"Right" Belief

C.S. Lewis said that he felt a need to pray and that his prayers changed him, not God. As I understand it, the 12^th century Jewish philosopher Maimonides believed that God did not actually need animal sacrifices. He believed that early Jews had gotten the idea from the Egyptians. They didn’t know any better, so they thought this was the way to show respect to a god, and God being the gentleman that he is graciously accepted the gesture…but it was unnecessary. Maimonides was influenced by Aristotle. Animal sacrifice was common in ancient Greece, too, and as I understand it, Aristotle believed that no god required sacrifices. It was just some weirdness human beings felt the need to engage in.

What if all religions, beliefs, ceremonies and rituals are like that? What if there is a god, but this god doesn’t require or expect anything from us? What if religion, and belief and everything of that nature is about our own needs and not a god’s?

Several years ago, I had an online conversation with a few people about religion and spirituality. I explained that I believed that religions were cultural expressions and that none were literally true, but that doesn’t mean they’re worthless. I also said that for some, spirituality was personal and that they felt no need to engage in an organized religion. For some, spirituality isn’t about certainty, or dogma or ideology. I went on to explain that I believe that if there is a god, no one can have absolute understanding or awareness of this god because for god to be god, god would have to transcend our reality. A god can’t be another being alongside other beings. So if there is some kind of spiritual force at work in the universe, it wouldn’t be something you could find or prove. Therefore, doubt would always accompany belief. (I got this idea from Paul Tillich.)

A woman who claimed to be either agnostic or atheist wanted to know how a person might be aware of such a remote, mysterious god. I said maybe some had experiential awareness or a feeling. Her next question took me by surprise. Since one can’t prove a feeling or an experience, she wanted to know if this caused a problem for the believer because they’re unable to prove their belief. I thought I had made it clear that belief wasn’t necessarily about foisting your belief onto others. Now I wonder if this women who insisted that she had no use for religion wasn’t influenced by the Christian idea—an idea heavily stressed by evangelicals and fundamentalists in the U.S.—that human beings are in need of saving, and that their salvation depends on having the “right” belief.

Maybe most of us have been influenced to some degree by this idea…if there is a god, then we’re required to do and believe a list of things, jump through certain hoops, or we’re in trouble. But I’m not buying it. I don’t reject the possibility of a god, but a god who needs or demands we sacrifice animals, or dance naked under a full moon, or believe in a son who died for us… Well, I think beliefs like that say more about us than any god.

I don’t care what people believe. No matter if there’s a god or not, I don’t think it makes any difference except maybe to us. I don’t discount the meaningfulness of the beliefs or experiences of others. I just wish that more showed a bit of humility when sharing their views. I find belief and ritual fascinating, but I don’t like to be told what I should believe. I don’t like to be around those who make strong assertions. Maybe because I was around people like that while growing up, and I felt belittled by the attitude. What I felt and believed didn’t seem to matter. If I didn’t have the “right” beliefs, I needed fixing according to these annoying people. In being so dismissive of my experience, I felt they were dismissing me, and they were.