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Chapter 8, Reflections on a Personal Theology

 This chapter covers the reorganization of my thinking after completing the studies I have described in this book, concluding that not only did I believe that God existed and I wished to relate to Him in ways I had not done before. As an independent thinker I have my own judgment of the problems that are found with organized religion, and also the problems of discovering proper Bible interpretation. In the chapter I will discuss negotiating from reason to faith. I give my answer to the question of why there is evil in the world. I present my concept of how we are made in the image of God. I examine the foolishness of conflict between religions and the lack of tolerance. I discuss a solution to the battle between science and Creationists, to allow the proper teaching of evolution science in the public schools. And finally, there is a brief discussion of modern existentialist philosophy, which I feel is psychologically harmful, and how I think the material in this book offers answers to the harm. It is not my intent to convince you to think differently, or to change your beliefs. However, I have never thought it harmful to expose oneself to new or different ideas, to compare one’s concepts to alternate approaches. This chapter allows you that comparison.

Organized religion and the independent thinker.

The main theme of this book is that, surprisingly, the discoveries of science when studied closely, and independent of religious texts, can lead a person to a belief that God exists. As Adler states, that is as far as philosophical theology (Adler’s term) can go. In the last chapter I concluded there is sufficient evidence presented in this book to accept beyond a reasonable doubt that God exists. For some readers that may be the end of it: they may accept the conclusion or they may remain agnostics or atheists. They are not prepared to go further.  For others, the evidence presented may have strengthened their pre-existing belief and helped them approach their religion in a state of expanded knowledge.  For a third group, for the first time believing that God exists, they now