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I have a friend who's taking Philosophy of Religion as a college class, and needed someone to interview for several questions. She wanted to interview me, so over a long series of e-mails, several questions on the general nature of religion were asked & answered; I thought it might be interesting to some of you if I shared my views for these:
Also, if you don't mind me asking, the paper requires for me to talk to a person that I respect their views about faith and God, and I have to have a meaningful conversation with them. I have to ask some pretty prodding questions...
So to start with, who do you think God is? Be kind of detailed in your response
You know, that's not a question I've ever been asked. But anyway...
I think God is a lot of things; the Supreme Designer of the universe, the creator of all that is, and as Thomas Aquinas would say, God isn't a being; God is being itself.
I think of Him as an immensely creative figure with a lot of time on his hands; I think all that there is, the beauty and sheer variety of everything on this planet and beyond, is something he made just because he wanted to, just for the fun of it. Designing people probably had a deeper meaning to him; for whatever reason, God seems to want children, too. I think this shows that God wants to make incredible things, but even more so, he's very personal, wanting a relationship of sorts with His most complicated creations. I think this fulfills the Biblical idea that "God is love"; people who don't love don't create beautiful art, and God wouldn't instill in us such a strong, universal desire to know Him if he wasn't looking for a relationship of some kind.
Is that good? I want breakfast.
Do you think God exists? Why or Why Not?
Well, if I didn't think God existed, I couldn't have told you who he was, now could I? Tell your professor that a bit of an Industrial Engineering mindset would make these questions flow a little better.
Also, that is an interesting response; sometimes I write things (like my first answer) when I'm too tired to be quite aware of what I'm doing, so reading them again seems like someone else wrote it. But I like it, so we'll move on.
Do I think that God exists? I actually did get asked this question once, by a friend going through issues of family & faith that reminded me a bit of you. I began by saying some of the things that make my agnostic friends from back home believe in some sort of god; I believe there is a god because everything has to come from something. The natural world does not provide a mechanism to create itself; it's necessary to go beyond the natural world to see where everything would've started. It only makes sense that some sort of eternal Creator would've been at the start; if there had been a point when there was truly nothing (no god, no matter, etc.), then there never would be anything; there's nothing for anything to come from. There has to be something that has always been here; it's weird, but so's the universe, so deal with it.
This is where my friend asked, "Yeah, but do you feel Him?" Yes; there are many times when I feel a certain peace that just doesn't have a place in the state I'm in, if there were no god. It would be some sort of mental illness for me to feel peaceful when everything's going wrong, some sort of schizophrenia that separates me from reality, if there wasn't something with me that was honestly telling me that it would be alright. People of all sorts of spiritualities, even nature-based spiritualities, are still in touch with some sort of constant being, constant energy that keeps everything in balance. There's always something to trust, something legitimate that truly does know & tell us that everything will be alright in the end.
Still, even in times when I don't know if anything will go well, when I feel overwhelmed by the evils of the world, or when I'm just too tired to ponder questions in an effective manner, I come back to a Paschal's Wager sort of idea: I don't know if there's a god right now, I'm not a state of mind to be able to tell if there is anyone up there who's got things under control, but what will I gain by saying there is no god? I might as well keep believing; I know there are times when I truly feel that God exists, and I have no way of proving whether or not it's true, but dammit that's a good thing to hold onto sometimes.
(You might not want to use an exact quote of that one!)
Yeah, I'm not the one who writes the script though. Anyways, what is your explanation of why there is evil?
Evil is not a creation of God, but a rejection of Him.
The only good way I can think of allowing evil comes back to the idea that God is love. Love requires freedom; the extent that love can be given is the extent that love can be rejected. Allowing good without allowing evil isn't love, it's slavery. Remember how Liz talked about seeing the worst of mankind in human trafficking, but also the best? For the heroism of the people who fight trafficking to happen, it has to be allowed to be rejected; hence, the permission of the evil of the traffickers.
There was a saint who had a mystical vision, where Jesus said that He created Lucifer, knowing all that he would do, not to destroy His children but to strengthen them. There would be no satisfaction if there was nothing to fight. Imagine if there was no challenge in anything, no danger in anything; if people always did exactly what we want them to, if every response in Jackbox games goes over just as well...if everything always went smoothly, none of it would mean anything.
