Does science make belief in God obsolete?

There is a fascinating discussion on http://www.templeton.org/belief/ - Does science make belief in God obsolete?

I found myself most in agreement with the article by Stuart Kaufman, of the University of Calgary. He discussed “reinventing the sacred”, which I think is what I am attempting here.

Still Small Voices

I attended a service this Sunday at First Plymouth UCC in Denver.

First, a big thanks to the church staff for all their support. It is a wonderful environment there.

The service was geared towards the high school kids in the congregation to acknowledge the graduating seniors. As such it was a bit louder and rowdier then a typical Sunday service. Particularly loud was the group of about 1 dozen drummers playing for parts of the service. If I had been 17, I would have loved it. Being somewhat more sober then I was at 17, I thought that there was simply no way to hear the small still voice within, no matter what label we apply to it – Buddha Nature or God. The fact that they passed out ear plugs was my first clue.

Tonight, I am going to my first class in Zazen – sitting Zen meditation - at the Houston Chung Tai Zen Center. I have been reading and listening to podcasts on this subject and attempting to practice on a daily basis. The contrast between the two spiritual events could not be greater. The drum music – and the mosh pit that formed at the end of the service – struck me as an exercise in loosing oneself in a group identity. Tonight will be the start of a series of exercises designed to strip away labels and identities to see what is really there.

I was reminded of these verses from the Bible (as always, to be read as metaphor when I quote them)…

The Lord said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord,
for the Lord is about to pass by."

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
1 Kings 19:11 through 13

This is a very Zen question posed to Elijah, one that I would have trouble answering now. I can not find that still small spot – by whatever label you might choose to call it – in the noise of a praise service or by loosing myself in the group before the stage. Instead, I must see what is really there, and use that as the seeds of compassion.

Am I a Christan? Q & A Part 1

I was asked by a friend whether I rejected Christianity, or rejected specific Christians after my post http://tamethemonkeymind.blogspot.com/2008/04/am-i-christian.html.

It was the feeling that Christianity has been hijacked by people who, in my opinion, are less then wise. Their bigoted, homophobic view of the gay community, the rejection of science and all other ways of being other then their own started me thinking. I recognize that there are narrow minded, bigoted zealots in every faith. I recognize that all ways of knowing can be misused. Evolution as an explanation for the origin of species is not diminished because it was misused as Social Darwinism. E=MC^2 is not any less an explanation of the unity of matter and energy simply because it gives us the knowledge to make nuclear weapons.

So the fact that there are small, ignorant or sinful people of any given faith does not, by itself, give one reason to reject all that is good in that faith. It does, however, give one pause.

However, the Bible is diminished as metaphor or allegory –as a religious truth - because it also condones practices that are manifestly sinful. Several Old Testament books contains rules for the buying and selling of slaves (e.g. Exodus 21:1-4, Deuteronomy 15:12-18). Indeed, Leviticus 25:44-46 seems to allow me to buy and sell Canadians, but not, say the French. Saint Paul and Saint Peter both direct slaves to obey their masters, even if they are cruel (1 Peter 2:18, Ephesians 6:5-8).

It is clear that our sense of what is moral, right and just must evolve as our understanding evolves. “Give me that Old Time Religion” can never work as theology. You end up, to quote Joseph Campbell, with:

Give me mighty Aphrodite!
Give me mighty Aphrodite!
She only wore a nighty,
but she’s good enough for me!

We must always think. We must always re-consider established truths. If we accept that God does not suspend the laws of physics, then we know it was impossible for, say, Joshua to stop the rotation of the sun to stop moving – more precisely to stop the rotation of the earth – so he could win a battle.

None of this means that the Bible does not serve as valid metaphor. Most faiths have what those outside those faiths would consider tall tales, used as metaphor for explaining the unexplainable or for making the infinite comprehensible to human minds.

However it is one central teaching of Christianity that I began to question and ultimately rejected – Jesus died and came back to life is an absolute, incontrovertible fact. To apply my own personal experience and the observations of countless others, inanimate matter – as in dead bodies – does not come back to life. So, to be a Christian, I must accept that God suspended the laws of nature. I find this to be impossible.
I also have noted that I increasingly find Christianity too small. A second central teaching of Christianity is that God sent his only son here, to earth, to save humans. If there are other sentient beings in the universe, as there surely are, they are either damned or have no soul. I can not accept this anthropomorphic view. Moreover some, but not all Christians believe that only those who believe in Jesus as Christ or who are born again can be saved. Aside from the logical conclusion that those who lived before Jesus are by definition damned, including Moses, Abraham, Joseph, Amos, Elijah, Joshua, etc…, we are again forced to damn anyone who does not agree with a narrow view of the world. I can not accept this.

So, I am clearly no longer a Christian.