I am pleased to have been invited back to Parkway UCC to address the adult class again this year. I am on the schedule for October 11, 18, and 25 at 9:30 and 11:00. Having been given the chance to select my own topic, I will lead a discussion entitled

Why God? Which God?

For most of human history our individual identity was formed and expressed by the god or gods we worshipped. We were a member of a clan or tribe that had a god that gave us our identity and, if we were good, cared for us. While there are those who still ascribe identity to someone as a function of religion or ethnic association [we have folks who say that to be the President you must worship a Christian god] for the most part it is no longer true that one must have a belief in God. Indeed, it is likely that there are persons who are part of the Parkway community who identify as atheist or agnostic.

So if we don’t need to believe in a god, why bother? What benefit arises from a belief in and a relationship with a god? Given the role that religion plays in human misery, perhaps it will be better to live in a post-theist society.

I will show my hand here a bit to say that I observe a great many benefits to having a relationship with God. That will probably not surprise you. But I want to try to tease apart just what those benefits might be. It helps if we know why we are going to all the trouble to have a god in the first place.

Then, having clarified the benefits, we are presented with a great smorgasbord of potential gods. Which god is the best one for you? And what difference might it make if your god is not the same as the god held by others in your pew? Do we all have to worship the same god?

Does God know what is going to happen before it happens? Or is God limited by the Arrow of Time as are we mortals? Did God create us, or do we create God? Or are we mutually co-created? And what does that mean anyway? What is the relationship between science and religion? Does evolution argue against the power of God? Or does God create through evolution? Or does God evolve? Does God know everything? What is God conscious of and what is the relationship between my consciousness and that of God?

These are some of the questions we will consider as part of this class. I hope to see you in October.