Why We Need God
It’s hard to imagine that I would ever write an essay with that title. I remember clearly when I was a 10th grade Biology teacher and, during a discussion on Natural Selection, one student asked, “what about Creationism?” I told her that was an idea I would be happy to discuss in a religion, philosophy, or even art history class, but not in a science classroom.
But after the 10 days of reflection between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I think I would amend my answer. Creationism is certainly not a science, and has no place being discussed in a Biology class, other than to say, some people ignore an enormous body of evidence in order to blindly follow some person’s doctrine.
In fact, reading the Torah, or the Old Testament, for Christians, gives a tremendous reinforcement to the theory of Natural Selection. Over and over again, within each passage, we are told how to behave. The constant repetition of the lists of both the things we do wrong and the things we do right is a reminder that human nature tends toward competition, underhandedness, and all of the traits that make us more successful as individuals. To believe in God as it is written in all of these scriptures is to believe in transcending that nature and ALWAYS doing what’s right, morally, spiritually. And it isn’t so subject to interpretation. The rules are specific. Don’t speak deceitfully (including scoffing, slander, talebearing, and swearing falsely) or behave in any self-centered manner. Similarly, the things you should do are also laid out: feed the hungry, do not cast out the poor from your house, cover the naked, let the oppressed go free, loose the bands of wickedness. In the end, this behaviour is what makes us successful as a species and perhaps can even get a skeptic such as myself to believe.
We are the only group of animals who can communicate an awareness that there is something larger than ourselves out there. Our evolution has reached a state at which we CAN think of the whole of the species. My Chihuahua doesn’t think beyond her own dogness even though there are other dogs in the house. This doesn’t mean we should have a group mentality. It merely means that each of us should behave in the best way possible, and that will serve the needs of the group. It is what is written – it is what it means to REALLY believe in God.
There is a Torah portion (Isaiah 58) that talks about people praying, fasting publicly and still being jerks, and how that isn’t what God is looking for. If you believe in what God REALLY stands for, you aren’t George W., a member of the Free Republic, Cherie Sweeney, or any of an enormous number of other self-proclaimed religious zealots who either claim to take the bible literally (mmmn, burnt offering) or follow its precepts.
So, Virginia, there may or may not be a God, but there is Natural Selection AND something that makes us recognize that we do better together than alone. It’s what sets us apart as humans; forsaking it will be the demise of our species.
But after the 10 days of reflection between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I think I would amend my answer. Creationism is certainly not a science, and has no place being discussed in a Biology class, other than to say, some people ignore an enormous body of evidence in order to blindly follow some person’s doctrine.
In fact, reading the Torah, or the Old Testament, for Christians, gives a tremendous reinforcement to the theory of Natural Selection. Over and over again, within each passage, we are told how to behave. The constant repetition of the lists of both the things we do wrong and the things we do right is a reminder that human nature tends toward competition, underhandedness, and all of the traits that make us more successful as individuals. To believe in God as it is written in all of these scriptures is to believe in transcending that nature and ALWAYS doing what’s right, morally, spiritually. And it isn’t so subject to interpretation. The rules are specific. Don’t speak deceitfully (including scoffing, slander, talebearing, and swearing falsely) or behave in any self-centered manner. Similarly, the things you should do are also laid out: feed the hungry, do not cast out the poor from your house, cover the naked, let the oppressed go free, loose the bands of wickedness. In the end, this behaviour is what makes us successful as a species and perhaps can even get a skeptic such as myself to believe.
We are the only group of animals who can communicate an awareness that there is something larger than ourselves out there. Our evolution has reached a state at which we CAN think of the whole of the species. My Chihuahua doesn’t think beyond her own dogness even though there are other dogs in the house. This doesn’t mean we should have a group mentality. It merely means that each of us should behave in the best way possible, and that will serve the needs of the group. It is what is written – it is what it means to REALLY believe in God.
There is a Torah portion (Isaiah 58) that talks about people praying, fasting publicly and still being jerks, and how that isn’t what God is looking for. If you believe in what God REALLY stands for, you aren’t George W., a member of the Free Republic, Cherie Sweeney, or any of an enormous number of other self-proclaimed religious zealots who either claim to take the bible literally (mmmn, burnt offering) or follow its precepts.
So, Virginia, there may or may not be a God, but there is Natural Selection AND something that makes us recognize that we do better together than alone. It’s what sets us apart as humans; forsaking it will be the demise of our species.
posted by kingoftherabbits at
1:42 PM
1 Comments:
Very original point of view. Food for thought.
Also, as the Quaker in the house, I've always been a big fan of the item in the New Testament that forbids Jesus' followers from praying publicly. He tells 'em to go into an inner room, close the door, and then pray. He's strongly against doing it for the purpose of grandstanding; you're supposed to live according the principles, but you don't make a deal of it. But contemporary Christian zealots seem to have been absent the day they studied Matthew.
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