only be achieved by being involved in successful relationships. And your relationships will only be successful if you have a good understanding of yourself and are content with the way you are. If you are not happy with yourself, you can't expect anyone else to be, can you ?  It is really just a question of doing as you would be done by: would you be happy being involved in a relationship with someone who behaved as you do yourself ?  Self-examination though, is something that a lot of people find quite frightening, as they really don't want to accept responsibility for their own unhappiness and change their ways - it is much easier to blame it on other people or a lack of money.

I have never really had the opportunity to discuss my beliefs, so they have developed from reading the Bible rather than from the dogma of any particular worldly religion. Two members of my family are religious, but they both joined the Jehovah's Witnesses (a fundamentalist sect that actively discourages its members from having their own opinions about anything) so discussion with them is rather pointless. They initially tried to recruit me, but I found their leaders' arguments too inconsistent and illogical for my taste, and the Bible advises against following earthly religious leaders anyway. (They claim that they don't have earthly leaders because their official set of beliefs, to which all members are required to adhere, is determined by committee rather than a single individual, but I cannot see what difference the number of leaders makes - it just means they are an oligarchy rather than a dictatorship). Like all fundamentalist sects they are also extremely arrogant, in that they have elevated their leaders' interpretation of scripture from its actual status of personal opinion to that of absolute truth, and judgemental, as they dismiss anyone who gainsays their leaders as an evil disciple of Satan who is trying to push them off the one true path. They even believe that Revelation predicts that Christ will return leading a heavenly army to kill the rest of us and leave only them to live in Paradise on this Earth !  My own feeling is that God gave us all the ability to make our own minds up and that He expects us to use it. I believe that, as is suggested in Revelation, we will all be judged individually and not according to which religion we belong.

Why Does Religion Cause So Much Strife ?

I do not believe that religion causes wars any more than football causes hooliganism. The underlying problem is mankind's tribal nature; it is instinctive for mankind to band together in groups based around all sorts of common interests such as locality, nationality, ethnicity and political or sporting affinity, as well as religion, and within any such tribe there is always a fundamentalist element which wants to demonstrate the superiority of their tribe over all others by force. The only reason that religion seems to cause the most problems is that religious tribes are the largest we have. Most religions preach love and tolerance in their original texts and the problems tend to start when a member of the militant element of the tribe becomes a leader. They pervert the original teachings and try to justify using force against other tribes by portraying them as a threat to the very existence of their own, superior, tribe. You can see this today in the rantings of certain newspapers and political parties demonizing immigrants or the conflict between Muslim and (now rather un-Christian) Western values, with elements of each side demonizing the other. The only way to protect ourselves from this militancy is for more reasonably-minded individuals to stand up and publish more rational views.

What Evidence Is There That God Exists ?

When it comes to absolute proof of God's existence, I can offer you none. The Bible talks about faith, which is a belief in something without knowing for certain that it is true. The evidence for God's existence lies mainly in the life of Christ - he used God's power to perform miracles. The people who witnessed these acts accepted them as such, though, with the passage of time, many people now dismiss them as fairy stories or con tricks. But there is significant evidence that the Bible story is true. Genetic research has shown that all women are descended from a single female ancestor (Eve) and all men from a single male ancestor who lived much later (Noah). There is archaeological evidence for a great flood around the Mediterranean. While evolution may account for all the animals (if you doubt that, consider how different Africans, Orientals and Scandinavians are, even though descended from common ancestors), we are still awaiting the discovery of the "Missing Link" which would allow this theory to apply to mankind as well. The Bible describes man being created separate from the animals and, as yet, there is no scientific evidence against this.

Basically, we have a choice to accept the evidence as recorded, or not. Some scientists argue that scientific theories provide an alternative explanation as to how the universe came to be and that there is no need for a belief in God, but I feel this is missing the point. Science only answers how we came to be, not why. Why are the laws of physics the way they are ?  These questions are more in the realm of philosophy than science. Isn't the belief that a universe can appear out of nowhere just as much a leap of faith as believing it was created by God ?  Looking around at the world I find it difficult to believe that what I see had no designer, so I choose to accept the evidence that there is one.

Why Does God Allow Suffering ?

This is a question that I have heard a lot of people ask and the answer is actually fairly straightforward. In Genesis, Adam and Eve were given an instruction by God not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge, but they disobeyed. Eve was convinced by the serpent that God did not have their best interests at heart in that he was trying to hide something from them, namely the knowledge of good and evil, and so she ate from the tree and gave some of the fruit to her husband. As punishment, they were banished from the garden of Eden in order that they may no longer eat from the tree of life and so live forever. It is debateable how literally we are meant to take this story, but it illustrates a fundamental facet of human nature: we like to think we know best about everything. God is saying that we don't, and, in order to prove it, he stopped running the Earth and let us run things for ourselves, to show us what a mess we would make of it. So the suffering and death that exists in this world is a temporary punishment for not accepting God's rule. This may seem a rather extreme way of teaching us a lesson, but, given human nature, how else could He have done it ?  Would you prefer it if He had given us no choice and forced us to obey Him ?  That wouldn't be very satisfactory for either party would it ?  In our modern "I want it all and I want it now" society we have largely lost sight of the fact that this life is only temporary and it is important that we remember that the trials and tribulations of life don't last forever. The Bible promises to those willing to accept that they don't know best and accept God's rule, that He will create a new Earth where there will be no illness, death or natural disasters and we can live forever again. The Bible also says though, that accepting God's rule is not onerous; He is a loving God who has our best interests at heart which is why He was so offended at our rejection of Him.

How Did Christ "Die for Our Sins" ?

You often hear Christian clerics pronounce that Jesus died for our sins, but, for a long time, I was mystified as to what this meant. Why should Jesus' death be any more significant than anyone else's ? Well, firstly, he came back from the dead in order to prove to us that there is life after death. OK, but that doesn't really relate to my sins or explain the manner of his death - he could have just died of old age and come back to prove the afterlife. I believe that the reason he was tortured to death lies in his dying words: "Father why have you forsaken me ?". He was pushed to the point where he doubted that God cared for him, and it was only then that he truly understood what it was to be human (it was precisely this doubt which led to the original sin). We all share this doubt (fundamentalists who say they don't are deluding themselves) and Jesus needed to understand what this was like in order to be able to act as mediator (as the Bible says he will) when God comes to judge mankind. So he came to Earth and died in order to be qualified to speak in defence of our sins come Judgement Day. The Bible also says that God made a sacrifice in sending His son to Earth, and having this doubt put in his mind would account for that as it is the sort of thought that is quite difficult to remove once placed there.