insight

Questions basis of religion

In the past week I have been opening my e-mail anxiously seeking responses to a column I wrote a few weeks back about what you would ask God if you had the chance. Day after day I opened up MetroConnect, clicked on my e-mail icon, and was time and again disappointed in seeing an empty box before me.

No one is curious. No one wants to share.

I understand that when it comes to God the subject is touchy. People in almost every class have asked me what kind of questions I received. This question was almost always followed by the politically correct, "Do you think it's right to ask people this question?" implying that not everyone believes in God. I know not everyone believes in God and that's fine with me. I am not here to impose my beliefs on people through the power of the print media. I was just putting out an opportunity for students to sound off on this topic.

After a week of no responses I began contemplating: where would God fit into the life of a Metro student? Think about it? If God is seen as someone who makes things go then is God responsible for everything in our lives? Does God make the light rail late every day? Is God responsible for the dead car battery when we are already late for class? Does God make us choose Taco Bell for lunch over a healthier California Roll? If God is in every facet of a Metro student's life then where are the questions? Plus, we are creatures of two things: habit and curiosity. Even if you do not believe in a Higher Being there must be some questions that we inherently ask. Where do we come from? What happens when we die? But, alas, no responses.

I almost gave up on this when I opened up my mailbox and found a message from Nancy Moore of the English department. She had a question for God. She wrote, "After I have learned, experienced, and transformed as much as possible, will I have the chance to create a universe, too?" A most interesting question, and one I have been pondering since I heard this in my Myth, Symbol and Allusion class a couple of weeks ago. Do we become divine when we reach perfection or simply when we die? Does reincarnation come into play? There are many answers.

She continued by writing, "I figure this hits life after death, the purpose of life, our own divinity and relationship to God, what we are doing here, and if all is well or if we are a part of a plan gone terribly wrong." Her question is legitimate and does not make her a heretic. In fact, priests, theologians, and scholars alike throughout history have pondered these questions. This goes back to one of the key questions that is the basis of all religious thought since the beginning of time: where do we go when we die?

All religion is based on the aforementioned and the question "where did we come from?" The answers to both of those questions have been the basis of religious debate and wars for centuries and the conflict will not be over soon. People's answers to these questions have caused both joy and misery. The French would say c'est la vie (such as life) to this situation, but should the questions be asked if they bring pain?

I am working in a high school right now and one of the teachers with whom I am working told me of a student many years ago who was frustrated with her religion because it kept her from enjoying the same kind of teenage experience she saw her friends and classmates enjoy during high school. She wanted to be free of the binds of the strict religious beliefs that kept her from joining her friends for things like school dances, parties, and dating the boy of her choice. She came to a crossroad in her life where she needed to make a decision-having the divine answers or having a life in contemporary times.

When it comes to our questions, maybe they shouldn't be asked. I have found during my life that religion can be very spiritual as well as a very private part of a person's life. Some questions we ask God to answer are maybe something for us and us alone to know. As a Catholic, I believe that when you go into a confessional to confess sins to the priest you are not talking to a priest, you are talking to God, and everything said in the confessional will never be uttered outside. The sins are removed and you and God are square until the next time. The questions and the confessions are the same-we carry them within ourselves and only allow God to see them when we feel it necessary. So, in that case, keep your questions for a time when you can talk to the genuine article.