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OVERVIEW:
How important is God in your life?
When I asked my neighbor this question, his prompt reply was, ěWhich God?
God is a generic word, isnít it? And since it means the supreme being,
there can be only one supreme being. God. Right?î Yes
of course, I replied. Let me rephrase the question. Which one
and only God do you believe in?
Again, he replied promptly. ěJesus
is Lord! Son of God the Father and His Holy Spirit.î
When I asked another neighbor the same question, he recited the Shama:
ěHear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is One.î And, as expected,
a Muslim at school told me, ěThere is no God but Allah and Mohammed his
prophet.î There I go again. Ask somebody a question and you
get pronouncements, or sometimes, if you are lucky, another question.
Are these but different names
for the same God? In short, are the various religions but different
paths to the same God who wears different masks? There are as many
who want to believe that as there are those who vehemently affirm that
their god is the only god (Martin Buber) and that all others are false.
And rightly so. How can there be more than one true God? And
that is the issue that may never be resolved because, in the end, it is
a matter of belief.
A related question inevitably
arises: Why is it that some people are so passionate, indeed consumed,
about their search for God while others are indifferent, apathetic, uninterested,
and in a word, unaware of any need to seek God? Has the secularism
of todayís world finally smothered the innate longing for transcendence?
Did he say ěinnateî? Why would anyone think that God is an
ěinnate needî?
Finally, why do people like Freud
regard God as a delusion, others as an illusion, or
nonexistent? This unit
focuses on these big questions. |
