The Naturalness of Belief in God

Believing in God – A function of our nature: A few days ago, I posited that worshipping God is a function our nature…rather like breathing. So it naturally caught my attention, even though it was given very little space, when I read in the morning paper that a group of scholars in Oxford, are undertaking a three-year study of the role of religious belief in human lives.
According to this item, “Oxford University researchers will spend nearly $4 million to study why mankind embraces God.” A bunch of academics, including anthropologists, theologians, philosophers, etc. will attempt in three years to find out “whether belief in a divine being is a basic part of mankind’s makeup.”
Four million dollars sounds like a lot of money, but I’d hazard to guess that there are many areas of study with that much if not more money dedicated to them. Still, in this age so often called “Godless,” it is interesting to see Oxford engaging in this field of study. It is gratifying to people like myself who have never doubted God’s existence…even though I have oftentimes conducted myself in ways I’m pretty certain are in defiance of His Will.
Of course, their goal here is not to prove the existence of God, just to study why human beings overwhelmingly believe so…to determine if it is it innate for them to believe so. The acting director of the center says, “anthropological and philosophical research suggest that faith in God is a universal human impulse found in most cultures around the world, even though it has been waning in Britain and western Europe….One implication that comes from this is that religion is the default position, and atheism is perhaps more in need of explanation.” (Albq. Journal, 2-21-08).
I would put that last phrase differently. I would say, atheism is perhaps more in need of defense. I have always said that belief in God’s existence is a whole lot more plausible than believing in His non-existence. For atheism is a faith, just as is religion. The Atheist believes quite strongly that there is no God. The only intellectually safe place for those opposed to religion, is agnosticism. If one spends too much time appraising the antics of so many religious leaders, agnosticism could be seen as the answer: I don’t know! Bottom line, neither belief nor non-belief is scientifically provable. As one who not only believes in God, but even dares to love Him, I submit that belief is intellectually more tenable than is un-belief.
As I noted above, I almost never engage in anything remotely like arguing about religion, but I should confess that I have on infrequent occasions, taken some delight in telling atheists that they are believers, like myself…the only difference being that they believe, with no proof whatsoever, that God does not exist, while I, also without scientific proof, believe He does. And then, if it seems the reaction will not turn violent, I will simply add that, after stripping away the layers and layers of nonsense with which humanity has painted it over, circumstantial evidence appears to favor belief in God’s existence.
The intellectual road travelled by theologians, is dangerous and the conclusions that many of them reach does violence to the intellects of those they would lead. Religions all stand guilty of this. Their leaders delight in shaking their heads and pronouncing judgment. My mind flashes back to the years when I lived in NYC. On weekends I often took the subway down to one or another of the beaches…Coney Island, Brighton Beach, and Jones beach. They all had one thing in common: Signs with a huge “NO” on the left side and all the things bathers were not allowed to do while plalying at the beach. Churches often come across that way. Priests and ministers spend a goodly portion of their time tasking their congregations with a long list of the things they cannot do.
These leaders of Christianity would do well just before mounting their pulpits to take time to read two little pieces of scripture; one comes from Luke (11-46) and Matthew (11-29). Luke tell us that Jesus, talking to a gaggle of Pharisees, said: “…you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry…” Mark, similarly, quotes Jesus saying: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and burden is light.”
Clearly, one of the major purposes of religion is to lay down a spiritual base for most of the activities governing the behavior of civilized people…helping governments maintaining good order in society. But that is not the only business of religion, nor even the most important. What religion is mainly supposed to do is help us better to understand God, seeing Him in one another and all things material. It is to lift us up from the mundane and see more clearly the Glory that is God/Creator.