Everyone Has a God

*this musing was adapted from The Last Addiction by Sharon Hersh

“Whatever we are ultimately concerned with is a god for us.” – Paul Tillich

Whether we claim to believe in a god or not, we all have a god (or idol) that we worship and are addicted to – namely, a person, place, substance, activity, or ideology that becomes central to our mind, body, soul, and spirit.

Addiction is from the Latin word addictus, which means “to surrender to the gods”.

We all have a person, place, substance, activity, or ideology that we surrender ourselves to for the sake of finding peace and satisfaction.

It could be baseball. It could be shopping. It could be a parent. It could be a son or daughter. It could be work. It could be school. It could be a fraternity or sorority. It could be Allah. It could be a guy or a girl. It could be alcohol. It could be going green. It could be anything that we think about, talk about, and give praise to the most.

“Addiction is… worship. It is giving my heart and soul over to something that I believe will ease my pain…” – Sharon Hersh

As Christians, we might be tempted to worship something more than God Himself, which is idolatry. And even though an atheist might claim not to be religious (see last blog post), he does in fact have a religion because everyone worships something.

Here is the big truth about being addicted to anything other than God: “Addiction makes everything better until it makes everything worse.”

A man who is addicted to his work and makes it his god may be a good thing at first (i.e. job will bring in good money, favor from co-workers, recognition, etc.). But, when his family starts falling apart, everything gets worse.

We can apply this scenario to any of our idols. And the result is always the same: everything gets better until everything gets worse.

The only addiction that will not lead to emptiness, loneliness, and despair is the God of the bible.

“In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” – Psalm 16:11

Once we are addicted to the God of the bible, we can go on enjoying everything that He’s given us. We can worship Him who has given us all things instead of worshiping the things themselves.

Everyone Has a Religion

Everyone in the universe has a religion – whether they are a Christian, Muslim, or Atheist.

Religion is simply defined as “a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe.”

Even people who don’t call themselves religious have an opinion on why we are here and how we should live our lives. What is the key implication here? Exclusivity.

Non-religious people usually attack religious people because religious people claim to know why we are here and how we should live our lives. Religion appears to be arrogant and therefore the non-religious preach tolerance of all views.

They rebel against the religious for “evangelizing” the world with their exclusive views on the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe.

However, as you look at the life of a non-religious person, you’ll see that they are religious by the way they live their lives.

Every time someone says, “You should do this…” or “You can’t do that…” to anyone (child, neighbor, family member, etc.) - they are evangelizing their beliefs about the how the universe is wired. They are trying to impose a belief system on someone else. Therefore, every action that anyone takes is a religious one.

So the ultimate question is not “Should I be religious?” BUT “Which religion (belief system) should I put my trust in?”

If there really is an ultimate reality, a universal truth by which we should live – then it REALLY will be the best way to live – compared to all the other imitations out there.

All of us have a religion – full of beliefs that we think are superior to others. Therefore, pastor Tim Keller asks in his book The Reason for God, “Which [religion in the world today] will lead their believers to be the most loving and receptive to those with whom they differ?”

The answer is [authentic] Christianity. Jesus ushered in a movement that was defined by love – a love without conditions. Jesus loved his enemies and even died for them. Can you think of a better belief system than that?

Christianity is EXCLUSIVE (there is only one truth, one belief system by which we must live) but is also INCLUSIVE (Jesus will accept anyone at any time regardless of what they have done – if they put their trust in Him and His work on the cross for them).

Once again, can you think of any other belief system better than that?

Atheist Reflections on Christianity

Here are some interesting thoughts and reflections from an atheist, Hemant Mehta, exploring Christianity. After visiting multiple churches across the US, he wrote a book called I Sold My Soul on eBay.

I think that we can learn a lot from this "outsider" perspective.

