3 December 2000


THINKING ABOUT GOD AND RELIGION

      Ronald J. Glossop


  I.  Introduction

     A.  I suppose that some of you have followed the request in our

newsletter to participate in our congregation's "Religious Belief
Survey."

It requires using a computer to go to the website

<<www.selectsmart.com/RELIGION>.  You are presented with eight

multiple-choice questions to answer.  Then click on "SELECT" to find
out

which of 26 religions your answers most agree with.  Afterwards fill
out

the form in the newsletter and send it to church or put it in the
offering

plate.  Among other things, you will find out to what extent various

religions espouse ideas in line with your own beliefs.

     B.  This exercise could be a good discussion starter with regard
to

questions usually regarded as religious issues such as what God is
like,

how the universe and life on Earth originated, what happens to humans
after

death, why there is evil and suffering in the world, what one must do
to be

"saved," and what kinds of moral and social issues a religion should

address.

     C.  For each of the 26 religions there is a summary of its answers
to

these various multiple-choice questions and an indication of where to
go

(both books and websites) in order to get more information about that

religion.

        1.  I thought that the summary for Unitarian-Universalism was
well

done.  The words "diverse beliefs" or even "very diverse beliefs" was
given

in describing UU beliefs with regard to answers to most of the
questions.

        2.  It occurred to me while going through this exercise that it
is

really great for enlightening all those people who we say "are

Unitarian-Universalists without knowing it."  Unfortunately, I doubt
if

many of those persons will be clicking onto this website.


II.  The very existence and nature of this website shows that for most

people religion is viewed as a matter of what you believe, especially
what

you believe about God and the relation of God to the world and whether

there is life-after-death.

    A.  The first question focuses on whether there is one God or many
gods

and whether the deity is personal or impersonal.

    B.  The 2nd question is about whether incarnation(s) of god(s) can
and

do occur.

    C.  The 3rd question is about how the physical universe and life in
it

originates.

    D.  The 4th question is about what happens to humans after death.

    E.  The 5th question is about why there is terrible wrongdoing in
the world.

    F.  The 6th question is about why there is so much suffering in the
world.

    G.  The 7th question is about "salvation" or the ultimate good for
humans.

    H.  The 8th question is about which ethical or social issues
religion

should address.


III.  The sixth question about suffering or evil in the world is
important

because the existence of such evil or suffering is generally the
biggest

challenge to religious belief.  That fact tells us something very
important

about the core of religious belief, namely, that God is (or gods are)
both

powerful and good.

   A.  A minimal definition of God is "a being or entity with power
working

for good."

       1.  Anything which lacks power to do anything is not God.  In
fact,

a being or entity which totally lacks power might as well not exist
since

its existence would make no difference to anyone or anything else.

       2.  Anything which lacks goodness in the moral sense of
furthering

values such as love and compassion and justice and knowing the truth
does

not deserve to be worshipped or adored as God no matter how powerful.

   B.  Consequently, the main problem for those who believe in the

existence of God is how to account for the existence of evil.

       1.  But "the problem of evil" does not get to be acute until
the

believer maintains that God is all-powerful (omnipotent) and all-good

(totally benevolent) and all-knowing (omniscient).  In that case God
should

be able to overcome all evil.  If there is any evil, it must exist only
in

order to bring about some greater good.  In fact, that is just what
many

theologians who believe in an omnipotent, totally benevolent,
omniscient

God seek to do.  They try to show that any evil which exists must do so
in

order to bring about some greater good.

       2.  On the other hand, if God is not all-powerful, evil can be
the

result of those things outside of God's control.  If God is not
totally

benevolent, evil can be the result of God's lack of total goodness.  If
God

is not all-knowing, evil can be the result of things not known and

understood by God.

       3.  As a matter of fact, many philosophers have resolved the
problem

of evil by viewing God as less than all-powerful.  Specific examples
are

Plato and William James and John Stuart Mill.

       4.  These philosophers have also noted that a truly all-powerful
God

would need nothing from human believers.  The notion of freely given

admiration and love would be nullified if God controlled everything.
There

seems to be a basic conflict between free will for humans and real

omnipotence for God.  If God really is all-powerful, can humans have
any

power?  Can they be anything but puppets ultimately under God's
control?


IV.  But the main point I want to make is that the main issue for
religion

is NOT what to believe about the existence or nature of God.  As our

responsive reading by Sophia Lyon Fahs has noted, beliefs are important
in

our lives.  The kinds of beliefs we have influence how we behave.
Knowing

what is true is important.  But having true beliefs is not the most

important thing in our lives, and having true beliefs about God is not
the

most important thing in religion.  The most important thing in religion
is

being committed to furthering goodness.  Promoting goodness includes

finding out what is true and helping others to acquire such knowledge,
but

it also includes furthering love and compassion and justice.  And it

involves doing this whether or not there is a God helping us to
accomplish

it.

   A.  Going back to the website about religious beliefs, I was
delighted

to read what it said about what Unitarian-Universalists believe about
that

fourth issue of what happens to humans after death.  Here it is:

Diverse beliefs, but most believe that heaven and hell are not places,
but

are symbolic.  Some believe heaven and hell are states of
consciousness

either in life or continuing after death; some believe in
reincarnation;

some believe that afterlife is nonexistent or not known or not
important,

as [and get this] actions in life are all that matter.

   B.  The point was made very nicely by Reverend Earl Holt in his
sermon

of October 22, 2000 at the First Unitarian Church in St. Louis titled

"Unitarian Christianity:  A Conundrum?"  After reviewing how various

Unitarian luminaries have argued on opposite sides of the issue of
whether

Unitarians are or are not Christians, he notes that there is a deeper

question in the dispute, namely,

not what is a Unitarian Christian, but who is a Christian.  In the
gospel

of Mark, Jesus says, "If any man would come after me, let him deny
himself

and take up his cross and follow me.  For whosoever would save his
life

will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's
will

save it."  What is Important is not what we believe but how we live.

   C.  Some philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and William James have

argued that we need to believe in God in order to be confident that
good

will prevail in the end and that consequently any sacrifices we make
to

promote what is good will not be for naught in an amoral universe which
is

totally indifferent to human values.

   D.  But both these philosophers also argued that we must do what is
good

simply because it is good and not because of any expectation that
promoting

goodness will lead to some kind of personal gain for ourselves.

   E.  I suggest that we go one step further and commit ourselves to

promoting love and compassion and justice and knowledge of truth
whether or

not in the end it leads to some kind of gain for ourselves or for
others.

We should be committed to the pursuit of goodness as an end in itself
and

not as something to be supported because of some expectation that good
will

prevail in the end.

   F.  To believe in the existence of God is to believe that good will

ultimately prevail no matter how gloomy things may seem at the moment.

Such faith can provide hope in apparently hopeless situations.

   G.  But I think we can go beyond that.  I think that we should
commit

ourselves to promoting what is good even if there is no divine
guarantee

that good will prevail.  Indeed, our need to work for good will be
even

greater if there is no guarantee that good will ultimately prevail.
After

all, if good is going to prevail in any case, what difference does it
make

whether I put my shoulder to the wheel to advance the cause of good or
not?

It is the very lack of assurance that good will prevail in the end
which

requires each of us to do whatever we can to further love and
compassion

and justice and knowledge of truth as much as we can.  That commitment
to

promote what is good rather than any beliefs about God's existence or

nature is the essence of religion.

   H.  Returning to our definition of God as "a being or entity with
power

working for good," if we use whatever power we have to work for good
we

will in fact be part of God and God will exist at least in us even if nowhere else.