Think of another angle; God didn't have to create people on Earth; He could've just put us all in Heaven from the start. Why not? I'm not quite sure, but it would have to involve a period of training; life could be seen as a rite of passage into Heaven. People like Liz wouldn't be able to do what they do without evil to fight; eternal rest will come, God willing, but we have to freely accept God's love in us & through us to really earn satisfaction of a life well lived.
And again, I sometimes come to a Pashal's Wager sort of idea; I don't have an explanation for evil, but I can trust the judgement God through awful situations, because what do I have to lose by trusting that the big guy upstairs knows what he's doing when He allows things? If I don't trust that God knows what He's doing by allowing evil, then what should I trust? The only remaining option is to trust that evil is stronger, and that's a really sucky thing to believe.
Interesting response, as usual. But it makes sense to me. Next question, have you ever had a religious experience?
Yes; I suppose I'll describe my most dramatic one.
This was first semester, when I was still majoring in Design Engineering Technology. At this point, I was very doubtful of whether engineering was for me, but I didn't know what else to switch to. I had already switched Work Study jobs, away from the desk job in the library & into sweeping the cafeteria.
I was sweeping the floor, spaced out as usual, when I just heard an all-consuming voice come around me (and by all-consuming, I don't mean that it was loud; it was a casual but firm tone, and the only thing I was aware of at that moment was the voice). He said, "You know you'll never be happy as an engineer; go, get a degree in Theology, and teach that."
I was very confused, initially. I had no clue where this voice came from, I never had anything like that happen before, and I still had floors to sweep, so I kept working while trying to understand the voice.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized the voice was right. I knew I wouldn't be able to handle all the meticulous math of engineering, and when I walked into the wrong building at St. Anthony's one day, I found out that I really liked Theology when they were playing "The Bible Timeline".
Still, I wasn't sure.
So the next weekend, I decided again that I would go to Catholic Mass on Saturday night, and check out another church on Sunday. This one was the Methodist Contemporary Worship, where the preacher said, "Hi, everyone! This week, we're continuing our look at the Book of Acts. In this chapter, we see something remarkable happen; God speaks directly to Peter, and when Peter does as commanded, things go really well!"
Okay...
The next day, Monday night Adult Ed at St. Anthony's, continuing with The Bible Timeline. Jeff Cavins (the dude on the DVD) says, "Welcome back! In this session, we're continuing our section on the Book of Acts! Now here, we see some people hearing God's voice directly!"
Okay...
The next day, Tuesday Night Worship with the college's non-denomination Christian group. The campus minister is up there, and says, "Hi, everybody! Today we're going through the Book of Acts. Today, we'll be looking at a really remarkable vision, where God speaks directly to..."
At which point, I look up, and just about yell, "Alright, I get it!"
And the story continues, but that should cover the religious experience part. Now I want food.
Awesome! I promise I only have a few more questions. What is your view of death and immortality?
Premature death is something to avoid & prevent; if everyone is made in God's image & likeness, they have some of God within them, and that makes their life sacred. The Commandment "Thou shalt not murder" signifies that human life is sacred. As death ends human life, it's something to be avoided; as death is a fact of life, and necessary for new life, it's something to be accepted when it comes. It's hard to logically balance these two things, and I confused myself as I was writing this, but some things are inherently strange & may never sound quite right.
Life is to be protected; that is part of our role in this world. Death is to be expected; in another way, it's part of our role in this world. All things must come to an end, and God in His infinite goodness instilled in us a desire to do what we can before we can't anymore. Without the realization that our lives will end in a relatively short amount of time, it would be really easy to put off so many good things; we would wait for a stupidly long time before taking risks, we would not be too concerned with doing good things for the afterlife, and so on.
This is a question I had to run through recently; a few weeks ago, my grampa passed away. He's been in declining health for years, so as bad as it may sound, everyone has been waiting him out for this to happen. Still, there is a hole in the family now that only Grampa could fill; that being said, there's room for new life.
Immortality is something I don't understand very well, but most religions & spiritualities believe in an eternal afterlife. I don't know how important it is to get into details; suffice it to say that I believe immortality to be a state that everyone will enter when their current life ends, and it will result in eternal happiness or eternal punishment, depending on how much the person has followed God (in whatever form He has revealed Himself to everyone; again, I don't think details are too important for this question, but a loving God would not create anyone without showing who He is in some way to all His children). Purgatory is a factor, but that's just a period of purification before entering heaven, not a place where souls stay for eternity.