“Earlier I mentioned that Pastor James at Harvest Bible Chapel did something similar, zipping through large number of Bible verses. However, Rob’s [Rob Bell] 'look at how interesting this is' tone resonated with me much more than Pastor James’s 'it’s in the bible; trust me' tone. At Mars Hill we took the time to read these verses together and understand how the theme applied.”

“To convince me I am mistaken in not believing in God, a church would need to appeal to my sense of reason and my insistence on empirical evidence. Every church I went to took so much for granted – without offering reasons for their assertions. It was as if the speakers assumed everyone in the audience was already on board with their line of thinking, so they didn’t bother to back up their statements.”

“Do Christians feel that since belief in God requires faith, they don’t need to try to make Christianity more welcoming for everyone, especially atheists and agnostics? Does the faith requirement somehow give Christians a free pass to be intolerant, or arrogant, or disinterested in the nonreligious people around them?”

“If you want to get through to nonreligious people, you need to first understand where they are coming from.”

“If any church were to convert me, I felt it would be a place such as Willow Creek. It wasn’t a fire-and-brimstone service. It wasn’t a worship-God-out-of-fear-of-hell service. It was a place where I could think about the message after I left.”

“I know that many religious rituals are highly meaningful. But I personally have a problem with rituals for one simple reason: I don’t believe everyone present knows why they are performing a certain action… Without knowing why certain actions are performed, the actions are meaningless."

“The church should be more than a religious club that meets for a couple of hours once a week. I suggested already that there should be more volunteering during the course of the week, but there should also be postsermon programming. It would help alleviate two problems: lack of intimacy and a lack of opportunity to ask questions about the points that are raised in the sermon. At so many of the churches I visited, as soon as the final amen was heard, the majority of people were out the door… I picture a gathering where people can stay around for food and conversation and where they could ask the pastors questions about the sermon.”

“When we atheists see how a church is making a positive difference locally and globally by meeting crucial physical needs of people, it’s hard to argue that churches are not a valuable part of society...”

“When churches launch charitable and humanitarian efforts, I have noticed one problem. Many of the efforts seem to be focused on helping those who are Christians or those who seem likely to convert.”

“I enjoyed the service at Willow Creek Community Church, and they have beautiful buildings and a scenic lake on their campus… But at the same time, I felt the same thrill at Mars Hill Bible Church in Michigan, whose space is essentially a giant, empty box. A church’s high energy level is not produced by meeting in a beautiful building. The positive feeling I picked up came from other churchgoers. It stands out when you are around people who look forward to coming to church, people who are glad to see one another. That vitality brushed off on me.”

“I’m disappointed that the [experts and pastors] represent only the Christian viewpoint. So here’s a suggestion for something churches should start doing – which I observed at only one of the churches I visited: why not sponsor a debate, or at least a discussion, with opposing viewpoints equally represented? Why is such a dialogue important? Because it shows outsiders that Christians are confident in their beliefs…”

“Generally I enjoy the music I hear at churches. However, I’m convinced that a lot of Christians don’t care about it. How did I reach that conclusion? Because I saw plenty of people walking in late to the service. I have the impression that churches begin their church services with music to serve as a sort of buffer so that even if churchgoers arrive late, they won’t miss the “important” part (that is, the sermon)."

“One would think that the adults would be role models, listening to the pastor, maybe even taking notes. Instead, what I saw especially in the smaller churches were adults who were obviously bored. They were looking through the program, looking around the room, even looking at their watches. Part of the blame rests on the pastors of these churches (they were among the less-interesting speakers). Why am I calling attention to this? For one reason: if you don’t like church, then don’t go to church. It will just make your kids resent getting out of bed on Sunday.”

“There is religious elitism at work when Christians prefer to do business with other Christians. Some of the churches I visited make Christian business directories available to their members. The implication to me is that non-Christians are not good enough to do business with… The existence of Christian business directories tells me that Christians prefer to associate with other Christians.”

“Many churches boasted about their rate of planting new churches. However, starting a new church is nothing to be proud of – not unless that church is working to improve and serve its community, including all the people that live there.”