Being that kind of person would certainly make things a lot easier, as all one would have to do is follow the rules.
But for those of us who are not that kind of person and who want to retain the free will to know God on our own terms, things can get a bit more challenging. In part, that’s due to the feeling we can sometimes get of being lost in the sea of questions that our search for religious and spiritual understanding can bring.
Here, for instance, are some of the questions I’ve gotten lost in. I’m guessing that a lot of them might sound familiar.
Questions Upon Questions
- Is there a God?
- If the answer is yes, then should God be referred to as he, she, it, the void, the almighty, the eternal force, or something altogether different?
- What does God look like, or is God simply a part of everything, as some scriptures suggest, and hence, does God exist simply as a form of energy?
- Is there only one God, or is God comprised of multiple Gods?
- Does God recognize and love all people, regardless of their religion—Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, or Christian? Or does God favor one belief over another?
- How is spirituality the same or different from religion? Can a person be a spiritual person and reject religion?
- Did God create us, or did we create God because we need something we can grasp onto amidst the otherwise unfathomable cosmos that whirls around us?
- Related to this, does religion provide us with the “truth” of who we are, why we’re here, and who God is? Or, does religion serve only to give us the allusion of knowing, the comfort of community, and the promise of eternal life in a hoped-for afterworld?
- How might our five primary senses prevent us from seeing the full scope of reality? And why do some people experience “supernatural” encounters with the presumed spirit world while others can’t?
- How might science shed light on the question of God? In particular, does modern-day quantum physics allow us to glean better insights than previously into his, her, or its existence or nature?
- How do culture and upbringing affect our belief systems and ability to appreciate alternative points of view? Similarly, how might our psychological predispositions cause us to gravitate toward one expression of belief over another?
- What can history tell us about religion, and how did religions morph into new belief systems as cultures merged due to exploration, commerce, and war?
- Why do humans go to war in the name of God?
- Did Karl Marx have it right when he said, “Religion is the opiate of the people?”—that it acts merely to dull the pain of exploitation and “gives the working class hope through the promise of an afterlife.”
- Given our growing understanding of reality vis-à-vis quantum physics and our expanding knowledge of our universe, will we still cling to religion for answers about life and death 100 years from now? Or, will we live in an era where religion is a relic of the past, as His Holiness The Dalai Lama describes in his book Beyond Religion?
Answers Depend on Who You Ask
The answers are out there, but you have to look pretty deep to find them. And as you look, it’s important not to get washed away by the choppy seas of self-doubt and confusion that will likely be swirling all about.
Many, many, many people have been pondering these and other head-spinning questions throughout the eons—philosophers, scientists, historians, archeologists, anthropologists, world leaders, religious leaders, mystics, sages, and a host of others.
As a general rule, they each look at the question of God and related matters through their own particular lens. Their lenses may or may not be the right ones for you.
It’s like going to a doctor. If you go to a heart doctor because you have difficulty breathing, you’ll no doubt end up having multiple scans and tests that look for heart problems, even though the root cause of your breathing problems may be allergies.
Likewise, suppose you want to learn about spirituality and go to someone who teaches meditation. In that case, you’ll probably learn how to meditate in accordance with the particular style of meditation your teacher likes to teach.
Similarly, if you want to know who Jesus is and you go to a Catholic priest, he will likely paint a picture of the biblical Jesus in accordance with the views the church wants you to adopt. That priest would likely disregard any knowledge of Jesus stemming from historical accounts other than those aligned with the Church’s teachings and would indeed never suggest that Jesus might be the same type of avatar as the Buddha or Allah.
That said, there’s nothing wrong with specialists, whether in our day-to-day or spiritual world. We certainly need them.
But after grappling with the question of how and where to find answers related to religion and spirituality, I’ve concluded that no one point of view can ever do justice to the types of questions we want answered.
Yes, we need to look into the details, and specialists can help us. Still, at the same time, if we want to arrive at a holistic perspective, we need to broaden our searches and try to see the interconnected nature of things across multiple seemingly disparate views.
It’s not unlike seeing the benefit in both scientific approaches to healthcare, combined with more naturopathic treatments, in order to arrive at a more holistic routine for caring about our physical needs.
