Not long ago I shared a true story in which a college student dropped by the office of a well-known theology professor from whom he was thinking about taking an introductory course. He needed to take the course, as it was part of a core requirement of the university. The student explained that he was an atheist. He would be willing to do all the work required of him in the course, but that he didn’t believe in religion. The professor asked him what exactly it was that he didn’t believe. The student explained that he didn’t believe in any god with a long white beard who sat in judgment over people for breaking rules and would send them to eternal damnation if they didn’t pass muster. The professor responded that he didn’t believe that either.
It is not uncommon that for most people the first thing that comes to mind when you talk about religion is sin. Perhaps this comes from childhood when one of our priorities was to learn the rules and stay out of trouble. We needed to learn the rules at home. We needed to learn the rules in school. We needed to learn the rules for the games we played. We needed to learn the rules for driving a car. Eventually, we needed to learn the rules for living in the community and avoiding trouble with the police. Somewhere along the way we discovered that there were even religious rules to be learned and these rules could have serious consequences. Sin was just a way of talking about religious rules.
While people would listen in the past when the authority figures of the major social institutions of society spoke, in this postmodern era people have become suspicious and skeptical. Authority figures, social institutions, even the reality of “truth” are called into question. Authority figures are seen as playing power games. Social institutions have failed. Even “Truth” has been reduced to opinion for many.
Along with this development, the concept of sin has fallen upon difficult times as well. Outside of the religious setting people don’t speak of sin. They might speak of injustice, corruption, a lack of ethics, crassness, narcissism and so on but they don’t use the word “sin”.
I acknowledge that the way we have talked about sin in the churches has almost become a type of religious jargon that can evoke emotion but seems to convey little meaning. Yet, sin speaks of a reality with which we all struggle.
One of the basic questions that any religious tradition attempts to answer is “why do bad things happen to good people?” We all know examples of kindhearted, generous, loving and selfless people who suffer disease, loss of loved ones, are victims of injustice or random acts of violence. How we answer that question depends on our understanding of God. The traditions that flow from the Jewish experience (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) describe God in terms of virtues and ideal characteristics. They don’t give a complete or detailed picture of God, but they do give us some sense of the divine. God is supposed to be just, to be loving, to be all-powerful. Yet, how could a just God allow bad things to happen to good people? How could a loving God allow good people to suffer? If God is all-powerful then the suffering of innocents seems to be God’s responsibility, as God could stop that suffering. What kind of God is that?
One response is to argue that a loving God has made us in God’s own image. If we are like God in any way, it must be in the ability to make choices. We are not just animals instinctively following the path set before us. We can choose between alternatives. We shape our future through our choices. Such life shaping choices requires that we truly exercise freedom in the selection of our course of action. We need to understand the alternatives available to us as we choose. Many philosophers and theologians would define these criteria as the essence of a human act. This ability to choose our course of action is what makes an act human.
When our choices are realized in action, those choices have consequences. If we choose to jump out of an airplane without a parachute, the consequence of that action is to fall to the ground below and be splattered over the countryside. If we choose to jump with a parachute and we know what we are doing in using the parachute, it is very likely that we will land with minimal injury. The choices offered us are real, as are the consequences. One choice produces an adrenaline rush, while the other choice produces death.
Our values shape our perception of the consequences that flow from our choices. I value being alive. So, being splattered over the country side after jumping from an airplane without a parachute is a consequence that might not be desirable. Such a consequence might be described as bad. However, an adrenaline rush and a safe landing when a parachute is used might be seen as a desirable consequence, perhaps even a good consequence, especially if you are a twenty-year-old out for adventure and excitement.
Our values are shaped by our life experience, by our culture, by our community and by our religious tradition.
It has been my experience that friendship is important. I have enjoyed several friendships over the years that played important roles in my growing up. Even if my friend occasionally did something to hurt me, I found it in me to forgive him. Over the years that approach has served me well and reinforced the value of friendship.
Culture relates to the practices and expectations of a community that are passed down from one generation to the next. For example, a cultural value in the islands is to show respect for one’s elders. How this is done varies from one island group to another, but the fundamental value of respect is common throughout the cultures of the Pacific.