Louisville Process Theology Network

The Greatist Question of All

“In any conversation, I was taught, there are least three
parties: you, the other person, and the Lord.

 

I recalled that lesson on a summer day in the small office
when both Reb and I wore shorts. My bare leg stuck with perspiration to the
green leather chair and I raised it with a small ‘thwock.’

 

The Reb was looking for a letter. He lifted a pad , then an
envelope, then a newspaper. I knew he’d never find it. I think the mess in his
office was almost a way of life now, a game that kept the world interesting. As
I waited, I glanced at the file on the lower shelf, the one marked ‘God.’

 

We still hadn’t opened it.

 

‘Ach,’ he said, giving up.

 

Can I ask you something?

 

‘Ask away young scholar,’ he crowed.

 

How do you know God exists?

 

He stopped. A smile crept across his face.

 

‘An excellent question.’

 

He pressed his finger to his chin.

 

And the answer? I said.

 

‘First, make the case against Him.’

 

Okay, I said, taking his challenge. How about this? We live
in a world where your genes can be mapped, where your cells can be copied, where your face can be altered. Heck, with surgery, you can go from being a man to being a woman. We have science to tell us of the earth’s creation; rocket probes
explore the universe. The sun is no longer a mystery. And the moon – which
people used to worship? We brought some home in pouch, right?

 

‘Go on,’ he said.

 

So, why in such a place, where the once-great mysteries have
been solved, does anyone still believe in God or Jesus or Allah or a Supreme
Being of any kind? Haven’t we out gown it?

Isn’t it like Pinocchio, the puppet? When we found he could
move without his strings, did he still look the same way at Geppetto?

 

The Reb tapped his fingers together.

 

‘That’s some speech.’

 

You said make a case.

 

‘Ah.’

 

He leaned in. ‘Now my turn. Look if you say that science will
eventually prove there is no God, on that I must differ. No matter how small
they take it back, to a tadpole, to an atom, there is always something they
can’t explain, something that created it all at the end of the search.

 

And no matter how far you go the other way – to extend life,
play around with genes, clone this, clone that, live to one hundred and fifty –
at some point, life is over. And then what happened? When life comes to an end? ‘

 

I shrugged.

 

‘You see?’

 

He leaned back. He smiled.

 

‘When you come to the end, that’s where God begins.’”

 

 

 

 

From “Have a Little Faith” by Mitch Albom.