What a Load of ... Mysticism.

Well another year in Rome, after a really long summer break. It was great to be back home staying with my family and catching up with friends – the summer flew by. I knew though that when I went home I would be asked about seminary, how I was getting on, whether I was still enjoying it and would I be going back etc. Now and again over the summer I would get into a deep and meaningful conversation about faith and belief and various peoples takes on it.

One such conversation took place in York, when I had just finished my parish placement and arrived at a friend’s house to celebrate a birthday. I was quite shocked because it happened, more or less; as soon as I walked through the door and was lugging my suitcase up the stairs (also my friend was scrubbing her bathroom toilet at the time whilst discussing theology so it was a little surreal to say the least). The one thing in the conversation which stands out was that we got onto the topic of belief in Jesus as the Son of God and in a nutshell my friend said that many Christians she new thought you had to believe in Jesus to go to heaven and receive eternal life. Which I am not sure I agree with because if in all conscience you cannot bring yourself to believe this how can God punish you? After all you can’t force yourself to believe and basically it comes down to faith. What is more this would make a pretty mean God. Imagine the scenario, you had led an exemplary life (more so than many Christians) worked for the good of others your whole existence, never put yourself first and you arrive at the pearly gates only to be told that you did not believe in me so sorry but you are going to have to go to hell.

From this conversation and other similar ones it has occurred to me that so much of religion – as we have it in the great religions of the world – is routed in mysticism and myth. You must believe in this miracle or that myth if you want to gain the fullness of truth and achieve eternal salvation. Lets face it many of these defy the laws of nature and are not very rational at all.

In saying this I am not trying to belittle the beliefs that billions of people across the world hold to be true. It is obvious that they bring great comfort and meaning to their lives, that was made strikingly clear from my parish placement. To take the Richard Dawkins line and say that people would be better off if they didn’t believe in God and adhere to a religion is ridiculous and wrong for those countless billions of genuinely nice individuals who hold a belief. Surely even militant atheists would have to acknowledge that the vast majority of religious people are nice. John Humphrys in his book, “In God we Doubt”, makes this point beautifully by commenting that the French atheist philosopher, Michel Onfray, said of one Muslim he was travelling to the Mauritanian desert with:

“A man of near saintly ways – considerate, tactful, willing to share, ever mindful of others, gentle and calm, at peace with himself, with others and with the world…”

I guess what I am trying to say is does it really matter what you believe or don’t as long as it works for you and makes you a better person? If God is everything that all of theology and every one of the great religions claim s/he/it is. All powerful, all knowing, infinitely good, loving and without error. ‘That than which nothing greater can be thought’, to coin a phrase from St Anselm. Basically the kind of person you would want to take home to meet your parents. Then how can that same God punish you for not adhering to or being able to accept the correct set of beliefs because if that was the case s/he/it would not be infinitely good and I have just thought of something greater.