And so I think I am just about done with preamble. This might be the point to note that, while I am happy to (for example) exploit the literature of Zen Buddhism or Taoism in the service of some particular narrative goal, I do not practice these systems of belief, nor do I claim any particular insight into them.
That being said, here are a few more stories.
I.
Many years ago, when I was in college, I took a walk with a young woman of my acquaintance, whom I met through a Lutheran students association I served a leadership position with during my Senior year. Although I’m not sure how much relevance it has, I was taken with her, though I was in a serious relationship then and so this wasn’t an issue at the time of this story. Much later I would write her a letter that would make me feel foolish, but only a little. We are still friends.
I don’t remember exactly how she put it, but she asked me, essentially, if I really believed in this bible stuff. Again, I don’t recall the specifics too well, but I reckon we are talking, you know, virgin birth, walking on the water, raised from the dead. I said something to the effect that I didn’t know whether that was really important. She said she thought that was a cop out.
I don’t think the answer I gave was, actually, a cop out. I just didn’t know how to explain what were at the time still nebulous directions my practice of faith was leading me to. I’m not sure I do today. But I mean to find out.
II.
One of my friends is an atheist - a lot of my friends are atheists, actually, but this particular one occasionally tosses a pointed question on the topic of my faith my way. He asked me one day what I really thought about the Bible, and I told him that I believed the Bible was a collection of stories. To which he responded, “so, you see it as something like Grimm’s Fairy Tales.” I answered “inasmuch as Grimm’s Fairy Tales is a collection of stories.”
I see my first answer as fair and accurate, as far as it goes, which is not very far. My second response, it has to be said, was a bit of a cop out.
III.
As my son Jonah’s inputs become more diverse he has begun to spring questions that I’m not expecting, or at least, not yet. A few mornings ago he asked me whether superheroes were real. I suppose I could have given him a “yes Virginia” sort of answer but I just gave him a flat no. There are no superheroes, just people.
Later the same day he asked me whether God was a real person, to which I gave him a much more complicated answer - complicated beyond his scope, I suspect. But I tried, very hard, for it not to be a cop out. I could have given a simple yes on that one, I suppose, and it would have been, from my perspective, an honest answer, but also somewhat misleading of my beliefs, and equivocating like that is not really how I’m operating with him. Or trying, anyway. But he gave me that look which suggested he suspected I was handing him some grown-up runaround B.S. I find myself wondering how long it will be before this sort of upbringing gets him into trouble in Sunday School, which is doubtless where the seed of the question of God’s real personhood was planted.
In the course of my discussion I touched on God as the origin of all created things.
Jonah said “I don’t really think God made everything.” I was struck by how decisively he stated this so I asked him to elaborate. “Well,” he replied, “I think that buildings were made by workmen!”
Hmm.
I’ll lay this out straight: to some people, Jonah’s two questions are essentially the same. They aren’t to me, which is why I gave him different answers. I believe in God, and not in the sense that God is math, or trees. But would I describe God as a “real person”? That’s a good question, a real poser. Answering that one is going to be complicated.
originally posted at spiritofsalt.com Jan 26, 2009 at 1:27 AM
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