Personal Salvation

“Every religion has an account of the origins of life…” reveals Ursula Goodenough, “The Kagaba Indians describe a female supreme deity…Certain Hindu teachings speak of the Brahmanda…The Yaruro of Venezuela tell of the water serpent Puana who created the world” (Goodenough 17). The idea of a creator is so ingrained into the human race that every creation story ever told is essentially the same. In his book, Belief in God in an Age of Science, John Polkinghorne states that, “there is a mind and a purpose behind… the universe and…(it) is worthy of worship and the ground of hope.” Essentially, what can be extracted from is statement is that hope cannot occur without a ‘veiled presence,’ and thus to have hope the impending future must be somehow obscured. Our ignorance of the future and the universe fuels our tendencies to create a creator and put trust in his/hers motives. The specific concepts Polkinghorne draws upon (mind, purpose, universe, worship, etc) all draw upon this same idea: that the first four must be present to trigger the last two. A mind is used to personify the universe; a purpose is given to explain the laws of nature; and the concept of a veiled presence is given to the mind to explain the subtle yet apparent nature of a creator that is thus worthy of worship. Hope is possibly the most important and last element that comes into the equation. It is the feeling that one gets from believing in this creator (Polkinghorne 1).

A belief in God, a faithful investment in and an enactment of a religious faith tradition are almost inseparable. The hope of personal salvation comes from correctly and thoroughly devoting oneself to and worshiping God. Salvation is what most people hope to achieve through investing themselves in a religion. Therefore, (in most religious denominations) deliverance can only be attained if one has dedicated their life to believing in God, devoting themselves to, and actually performing specific traditional, religious, acts in reverence to that God. Each one is linked to each other, and in most religious faiths the concept of personal salvation or reincarnation cannot be achieved without them.

The actual meanings of personal salvation and reincarnations are even harder to understand and recognize than the methods people use to try and attain them. For many Christians, repentance and having faith and trust in God is critical if one wants to achieve salvation and ascend into heaven. However, the concepts can mean very different things; to many atheists, salvation is taken very differently and often metaphorically. They may seek it in this life rather than the next, and may believe that it can be attained by seeking to spread and achieve happiness. Salvation to them means inner peace. To me I have been taught that the words salvation and reincarnation signify a release from this life to the next, to be free from all ‘bodily’ feelings and pain. It’s a ‘reward’ for a lifetime of faith and good deeds. After talking to many people about what salvation and reincarnation mean to them I have concluded that essentially rebirth and eternality are the two concepts that can explain them the most. A need to rest yet persist long after death exists in all of us. The fear of death forces us to believe in an afterlife.

If I discovered that there was a God who created the universe I would be instantly bombarded with questions about how and why he/she exists and is there a purpose. I think I would have more questions about the nature of my existence and the origins of the universe than I do now. What created God? Why did he/she create the universe? What does God look like? Is there an afterlife, and if so, are there certain “requirements” to go on to this ‘next world’? Ironically, I would probably feel even more uncomfortable than I do as an atheist/agnostic. I would probably have feelings of fear: does this God want something from me? If so what? Even if I knew God existed, I would not know if it was like the Christian God or Allah or something akin to a Greek God. This uncertainty would probably lead me back into religion, but probably not an organized one. I would pull concepts from many different faith traditions, becoming eclectic and focusing on a personal relationship with him/her. Even if God existed, I don’t believe he/she would be like anything that we have imagined before and would not be controlled by the same emotions humans have. This would make it much easier for me to accept God in my life because I could love the mystery and the incomprehensibility of God. But I can safely say, unlike may atheists I know, that I could be comfortable with the notion of being created by a God even if it creates in me even more unanswered questions.

To me the notion that life evolved via evolution is a very comfortable and beautiful one. Therefore, if I came to know this as utmost fact, virtually nothing would change for me. In her book, The Sacred Depths of Nature, Goodenough goes into depth about the ‘miracle’ of conception and growth and takes comfort in the fact that she knows these things. “To the extent that I know myself, I am known. My yearning to be Known is relegated to the corridors of arrogance, and I sing my own song, with deep gratitude for my existence” (Goodenough 60). I find my own comfort in understanding the universe. Being brutally scientific has its drawbacks at times, but one can easily make science fit into spirituality. Like Goodenough, I feel connected to all creatures and all of the universe. I realize that everything is connected and that I will never be alone. I experience the same feeling that many other people feel when they believe they were connected to each other through God (73).

If I realized that there was no personal salvation, reincarnation, or afterlife my worldview would not change whatsoever. At an early age I have had trouble accepting the existence of a heaven-like place and the separation of one’s body from their soul. I ended up taking the science route and believing that dead really is dead even though (at first) it has been hard to accept this. Of course I want to believe that there exists an afterlife, but I don’t think I could ever make myself. I seek the truth no matter how much it hurts and I receive closure and satisfaction knowing it. I ‘know’ that when I die there is no afterlife, but this makes me cherish my life even more. I am comfortable with the fact that life is often a game of chance and my luck could run out at any moment, but I have faith that I will survive till tomorrow and that when I die will feel I have made something of myself.

If I had come to believe that God created the universe but left it on automatic pilot I would probably have almost as many questions as if he/she was actively involved in everyday life. I’d want to know why God does not get involved and if he/she is actually unable to intervene rather than choose not to. Saying that a God created life but everything else is chance is even more puzzling to me in a sense, but to most people it would probably be easier to understand (especially scientists). I would probably not be religious because if God paid not attention, I would not be speaking to anyone but myself and I would probably go about my day much like I do now. The only difference would be I would want to know why and how this is possible, and unfortunately I wouldn’t get any real answers.

Religion and the concepts associated with it (personal salvation and/or reincarnation) directly influence the way one views the world and therefore reacts to it. Believing in a God saves us from the harsh realities of life: you will die, so will everyone you know and love, there is nothing after death, and you are alone. “The whole concern of religion is with the manner of our acceptance of the universe,” states William James. Instead of realizing that hardship and fortune are products of chance (and often our own actions), God is added into the equation to lessen the blow. “It must be God‘s will” (Goodenough 47). Religion is like a metaphorical security blanket; it eases the cold chill of reality while giving us the sense of security and attracting other people to huddle in close with you (in the blanket).

In addition, religion makes us feel special. “If evolution is true,” states Jerry Coyne, “then we are no different from other animals, not the special objects of God’s creation but a contingent product of natural selection, and so we lack real purpose and our morality is just the law of the jungle.” If we feel as if we were put here for a purpose, people are more inclined to make the best of it and fulfill some sort of preconceived destiny (Coyne 25). Without religion, our ancient relatives who did not have the same cognitive capacity and consciousness as our ancestors may have had an evolutionary advantage, meaning homosapiens would possibly either be much less conscious of our existence or even extinct.




Works Cited


Coyne, Jerry. “The Case Against Intelligent Design: The Faith that Dare Not Speak Its Name.” The New Republic 2005.

Goodenough, Ursula. The Sacred Depths of Nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Polkinghorne, John. Belief in God in an Age of Science. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.



2007