What about your relationship between science and God?
Put simply, faith & science can never truly disagree, because they come from the same source: God. God made Creation with some definite laws to govern it, and God is (naturally) the source of religious faith; why would He conflict Himself? As the Catholic Church teaches, if anyone thinks that faith and science are at odds, then they don't properly understand science, they don't properly understand faith, or both. Conflicts tend to arise when someone puts too much faith in science, essentially divinizing the universe (believing the Big Bang to be the creator of everything, even though the Big Bang was a theory created by a Catholic priest/scientist to explain how God put the universe into motion). On the other side, people who take parts of faith too literally develop a pseudoscience that degrades both faith and science (such as the Creation Museum; it's unscientific, because it starts with a conclusion, instead of with evidence, and it's based on a literal interpretation of the poetry of Genesis 1-11).
Dig?
What is your take on religious pluralism (religions coexisting)?
Why not?
I believe that Christianity is the only world religion to accurately reflect God, and I believe that Catholic Christianity is the only branch thereof that accurately reflects the teachings & such that God wants for us. But I would be contrary to all that I believe to be true if I let that get in the way of taking care of others!
Christ Himself prayed that we all be one (John 17), and efforts should be made to attain that unity. Doing so will never happen with an us vs. them mentality; we must all be seen with some degree of equality in the eyes of God before we can actually become united as God desires.
And we must also take a realistic stance; while we should strive for everyone being united under the same Church, it's not going to happen, at least not immediately. Until that point, we should still be good to each other; I don't have to support what a Muslim believes, but by no means should I not support the person who believes it. I will accept others for who they are, not for what they believe. I might not condone what they believe, but I should still be good to them. If nothing else, what good does it do if I don't take in people as they are? Maybe it would be good for them to change beliefs, and if they're open, I'll try to guide them, but that shouldn't be the top priority.
Does that make sense?
Yeah it does. I do have a final question for you. Has something ever happened to dramatically alter your religious views? Be a little bit detailed in your response
I've never drastically changed my religious views, I've just settled into some I was previously unsure of. It's like when my brother changed majors from General Engineering to Design Engineering Technology; he didn't so much change majors as he just settled into one.
I think I initially just didn't know much about my religious views, because it's not something I'd put much thought into for most of my life. As I started to look into Catholic views on things, I didn't have much issue with most of the teachings, and the ones I disagreed with weren't important enough to make me want to switch religions. Eventually, as I was thinking about the teachings I disagreed with, a question came to mind: "Why do I think I can know the answers to these questions better than the Church that Christ established? Why do I have better answers than the people who put in far more thought, effort, and prayer?" As I have yet to come up with a good answer to that, I've since sided with the Catholic Church on everything.
On a more personal level (rather than theological), all the human trafficking & forensic psych stuff Liz got me into had a strong effect on my faith (though again, this didn't change my faith so much as I got a better idea of what it was). As I delved deeper into the evils of mankind, I got to a point where I honestly had no idea why or how I still had faith in God; I learned that faith is a gift. Liz also really helped when she talked about someone she was with in Thailand; she only ever referred to her as "amazing Christian lady". This lady said to Liz, and Liz said to me, that you always have to look for the little spots of beauty in the worst of situations. They would be sitting in a brothel, surrounded by girls who were kidnapped into prostitution since they were 6, and this amazing Christian lady was pointing out the love that the mothers have for their girls, the strong community they have with each other, and all this little bright spots that are always there. This has greatly influenced my spirituality; when I've been thinking about human trafficking too long, I make a point to enjoy the beauty of some flowers that catch my attention so easily when I'm in darkness too long. It's why I so rarely complain; it seems pointless to me that I should talk about everything that's going wrong, when it's so much better to just take in what's still good, true, and beautiful. Complaining just pulls people down, and as far as I'm concerned, people are down enough as it is.
So, no dramatic changes, but that's how I've become stronger & more settled in the views I have.
Take this discussion whatever direction you want to (respectfully, please); I just thought it covered a lot of fundamental question that people of any (or no) spirituality may find interesting.
