Redefining God for the Twenty-First Century

As my closest friend is completing his rabbinical studies and having just returned home from spending a year in Israel I am finding myself thinking a bit about God again.

He is at a point developing a closer relationship and understanding with God and I am having some serious doubts of Gods existence. Over a brunch yesterday the two of us spoke on the subject of religion and I addressed my feelings with him.

I am currently struggling with two religious issues. First is the concept of Group Think and how everyone during services appears to me as a flock of sheep following the herd.

For the past couple of years while attending services I have caught myself looking around a standing congregation who are lively singing and reading prayers from the bible. I’ve become a bit jaded at the idea of everyone with their books in hand saying things like “Amen” in unison.

I’ve been attending services my whole life and still to this day I find most of the prayer to be ambiguous. Does it make sense for me to be saying things like “Amen” which has the meaning of “so be it” if I do not really understand what it is I am reading? Additionally, if I find the concepts of the bible so unclear and feel uncomfortable with the blind agreement then how is it that everyone around me can say Amen with such certainty?

Thinking about stuff like this during a service makes me aware of whom I’m standing with and starts to freak me out a bit.

The second issue I am having with religion is the concept of belief. For me to believe in God I would have to admit to myself that there is an existence of God.

For the sake of going along with the belief by getting over the elementary fact that I have never actually seen God and to just accept the biblical studious explanation which is that there were a congregation of people with Moses on the mountain, who had all claimed to witnessed God with their very own eyes.

If I was to admit that there is a God then I must question his force. Is God malevolent? Why appear to a small group of people over 5,000 years ago and not show yourself to a modern world of people begging your call?

If God existed, why play such a trick on the human species? Think of all the possible things a modern day appearance would solve! The diversifications of religions in this world are not capable of coexisting with each other and since the dawn of time people have raged massive war’s killing millions of innocent people all in the name of God.

I figure, if God made an appearance once why not do it again? Obviously I don’t think this would ever happen as I have doubts God ever made that very first appearance.

Another wise friend of mine once said perhaps the reason why things are the way they are in this world is because the human race is not ready to accept god for who he really is. It is up to the human race to solve the problems of mixed religions on their own and when that happens they will see God.

I have expressed all these ideas with my rabbinical friend and I was delighted to hear that after 5 years of dedicated religious studying he continues to struggle with the same thoughts as me and that this is not something he could simply address in a short period of time.

I have setup plans to meet with my friend and to go over what we have spoke of. The reason for writing these ideas here is I wonder how others who are not religious students will address my concerns.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 21st, 2006 at 12:05 pm and is filed under I Just Don't Know. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.