What's the Big Idea?

Frederick Nietzsche famously claimed, "God is dead." There is a joke among theologians that God has since made the same claim about Nietzsche, implying of course that God has had the last laugh, and the joke is on Frederick.

Or is it? Was Nietzsche at least partly correct? Is God dead? Nietzsche did not believe in God at all, and his proclamation was an expression of his own atheism. I don't believe Nietzsche was correct, but I have heard the question asked, Did God ever live, specifically the theistic God of history? This God has been described with certain attributes: separate and apart from humanity; a Being; an omniscient judge who selectively intervenes into the affairs of human beings. But is this in fact who or what God is and does?

I do not have the answers to these questions, but see tremendous significance in the re-examination of how human beings understand and strive to know God. Throughout history our religious identities have been used to separate us from each other, have been grounds for the imprisonment, torture, and murder of anyone with different beliefs. Christian violence against non-Christians is a blot on history. Christian violence against fellow Christians is no less horrific. The current violence in Iraq between Sunni and Shiite Muslims is another example of the complete perversion of the purpose of acknowledging and worshipping God in the first place. History is replete with blood-drenched tales of how one conception of God has been used to justify unspeakable cruelty and inhumanity against anyone with a different conception of God.

So. The Buddha taught his followers to abandon concepts and notions. Have we draped God with inadequate human concepts and notions that do little to help us to actually understand and know God? Are these instead the source of conflict and misunderstanding among peoples and cultures?

I think that these questions and themes are important and worth exploring. I don't have the answers, but feel that the questions are compelling enough that it is a worthwhile investment of time to pursue the answers. If we remove the theistic trappings from our understanding of God, what do we have left? Is the emerging understanding of God one that can be shared in common across faiths and cultures? I think it is worth finding out. Shalom.

- Doug L.

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE

Book Review: Jesus for the Non-Religious, by John Shelby Spong (Spirituality and Practice.com)

Theism.info