May God bless us all & lead us to whatever cool stuff is next, with gratitude for what He's already done! Peace out, rock on, watch out for sharks!
Also, if you don't mind me asking, the paper requires for me to talk to a person that I respect their views about faith and God, and I have to have a meaningful conversation with them. I have to ask some pretty prodding questions...
So to start with, who do you think God is? Be kind of detailed in your response
You know, that's not a question I've ever been asked. But anyway...
I think God is a lot of things; the Supreme Designer of the universe, the creator of all that is, and as Thomas Aquinas would say, God isn't a being; God is being itself.
I think of Him as an immensely creative figure with a lot of time on his hands; I think all that there is, the beauty and sheer variety of everything on this planet and beyond, is something he made just because he wanted to, just for the fun of it. Designing people probably had a deeper meaning to him; for whatever reason, God seems to want children, too. I think this shows that God wants to make incredible things, but even more so, he's very personal, wanting a relationship of sorts with His most complicated creations. I think this fulfills the Biblical idea that "God is love"; people who don't love don't create beautiful art, and God wouldn't instill in us such a strong, universal desire to know Him if he wasn't looking for a relationship of some kind.
Is that good? I want breakfast.
Do you think God exists? Why or Why Not?
Well, if I didn't think God existed, I couldn't have told you who he was, now could I? Tell your professor that a bit of an Industrial Engineering mindset would make these questions flow a little better.
Also, that is an interesting response; sometimes I write things (like my first answer) when I'm too tired to be quite aware of what I'm doing, so reading them again seems like someone else wrote it. But I like it, so we'll move on.
Do I think that God exists? I actually did get asked this question once, by a friend going through issues of family & faith that reminded me a bit of you. I began by saying some of the things that make my agnostic friends from back home believe in some sort of god; I believe there is a god because everything has to come from something. The natural world does not provide a mechanism to create itself; it's necessary to go beyond the natural world to see where everything would've started. It only makes sense that some sort of eternal Creator would've been at the start; if there had been a point when there was truly nothing (no god, no matter, etc.), then there never would be anything; there's nothing for anything to come from. There has to be something that has always been here; it's weird, but so's the universe, so deal with it.
This is where my friend asked, "Yeah, but do you feel Him?" Yes; there are many times when I feel a certain peace that just doesn't have a place in the state I'm in, if there were no god. It would be some sort of mental illness for me to feel peaceful when everything's going wrong, some sort of schizophrenia that separates me from reality, if there wasn't something with me that was honestly telling me that it would be alright. People of all sorts of spiritualities, even nature-based spiritualities, are still in touch with some sort of constant being, constant energy that keeps everything in balance. There's always something to trust, something legitimate that truly does know & tell us that everything will be alright in the end.
Still, even in times when I don't know if anything will go well, when I feel overwhelmed by the evils of the world, or when I'm just too tired to ponder questions in an effective manner, I come back to a Paschal's Wager sort of idea: I don't know if there's a god right now, I'm not a state of mind to be able to tell if there is anyone up there who's got things under control, but what will I gain by saying there is no god? I might as well keep believing; I know there are times when I truly feel that God exists, and I have no way of proving whether or not it's true, but dammit that's a good thing to hold onto sometimes.
(You might not want to use an exact quote of that one!)
Yeah, I'm not the one who writes the script though. Anyways, what is your explanation of why there is evil?
Evil is not a creation of God, but a rejection of Him.
The only good way I can think of allowing evil comes back to the idea that God is love. Love requires freedom; the extent that love can be given is the extent that love can be rejected. Allowing good without allowing evil isn't love, it's slavery. Remember how Liz talked about seeing the worst of mankind in human trafficking, but also the best? For the heroism of the people who fight trafficking to happen, it has to be allowed to be rejected; hence, the permission of the evil of the traffickers.
There was a saint who had a mystical vision, where Jesus said that He created Lucifer, knowing all that he would do, not to destroy His children but to strengthen them. There would be no satisfaction if there was nothing to fight. Imagine if there was no challenge in anything, no danger in anything; if people always did exactly what we want them to, if every response in Jackbox games goes over just as well...if everything always went smoothly, none of it would mean anything.
