Evolving Faith
December, 2009
This is my evolving view of God and faith.
When I read the Bible, I see an accumulation of sacred writings, ideas, wisdom, revelations, history, dreams, direct orders from God to inspired people who then wrote them down or told others. There are poems, songs, palms, and instructions.
Now, I know from the historical record that the various parts of the Bible were committed to paper or parchment or clay or stone over the course of perhaps 2000 years. Some parts are repeated. Some repeated parts don’t agree – fully. Some parts were deleted from some versions. Some parts contradict other parts and some parts, like astronomy, are just plain wrong.
Many people have lost their lives because others took their views as heresies. Many who read the Bible pick and choose. They emphasize one theme or just one passage or just one law. Mormons study ancestors and canonize latter-day saints. Others take special note of the seventh day; these include the Adventists, the Jews and even some Baptists. Some rely on ordained clergy to interpret and others do it themselves. Some feminists would make God female.
Opinions abound. My opinion is that God is a man-made concept. God is not male or female; God is not even tangible. I find no credible evidence that God existed before mankind recorded anything. People long ago saw or heard or felt things that they could not explain. Some people seemed to have explanations so they were appointed or elected or hired to handle these mysteries. That I think is how shamans and priests got into our culture. These people would explain forces or they would modify them to protect us.
As time went on Copernicus and Galileo explained some of these fearful things and Pasteur cured some diseases. As knowledge evolved and accumulated many of our mysteries evaporated. We can now anticipate an eclipse and we can now cure many diseases.
The one concept we have of God that grew and remains through all this is simply that God is Love. This altruism is why I subscribe to a belief in God without miracles. Further I believe that love for our fellow human beings is completely indifferent to questions about creation. Love does not depend on whether we are created in God’s image or God is created in our image.
I see the Bible as a valuable record of our evolution in thinking from a strict severe rule maker God into one me might emulate, as we love one another.
Of course this view does nothing for people who are seeking redemption, salvation, absolution, resurrection or eternal life. Put another way, I see some species of life changing and others not changing and still others becoming extinct – constantly. So, also, I see our concepts and the forces that drive us all subject to change. Today, most people don’t subscribe to the old idea of an eye for an eye or that there are certain things we should or should not do with our slaves. Few of us care about whether fish have scales even though there is a Biblical injunction about that. Nor do we care about cuts of beef that are to the rear of the diaphragm. There is an injunction about that, too. Jesus told us that now we have a new covenant. Religion evolved.
So, religious leaders tell us we can ignore those old rules but they resist saying from the pulpit that our religion has evolved but it has and that’s a fact.
Today, what is paramount to me in our Christian religion is that God is Love. Any change is up to us.
M F Roberts