Three Great Questions

Three great questions…taken from Elizabeth’s discussions with her flatmate Adam.

1)      How can we know that God cares about us or has any personal interest in us?

Within the scope of our created world, hideous evil is present.  Humans are capable of doing unspeakably terrible things to each other on a daily basis.  If there is a creator, this aspect is clearly part of the whole picture.  Those who see humans as ‘just’ animals may explain this by comparing this desire for violence with the ruthlessness of a hungry lion, which kills a vulnerable species without a moment’s thought.  Humans can live like this, but it is rarely that simple.  We are vested with ‘consciousness’.  The holocaust, slavery and the destruction of the planet are not neutral acts.  We are aware of what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, and how power is abused, even if this might seem clouded at times.  All human systems appear to have this awareness, even though it took quite a while for the Romans to work this out.

Many philosophers, for example Nietzsche, have posed the question, ‘would you choose to re-run your life again?’  Does the sum of happiness and contentment you experience outweigh the degree of suffering and hardship you face?  Even comfortable fat westerns may think twice about a repeat.

As noted by Darwin and David Attenborough, there are worms that live in the eye balls of human babies.  Or what about MS, where a person’s own immune system destroyers its own electrical circuits?

It appears that the processes of ‘creation’ and ‘destruction’ are strongly interlinked.  Some of the earliest building blocks of life may be viruses, which also bring death and deformity.

Eastern models of God (the creator) recognise this in the ‘balancing’ concept of ‘yin and yang’.  The beautiful ocean brings inspiration, but it will also swallow you up without a moment’s hesitation.

We cannot know what lies beyond the grave.  It takes faith both to believe nothing, as it does to believe that this life is not all there is.  Across time, humans from all cultures have consistently understood that there is more to life that this present time.  There is no strong tradition of ‘nothingness’. 

2)      Why would one event in time, ‘the death of Jesus’, have any significance to the vast majority of people on this planet, most of whom will never have heard about Jesus? (Wikipedia say 31.5% of our current population are christian.)  

Estimates of human life in a form that we would recognise date back perhaps 20,000 years.  Some estimates suggest 100,000 to 200,000 years.  Clear Judo-Christian religion can only claim to any influential for 5,000 years, with the beliefs only having some form of international reach for about 1,500 years.  For example, ‘The Buddha’ died in 483 BC.  Muhammad dies in 632 AD.  Why should these deaths be any more or less significant than the death of Jesus?  Do we not have to consider cultural context, beliefs and values when considering the significance of any death?

3)      Why do organised religions see Sexuality as so significant, and in the main, condemn homosexuality?

The BBC recently published a survey that put the reported incidence of people recording themselves as homosexual of bi-sexual at 1.7% (ONS 2015). https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/sexuality/bulletins/sexualidentityuk/2015 .  This is significantly less than previous studies.  It does not indicate that the numbers of people identifying themselves as homosexual is becoming larger in any way though young people are more likely to identify themselves as bisexual (3.3%).  Despite recent changes in equality legislation and a general shift in attitudes amongst young people, homosexuality continues to be a minority experience.  Why should it create such a stir? 

In America the subject of homosexuality has become very polarised.  You can only be ‘for’ or against’.  Christian’s in particular are labelled by opposing sides as either ‘liberal’, wishy washy, bible deniers, or ‘right wing’, neo-cons, who have a harsh and judgmental outlook on others.

There appears to be no space in the middle for ‘conundrum or paradox’.  I am guessing that as a minority issue, homosexuality appears to hit above its weight because it also touches on guilt and shame.  From a Darwinian perspective, homosexuality is a conundrum http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26089486.

My thoughts.

Question1)

I have had many experiences that have made me feel that I am personally significant to an ‘all knowing’, loving creator.  I recall feeling a presence with me when I was 17 and in a hospital bed coming round from a cancer operation.  I know that there was a student nurse with me through the night, but I also had an experience of a presence that filled me with confidence and security.  I felt that fear had been taken from me.  The concept of dying no longer possessed any sense of terror.  Death might be inconvenient, and upsetting, but was never going to be something that had any hold over me.  I experienced this as a gift, not something I needed to drum up in myself.

I also had an experience about 8 years ago when I hugged my father good bye after my parents’ short visit to the UK from Libya.  I had a strong sense that I would not be seeing my father again for a long time.  I was curious about this strong conviction because it was certainly not created by me.  It again was a secure feeling and one that did not evaporate like a dream.  When four weeks later, my mother rang me at work and told me that my father had died, the message I had been given made sense.  I do not feel that it was a premonition.  It felt like a loving message offering reassurance that when the event happened, it had been fore told, and was not to be ‘fought against’. 

There are other experiences I could name.  They remain securely fixed in my mind.  These experiences are exceptional, not every day.  I hold on to them, and remember them as clear indicators to me that my life does have purpose, and there is a caring creator in the middle of things.

There is nothing like personal experiences to create meaning.  As with all relationships, experience is everything.  Without it, the relationship does not live.  When my father was alive, we could contact each other.  Sometimes I had to wait for his reply.  I always knew what he thought of me.  He always wanted things to go well for me, even when he perhaps thought that giving up on Civil Engineering at university was the worst decision I could make (I jest).

Now I still have memories.  I have the knowledge of what he was like, and his influence on my life.  But our relationship is dwindling.  We are no longer in communion.  Relationships require reciprocity.

Why does God allow terrible evil to exist?  Why does this evil appear also linked closely with the way the world is designed.  I can understand that war is a human responsibility.  But most communities erupt into war at some stage.  Most ‘men’ in particular appear to be prepared to go to war.  But also the world itself appears to inflict suffering.  Volcanos, plagues and famine, our own bodies attacking ourselves…. and there is Darwin’s worm. 

I understand this from a parent’s perspective.  As parents we see all the risks our children may be exposed to.  We try our hardest to protect our children.  We tuck them up safely at night.  We lock the front door.  We keep an eye on them as they walk along the pavement, we check out their new boyfriend.  Our power is immense.  We keep out children alive, but it is also only at the level of influence.  They can continue to do as they please.  We do not have complete control over their thoughts, desires and actions. 

Question 2)

There is an idea that actually we do not need organised religion.  I do not need to know about ‘history’, theology or any form of religious observance in order to have a relationship with my creator.  There is a story that describes this in the bible.  It’s the story of the Creator living with his/her creation.  There are no religious acts of worship, books or hymns.  People with learning difficulties often lead the way when it comes to faith. 

For me the important things are about returning to a simple relationship with our creator.  Like a child and their parent walking in the park, feeding the ducks and going on the swings.  I’m ok with the organised bit, preferring it to be like a family gathering, drawing on the sense that we are communal beings, not just individuals. 

Question 3)

There are a large number of things around us that don’t seem to make sense.  Some thoughts.

A polygamous family come to church.  What now?

Two homosexuals do not live together, but they love and care for each other.  They want to serve God.  What do they do?

One partner in a couple has a brain hemorrhage and their personality is changed. This affects the relationship significantly.  Should they stay together?