Think of another angle; God didn't have to create people on Earth; He could've just put us all in Heaven from the start. Why not? I'm not quite sure, but it would have to involve a period of training; life could be seen as a rite of passage into Heaven. People like Liz wouldn't be able to do what they do without evil to fight; eternal rest will come, God willing, but we have to freely accept God's love in us & through us to really earn satisfaction of a life well lived.
And again, I sometimes come to a Pashal's Wager sort of idea; I don't have an explanation for evil, but I can trust the judgement God through awful situations, because what do I have to lose by trusting that the big guy upstairs knows what he's doing when He allows things? If I don't trust that God knows what He's doing by allowing evil, then what should I trust? The only remaining option is to trust that evil is stronger, and that's a really sucky thing to believe.
Interesting response, as usual. But it makes sense to me. Next question, have you ever had a religious experience?
Yes; I suppose I'll describe my most dramatic one.
This was first semester, when I was still majoring in Design Engineering Technology. At this point, I was very doubtful of whether engineering was for me, but I didn't know what else to switch to. I had already switched Work Study jobs, away from the desk job in the library & into sweeping the cafeteria.
I was sweeping the floor, spaced out as usual, when I just heard an all-consuming voice come around me (and by all-consuming, I don't mean that it was loud; it was a casual but firm tone, and the only thing I was aware of at that moment was the voice). He said, "You know you'll never be happy as an engineer; go, get a degree in Theology, and teach that."
I was very confused, initially. I had no clue where this voice came from, I never had anything like that happen before, and I still had floors to sweep, so I kept working while trying to understand the voice.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized the voice was right. I knew I wouldn't be able to handle all the meticulous math of engineering, and when I walked into the wrong building at St. Anthony's one day, I found out that I really liked Theology when they were playing "The Bible Timeline".
Still, I wasn't sure.
So the next weekend, I decided again that I would go to Catholic Mass on Saturday night, and check out another church on Sunday. This one was the Methodist Contemporary Worship, where the preacher said, "Hi, everyone! This week, we're continuing our look at the Book of Acts. In this chapter, we see something remarkable happen; God speaks directly to Peter, and when Peter does as commanded, things go really well!"
Okay...
The next day, Monday night Adult Ed at St. Anthony's, continuing with The Bible Timeline. Jeff Cavins (the dude on the DVD) says, "Welcome back! In this session, we're continuing our section on the Book of Acts! Now here, we see some people hearing God's voice directly!"
Okay...
The next day, Tuesday Night Worship with the college's non-denomination Christian group. The campus minister is up there, and says, "Hi, everybody! Today we're going through the Book of Acts. Today, we'll be looking at a really remarkable vision, where God speaks directly to..."
At which point, I look up, and just about yell, "Alright, I get it!"
And the story continues, but that should cover the religious experience part. Now I want food.
Awesome! I promise I only have a few more questions. What is your view of death and immortality?
Premature death is something to avoid & prevent; if everyone is made in God's image & likeness, they have some of God within them, and that makes their life sacred. The Commandment "Thou shalt not murder" signifies that human life is sacred. As death ends human life, it's something to be avoided; as death is a fact of life, and necessary for new life, it's something to be accepted when it comes. It's hard to logically balance these two things, and I confused myself as I was writing this, but some things are inherently strange & may never sound quite right.
Life is to be protected; that is part of our role in this world. Death is to be expected; in another way, it's part of our role in this world. All things must come to an end, and God in His infinite goodness instilled in us a desire to do what we can before we can't anymore. Without the realization that our lives will end in a relatively short amount of time, it would be really easy to put off so many good things; we would wait for a stupidly long time before taking risks, we would not be too concerned with doing good things for the afterlife, and so on.
This is a question I had to run through recently; a few weeks ago, my grampa passed away. He's been in declining health for years, so as bad as it may sound, everyone has been waiting him out for this to happen. Still, there is a hole in the family now that only Grampa could fill; that being said, there's room for new life.
Immortality is something I don't understand very well, but most religions & spiritualities believe in an eternal afterlife. I don't know how important it is to get into details; suffice it to say that I believe immortality to be a state that everyone will enter when their current life ends, and it will result in eternal happiness or eternal punishment, depending on how much the person has followed God (in whatever form He has revealed Himself to everyone; again, I don't think details are too important for this question, but a loving God would not create anyone without showing who He is in some way to all His children). Purgatory is a factor, but that's just a period of purification before entering heaven, not a place where souls stay for eternity.
