We have evolved. We have a brain, we can think and ponder, maybe even wonder. We can ask the existential “Why?”, which seems to be the hardest question to answer. Many are waiting for something more than “Just because.”
Beneath and behind “Why?” may lurk a search, a yearning, for divinity, for the all-knowing supreme being in charge of everything, someone who can shed light, offer clarification, set us on a path to enlightenment and an assurance that we’re not alone and things are going to work out.
Rickie Gervais, Juval Harari, many actors in Hollywood, the late George Carlin and Christopher Hitchens all share skepticism and even vehement denial that God exists. And in many pronouncements, one is liable to hear the familiar refrain about looking around at all the bad things that happen and blaming God for not being more involved.
In my journey of faith, or whatever this has been, I am slowly accepting the idea that maybe there is no God. It really does seem like more than coincidence that the development of most prominent religions happened back when we didn’t know an awful lot about how things worked.
The thing is, there will always be the matter of an expanding universe of mind-numbing mystery and beauty and proportion. And that lingering question—Why? And let’s not be too quick to dismiss the writings of Paul and others who still speak eloquently and insightfully to the human condition, human nature.
The criticism coming from atheists and agnostics often seems to land on a God who demands too much and isn’t around when you need him/her. A God who lets bad things happen with breathtaking regularity. I’m not sure this is the takeaway faithful scholars of the Word would want us to deduce from our reading and observations.
I resonate with certain peoples’ critiques of scripture, Old Testament in particular, with its archaic language and old ideas and pre-history and stories like God’s test of Abraham involving having to kill Isaac. Stories that are just that– good stories– and nothing more.
For me, it’s often the timetable. Time itself. It seems like we’ve waited way past long enough for redemption, for rescue, for resolution and a vanquishing of the steady parade of evil and incompetent leaders who seem to enjoy creating hell on earth.
This long cat and mouse game of needing to believe and having faith and trusting that there’s some sort of plan? There is a certain absurdity to it. And what to make of the plethora of belief systems and gods, many of whom are worshiped with great zeal and discipline?
We just keep waiting and hoping, perhaps unwilling to entertain the possibility that we really are on our own- a prospect that I still cannot bring myself to embrace.
And that question remains unanswered.
Why?
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