Sir, What do You Believe?, or The Joys of a Skeptic Religion Professor

"Do you believe in anything?" 

The female student is a blurter, and fellow professors will know what I mean. It's not so much that she had no filter; she didn't say things that were inapprorpriate, nor did she typically interrupt, but every once in a while, a question would so overwhelm her that she had to blurt it out.

"You'll need to flesh that out a bit, Britney," I said.

"Sir, what do you believe?"

"I believe people shouldn't be dicks. I believe you should be kind. I believe you should do your job, keep your word, and try as hard as you can not to be a douche in the world."

She was unsatisfied. "No. I mean do you believe in God?" She was serious, and more curious than confrontational.

"Britney, without avoiding the question, because I'm happy to answer it in a minute, I need to tell you I don't know what that question actually means."

She looked puzzled. "It means do you believe in God?"

"Which God? The God of Abraham revealed in Jesus Christ? Allah? Shiva? The reality at the center of reality, or Tao? The Logos? No one asks if I believe in a generic being with supernatural abilities. They want to know if I believe in their god. Are you asking if I believe Jesus is God or that God exists and He is revealed as Jesus?"

Still puzzled. "I think so."

"What exactly do you want to know?"

"I want to know if you believe in God."

Sigh. "I believe it's possible that something you call god exists."

"So you do believe?"

Longer sigh. "I am open to the possibility, but I suspect you won't be happy with the stipulations I would insist upon before 'believe in god' meant anything useful to you."

Really puzzled. "What does that mean? I feel like every conversation we have just makes things more confusing."

"So our conversations should clarify things? What would you like clarified?"

"Whether you believe in god or not."

"Let's assume I say yes. What's the next question?"

Thinking. Trying to sniff out a trap. "I guess I'd ask if you were a Christian."

"Of course. Or you'd ask if I believed Jesus is God, or you'd ask if or when I was saved, or some other construct that makes the experience of god make sense and gives it an application in my life in a way that makes sense in your life."

"Does everything have to be this complicated?"

"Everything that matters."

"So you're saying that you believe there might be a god?"

Semi-impressed. "Sort of. I'm saying there might be something we can't completely explain at the center of reality that many people call god. I simply don't believe we can communicate with this 'something.'"

"You don't pray?"

Not a bad follow-up, really. "No. I don't. Ever. I don't believe that it makes a difference. All the evidence indicates that asking is as effective as not asking."

"But what about people who hear from God? Prophets and such."

"Are you willing to count Muslim and Hindu and Sikh prophets? Do they hear accurately, too? Can you find points of disagreement about incredibly important issues? If so, why do they not hear god consistently?"

Not wanting to travel down the road of pluralism. "Well, at least you believe in God."

 

 

Comments

[Leighton]

Back when I was teaching, I had one business major who really wanted to know what my religious beliefs were. I wouldn't tell him, partly because it was none of his business (it was a programming class, not philosophy or religion), and partly to make the point that he wouldn't last long in the business world if he couldn't form productive relationships with people whose beliefs he knew very little about.

[Kevin]

You know my beliefs regarding organized religion, and I think we are closer than you think. I'll define God for you. Creator of all. No beginnings, no end. Always having existed. Will always exist. God. Do you beleive in this God?

[Greg Horton]

Kevin, still insufficient. I don't need the concept of a Creator. In fact, it seems to be an answer begging for a question, and an insufficient answer at that. It's meant
to explain where the world came from, but it does the same duty as any other word applied to that scenario. It's an explanation that simply can't be known, and in most cases, it's no better than I don't know or it's always been here. To say that creation had to have emerged from something/someone is only to say that we need an explanation; it does not create the necessity for an explanation. Creator eventually has to be moved from the realm of concept to that of signifier to that of signified. I think that process is impossible based on how I understand it to function right now. This is not to say I'm not open to an explanation that will cohere with reality, but to say I haven't seen one yet.

No beginning and no end doesn't help much either. In fact, it's utterly depressing. The cosmic ennui would be unbelievable for a being like that. It also seems a case of special pleading. Why must everything have a beginning and an end except this concept? And again, once we name the concept, we're left with the process of putting characteristics to it. This is the theistic game, and it's one in which I have no interest because no one can know. For me, it's better to live with a set of creative, redemptive humanistic assumptions than to try to put flesh to a concept that seems to do nothing but divide the human race.