What do you believe about God? Is there a God? Are there many gods? Is there no such thing as God? If there is a God, what is he, she (or are they) like?
Wow, those are big questions, aren't they? And they are questions people have been asking throughout all of recorded history.
While it is tempting to think that the most important questions that we can ask are questions about ourselves (Why am I here? What are my dreams?), I wonder if we are a bit too self-focused at times.
Perhaps we should ask questions about God as well. After all, what you or I believe about God (or the absence or non-existence of God) shapes our worldview and actions more profoundly than just about any other belief that we may have.
There is a well-known (and perhaps fictional) story of the university professor who, on the first day of class, placed a glass jar on his desk and filled it with large rocks.
He then asked his students if the jar was full. "Yes it is," came the answer from the room full of freshmen.
"No it is not," replied the professor, and he added smaller rocks into the jar and they filled in the spaces between the large rocks.
"Is it full now?" asked the professor.
Again, the answer was "yes" but not with as much conviction as before. "It is not full," said the professor, and he added sand to the jar, which filled in the remaining spaces.
"Now it is full," he said.
The point of the story, of course, is that if a jar is filled with small rocks first, there will not be any room left for big rocks. If we start with the large rocks, however, there will then be room for medium and small sized rocks as well.
It is the same with our beliefs - if we fill up our minds with a bunch of small thoughts, we won't have any room left for the big ideas and questions of life.
We need to start with the big ones first. And the question of God is a big one.
We will explore some specific religious beliefs about God next week, but let me first identify three broad categories that our beliefs can fall into.
Mono-theism - this category contains religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
A monotheistic worldview affirms the existence of one (and only one) God, and subsequent systematic beliefs stem from this assertion.
Poly-theism - religions in this group are Hinduism, Wicca, Shinto, and others.
There can sometimes be a range of theistic beliefs within these particular religions, but in general, they affirm the existence of more than one god and/or divine entity.
Non-theism - people who fit in this category often identify themselves as atheists or humanists, and their core conviction is that a supernatural being (or beings) does not exist.
In which category would you place yourself? How confident are you of your beliefs?
We have only scratched the surface this week, and the next article will continue our discussion about God by looking at the theistic beliefs of the three largest religions in Canada.
Questions or Comments? Each week, this column will explore issues and questions about religion and spirituality in Prince George and around the world. Please email your questions and comments about this article, or ideas and questions for future articles to pgspirituality@wessner.ca.
Mark Wessner, PhD
Lead Pastor at Westwood Church
Continuing Studies Instructor at UNBC
