In this boon, Lynne Renoir challenges the long-standing belief that God is an omnipotent creator who brought the universe into being and directs everything according to divine intention. She maintains that this traditional picture can be questioned on philosophical grounds and does not align well with modern scientific findings. At the same time, she acknowledges that profound personal change does occur for many individuals who fully commit themselves to religious faith.
Renoir investigates how this seeming paradox might be explained. She proposes that genuine truth is discovered within the inner life of a person rather than imposed externally by authority or doctrine. Her arguments grew out of her own struggle to experience the spiritual transformation she expected to find within Christianity, a challenge that led her to study philosophy, science, and psychology for many years.
Overview of Contents
Section 1 – God and Philosophy
- Reason and its limitations
- The nature of human experience
- Taking a leap of faith
- Moving beyond revealed doctrines
- God as an unknowable mystery
- Seeking truth beyond traditional concepts of God
- The persistent uncertainty of theological questions
Section 2 – God and Science
- The idea of an infinite cosmos
- The nature and role of consciousness
- Humanity’s participation in the divine
Section 3 – God and Belief
- Investigating the mind
- Religious experiences
- Transcendent states
Introduction
Human beings have always wondered how the universe and everything within it began, and whether this origin holds any connection to the purpose of our existence. The major monotheistic religions answer these questions by pointing to an all-powerful divine source. Judaism teaches that God revealed himself to the Israelites and promised to recognize them as his chosen people if they followed his laws. Christianity claims that God entered human history through Jesus of Nazareth, whose death and resurrection allow believers to be reconciled to God. Islam proclaims Allah as the one true God, whose final and complete message is found in the Quran, delivered by the Prophet Muhammad.
People choose to believe in God for different reasons. Some feel intuitively that a higher power must exist behind the complexity of the world, while others sense that life holds more meaning than our immediate experience reveals. Faith may also arise from a desire for forgiveness, inner peace, love, safety, purpose, or guidance.
Although God’s existence cannot be proven, those who embrace faith often hope for a noticeable change within themselves as evidence of a spiritual shift. Yet someone may adopt the teachings and practices of a religion without experiencing a deep internal transformation. When such transformation does occur, the believer may interpret it as confirmation that the religious teachings are true.
A difficulty emerges, however, when similar transformative experiences happen across different faith traditions—even when the doctrines they teach contradict one another. For example, Christianity asserts that God became human in Jesus, while both Judaism and Islam reject this idea as impermissible. If followers of contradictory belief systems report comparable spiritual changes, then inner transformation alone cannot verify the truth of one set of doctrines over another. The experience may be genuine, but it does not prove the accuracy of the theology that accompanies it.
Renoir’s personal engagement with these issues stems from more than five decades of devoted Christian practice. Although she was certain that her beliefs were correct, she did not experience the kind of spiritual renewal described in Christian scripture. Over the years, she encountered people from many religions who demonstrated the qualities she longed for, which fueled her desire to explore these questions more deeply.
