If you had to select from a multiple choice list, which of these would best describe you?
a) I am a religious person with very definite ideas about God, the Scriptures, the afterlife, and my religion is practically visible in my daily and weekly routines.
b) I have sympathies with one particular religion, but I don’t practice or pursue it in a very consistent way.
c) I see myself as more spiritual than religious; I’m open to many spiritual beliefs and practices that would enhance that side of my life.
d) I don’t really care much for spiritual or religious matters, I’m focused on family, health, and career.
Maybe you look at that list, and you don’t fit neatly into any of those categories. But you’re probably closer to one or two than all the others.
So is one of those choices better than another? If you selected a), you’ll probably say yes. If you selected b, c, or d, you’ll probably be a bit irritated with the question, and say, “No, this is a lifestyle choice, this is similar to choices about career, family, hobbies, fitness. Religion is just one more personal choice you make to suit your lifestyle.”
I want to challenge the idea that religion is just a personal lifestyle choice by asking you to stop thinking about the word religion, or even spirituality, and instead, substitute the term ultimate questions. Ultimate questions refers to the biggest questions of life, the final questions, the questions that take in the whole picture of life. These are questions like:
What is the real purpose of life?
Why are we here, and where did we come from?
What happens when we die?
Why do bad things happen to good people?
You cannot be a bystander or a spectator when it comes to these questions. You are already a participant. You find yourself alive, conscious, and a part of this world. You’re already, in some way, answering the question, “What is life all about?” by how you live. Your priorities, your goals, your ambitions say something about the meaning and the purpose of life.
You’re already answering the question, “What happens when we die?” by how you live now. People who believe in no consequences in the afterlife act differently to people why do believe in consequences in the afterlife.
You’re already experiencing some kind of suffering: either yourself, or others. And when you see pain, tragedy, disease, war, violence, crime, it forces you to think about the problem of evil and suffering. At some point, you look for explanations for bad things happening to ‘good’ people.
You might not be thinking about these questions all the time, but they confront you all the time. Why be successful? Why have a family? Why teach your children to be good people? Why not lie, cheat and steal?
You cannot completely avoid these questions, because you find yourself inside a world which confronts you with them.
But you can avoid thinking about them. You can push them to the back of your mind. You can fill your life with all sorts of things that make those questions seem less important.
In other words, you can do one of two things. You can postpone ultimate questions, or your can pursue ultimate questions.
For some people, the way they postpone these questions is with objections to religion.
- So many religions all claim to be the truth or the only way. How could we possibly know who is right?
- Aren’t all religions really the same at heart?
- How could a good and powerful God allow suffering in the world?
- So much injustice, violence and terrorism have been done in the name of religion.
- Science has disproved the claims of religion, and shown we don’t need a God to explain the world.
- How could a loving God send people to hell?
- Faith is just a crutch for weak or unstable people.
- Everyone has their own interpretation of the Bible. How can we know who is right?
- Religion is narrow and confining and turns people into hypocrites and tyrants.
Now all of these are fairly important objections, and they deserve serious answers. And there are answers, for those who are willing to pursue ultimate questions. If you want to chase down the truth, you can find it. But if someone is just using these objections as an excuse to postpone looking at ultimate questions, then they are not yet a serious enquirer.
So what would it look like to pursue ultimate questions? In the end, ultimate questions really come down to one question and its subquestions.
“Man’s search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life… But ultimate meaning must be found beyond himself. If there is no God, then man must create meaning, yet every constructed meaning collapses under the weight of suffering and death. The only meaning that truly endures is one given by something eternal—something transcendent. And that is why the question of God is not an abstract question, but the question upon which all others rest.” – Viktor Frankl, Holocaust survivor and psychologist, Man’s Search for Meaning, 1946
That one question is: is there a God?
If there is a God, who or what is God? Is this the impersonal god of Buddhism or New Age spirituality? Are these gods the gods of Hinduism, or is this God the one personal God of the Abrahamic religions? How do we decide between these?
The follow-up question is this: What does this God want from me?
To avoid these questions is really like avoiding what makes life worth living. It is like cutting out the meaning of why you do what you do.
But there is another reason why some people postpone this question.
“I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God… It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.” Thomas Nagel, ”The Last Word”, 1997
For many people, the postponement of dealing with ultimate questions isn’t really an intellectual problem. It’s a personal one. It’s a moral one. It’s one where we are afraid of what it will mean for us.
“The question of God is the most momentous question of our lives. The decision to believe or disbelieve is not simply a matter of intellectual inquiry but an existential commitment. If God exists, then our entire being, our moral order, and our deepest aspirations find their fulfillment in Him. If we refuse to consider this question, we do so not from rationality, but from fear of its consequences.” William James, The Will to Believe, 1896
To seriously pursue these questions is, in the end, the most important thing you will ever do. The example from history is Solomon, who pursued riches, pleasure, power, education, and fame, and got all of them one by one. But his conclusion was this:
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind. (Ecclesiastes 1:14)
So he instead began pursuing ultimate questions, and ended his book this way:
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. (Ecclesiastes 12:13)
Let me encourage you to not postpone this question. It may take you on a long journey. You may have to seek for a long time. But here is a promise, given by Jesus:
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (Matthew 7:7–8)