What about your relationship between science and God?
Put simply, faith & science can never truly disagree, because they come from the same source: God. God made Creation with some definite laws to govern it, and God is (naturally) the source of religious faith; why would He conflict Himself? As the Catholic Church teaches, if anyone thinks that faith and science are at odds, then they don't properly understand science, they don't properly understand faith, or both. Conflicts tend to arise when someone puts too much faith in science, essentially divinizing the universe (believing the Big Bang to be the creator of everything, even though the Big Bang was a theory created by a Catholic priest/scientist to explain how God put the universe into motion). On the other side, people who take parts of faith too literally develop a pseudoscience that degrades both faith and science (such as the Creation Museum; it's unscientific, because it starts with a conclusion, instead of with evidence, and it's based on a literal interpretation of the poetry of Genesis 1-11).
Dig?
What is your take on religious pluralism (religions coexisting)?
Why not?
I believe that Christianity is the only world religion to accurately reflect God, and I believe that Catholic Christianity is the only branch thereof that accurately reflects the teachings & such that God wants for us. But I would be contrary to all that I believe to be true if I let that get in the way of taking care of others!
Christ Himself prayed that we all be one (John 17), and efforts should be made to attain that unity. Doing so will never happen with an us vs. them mentality; we must all be seen with some degree of equality in the eyes of God before we can actually become united as God desires.
And we must also take a realistic stance; while we should strive for everyone being united under the same Church, it's not going to happen, at least not immediately. Until that point, we should still be good to each other; I don't have to support what a Muslim believes, but by no means should I not support the person who believes it. I will accept others for who they are, not for what they believe. I might not condone what they believe, but I should still be good to them. If nothing else, what good does it do if I don't take in people as they are? Maybe it would be good for them to change beliefs, and if they're open, I'll try to guide them, but that shouldn't be the top priority.
Does that make sense?
Yeah it does. I do have a final question for you. Has something ever happened to dramatically alter your religious views? Be a little bit detailed in your response
I've never drastically changed my religious views, I've just settled into some I was previously unsure of. It's like when my brother changed majors from General Engineering to Design Engineering Technology; he didn't so much change majors as he just settled into one.
I think I initially just didn't know much about my religious views, because it's not something I'd put much thought into for most of my life. As I started to look into Catholic views on things, I didn't have much issue with most of the teachings, and the ones I disagreed with weren't important enough to make me want to switch religions. Eventually, as I was thinking about the teachings I disagreed with, a question came to mind: "Why do I think I can know the answers to these questions better than the Church that Christ established? Why do I have better answers than the people who put in far more thought, effort, and prayer?" As I have yet to come up with a good answer to that, I've since sided with the Catholic Church on everything.
On a more personal level (rather than theological), all the human trafficking & forensic psych stuff Liz got me into had a strong effect on my faith (though again, this didn't change my faith so much as I got a better idea of what it was). As I delved deeper into the evils of mankind, I got to a point where I honestly had no idea why or how I still had faith in God; I learned that faith is a gift. Liz also really helped when she talked about someone she was with in Thailand; she only ever referred to her as "amazing Christian lady". This lady said to Liz, and Liz said to me, that you always have to look for the little spots of beauty in the worst of situations. They would be sitting in a brothel, surrounded by girls who were kidnapped into prostitution since they were 6, and this amazing Christian lady was pointing out the love that the mothers have for their girls, the strong community they have with each other, and all this little bright spots that are always there. This has greatly influenced my spirituality; when I've been thinking about human trafficking too long, I make a point to enjoy the beauty of some flowers that catch my attention so easily when I'm in darkness too long. It's why I so rarely complain; it seems pointless to me that I should talk about everything that's going wrong, when it's so much better to just take in what's still good, true, and beautiful. Complaining just pulls people down, and as far as I'm concerned, people are down enough as it is.
So, no dramatic changes, but that's how I've become stronger & more settled in the views I have.
Take this discussion whatever direction you want to (respectfully, please); I just thought it covered a lot of fundamental question that people of any (or no) spirituality may find interesting.
May God bless us all & lead us to whatever cool stuff is next, with gratitude for what He's already done! Peace out, rock on, watch out for sharks!
