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    What I Believe: (But You Don't Have To)
    What I Believe: (But You Don't Have To)
    What I Believe: (But You Don't Have To)
    Ebook81 pages1 hour

    What I Believe: (But You Don't Have To)

    By A. Colin Wright

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    About this ebook

    A brief discussion of religious ideas from a non-traditional viewpoint that should be of interest for all those questioning what life is all about.

    For more about the author, see www.acolinwright.ca and www.authorsden.com/acolinwright.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWestBow Press
    Release dateApr 14, 2014
    ISBN9781490828923
    What I Believe: (But You Don't Have To)
    Author

    A. Colin Wright

    A. Colin Wright was raised in England, learning Russian during National Service in the Royal Air Force. He read modern languages (French, German, and Russian) at Cambridge University, with a Ph.D. on the twentieth-century Russian novelist and playwright, Mikhail Bulgakov. In 1963–64, he studied at the Herzen Pedagogical Institute (now University) in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). He came to Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, in 1964, where he taught Russian language and literature until his retirement in 1999. He has published widely academically, with numerous articles on Russian and comparative literature. His major book on Bulgakov was published by the University of Toronto Press. Other publications include a novel and a collection of stories. He also writes plays, and acts and directs in the local theatre. (See for all of this: http://www.acolinwright.ca, http://www.sardiniansilver.com, http://www.cupboardfulofshoes.com, and http://www.authorsden.com/acolinwright.) He and his wife still live in Kingston. They have two sons and four grandchildren.

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      Book preview

      What I Believe - A. Colin Wright

      Copyright © 2014 A. Colin Wright.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

      The words for Lord of Creation by Rev. John (Jack) C. Winslow (©Mrs J.C.R. Tyrrel) are reprinted with permission.

      WestBow Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

      WestBow Press

      A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.westbowpress.com

      1 (866) 928-1240

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      ISBN: 978-1-4908-2893-0 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4908-2892-3 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2014903884

      WestBow Press rev. date: 4/10/2014

      CONTENTS

      Acknowledgements

      1. Introduction And Conventions

      2. Beyond I Don’t Know

      3. Summary So Far, And Religion In General

      4. Faith, Fate, And the Almighty’s Computer

      5. Why I No Longer Consider Myself A Traditional Christian

      6. The Religious Element In My Writing

      7. Final Thoughts

      About the Author

      Also by A. Colin Wright

      Mikhail Bulgakov; Life and Interpretations (non-fiction)

      Sardinian Silver (novel)

      A Cupboardful of Shoes and Other Stories (collection)

      For Neale Donald Walsch, in gratitude for his Conversations with God books, without which this present one almost certainly wouldn’t have been written

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      I wish to express my gratitude to Brittany Bingle and other editors and designers at Westbow Press and Thomas Nelson for their thoughtful suggestions and corrections to my manuscript. As always, I should also like to express my appreciation to my wife, Mary Anne, for her assistance with proof-reading and her patience during the writing of this and many other works. Also to my sons, Andrew and Nicholas, for their encouragement and enthusiasm.

      1

      INTRODUCTION AND CONVENTIONS

      HOW THIS ALL STARTED

      I first wrote What I Believe for myself, to clarify conclusions I had drawn about life over the years. It was important to be able to justify my beliefs intellectually for my own satisfaction. In trying to turn my conclusions into a short book, I realized that some things that were evident to me required further explanation for others. I have tried to provide that information here, attempting to make chapters of an easily readable length. First, however, I have to clarify certain conventions I use.

      CONVENTIONS

      WHAT WE MEAN BY GOD

      One frequently ignored question whenever we talk about God is not whether he exists but what we mean by God. When we think of him not only as the creator of this world but also as the foundation of all being—the great power that stands behind the universe as we know it (before the big bang and perhaps other universes too)—we are at a loss for words.

      With all the different understandings of the word God, it may be helpful to find another word. One possibility is using existence instead, since few of us would deny, to use a deliberate tautology, that existence exists in a multiplicity of forms that few of us even consider. (How many of us, for example, even think of the life in a plot of grass, or in the carpets in our room?) And to see God simply as another being is to deny his acknowledged omnipotence. This is a limitation of language itself, and we have no choice but to accept that fact.

      ANOTHER WORD FOR GOD

      If only we could find another word for God, which isn’t easy. I like Paul Tillich’s the Divine and John Dominic Crossan’s the Holy. The latter is reminiscent of the whole, everything around us. Just think: not only animal life, but vegetable matter, metals, plastics, radio and all other kinds of waves, and so on, are part of the whole that we mean by God. (I still find it miraculous that radio and telephone waves travel at the speed of light: although I more or less understand the scientific theories behind them, I have no idea what is done physically to make them work.)

      My own preference, however, is the Almighty, which is appropriate for the idea of the enormous power behind all universes or, when we need a personal, more human image of God to pray and speak to, Almighty Lord. I will use this term from here on, except when quoting from others.

      Our human minds can’t grasp this huge abstract power, yet whatever our personal definitions may be, in any discussion, we can’t keep repeating whatever we mean by God. The Almighty, of course, has many names in different societies, with their different languages.

      Ultimately, we must choose our preferred term, remembering, however, that it is only convenient shorthand and doesn’t imply that the Almighty is no more than the traditional creator of the world.

      HE, SHE, OR IT?

      Of course, none of our personal pronouns are appropriate for referring to the Almighty. I certainly do not see the Almighty as being male or

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