Whether one evaluates faith through anthropology, history, or biology, it is a bit of a guessing game. Ask a fish about water and one will not receive an objective and thorough understanding about water. When we investigate the evolution of faith, we are as the fish – examining ourselves, biased by our own experience. Nevertheless, the evolution of faith is an entertaining, thoughtful, and always revealing topic.

Dacher Keltner, Director of the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California at Berkeley, recently published “Born to be Good, The Science of a Meaningful Life” The book begins by paying tribute to Jen, a Confucian state of mind that promotes goodness. Jen is expressed through the good emotions we all have in our genes when we are born: compassion, awe, respect, graciousness, empathy, sympathy, kindness and other feelings that not only improve one’s own wellbeing but also the wellbeing of others who are the recipients of your Jen behavior. Confucius said we have the ability to bring goodness to completion in ourselves and in others; we have the choice to bring badness to completion as well through harmful, nasty, disrespectful, and condescending emotions. Keltner makes the point that all mammals have some degree of emotional goodness; otherwise mammalian species would not have survived.

Joseph Campbell, a famous anthropologist, studied human behavior in terms of the cultures within which people experience life. An excellent interview on the experience of release, otherwise called “salvation” in the Christian faith can be found on the Internet at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzj8aE1KPPQ

This short interview is one of the most insightful interpretations the mariner has ever heard. It is a must see experience.

The point of both these writers is that goodness is built in at the beginning. We are prone to seeking the will of God and the “release” that God provides. Yet we are flesh and bone; we have limitations in our intelligence, in our hearts and in our actions. We are tempted at every turn to find comfortable, self-serving solutions that give us physical comfort and undeserved authority; we are bringing badness to completion in ourselves and in others. As both writers explain, negativity diminishes life; goodness expands life. In fact, we wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for goodness.  Walking the path that Jesus walked may take no more effort than always seeking goodness in our lives. Always use good emotions; good acts will follow.

Paul Tillich, a popular theologian in the 1960’s said that Christianity is vulnerable to being subsumed by other forms of religion, very much as a chameleon changes its color to match its background. The other forms of religion, which Tillich defined as quasi-religions, are capitalism, communism, socialism, fascism, and democratic nationalism. In the United States, the competing world religion is capitalism. Tillich said that this presented a faith-against-faith situation. To be a Christian in a capitalistic society means that it is likely that a “Christian” is a Christian only to the extent that capitalism is not inconvenienced.

Capitalist Christianity is used as a standard that provides moralistic behavior: how to be a fair, honorable, and conscientious citizen – as a capitalist. Capitalism is the force – a mighty force – that prevents many of us otherwise nice, fair and considerate capitalists from letting go of our worldly comfort, our wealth and station in society. If we are forced to walk the path that Jesus walked, we may lose our homes, our cars, our full larder, perhaps even our source of income. This would inconvenience our faith in the capitalist religion.

It is as if we have returned to the world that Charles Dickens described, where charity is unloaded onto government programs, nonprofit organizations that will do the dirty work for us, or we cover our obligation by throwing a relative pittance at local charity and mission fund raisers. Our first obligation is to our role as capitalists but we respect the presence of Christian morality. Actually behaving like a Christian, however, is out of the question.

Except for the rare committed Christian, it is impractical to insist on abandoning capitalism to walk the path that Jesus walked. But how much can we recover the path of Jesus in today’s society so that we will move closer to being a modern Christian? Simple solutions abound. Many give time and personal investment to projects like Habitat for Humanity; some take on a missionary cause like joining the Peace Corps or Americorp, or a church-related mission in the most desperate regions of the world. The pivotal change in behavior is that the modern Christian becomes involved personally, giving time and resources in person, on site, providing genuine concern and care, thereby representing God’s love. It is guaranteed that poverty, privation and desperate need are less than ten miles away from any modern Christian’s home.

Another way to grow our role as a modern Christian is to use our capitalist wealth to contribute to those who are desperate and in need of God’s love, even your love, in God’s name. Specifically, do you tithe? Do you have possessions that you don’t really need – everything from furniture to coin collections? How many changes in clothes do you own? How many shoes? Can you give up one golf game a week and spend one day a week working shoulder to shoulder with the poor? All these suggestions will turn your sense of personal value toward the path that Jesus walked. It will strengthen God’s rudder to steer your life toward being a modern Christian.

Throughout the Bible, including the New Testament, it is mentioned that we shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven; we shall sit at the right Hand of God; we shall be cast off into hell or abandoned to endless suffering. Many Christians believe that in going to heaven, there will be a great reunion with family and friends. Many Christians believe that going to heaven is an eternal spiritual state of happiness. Some Christians believe that heaven and hell are the state of one’s heart at any given moment while they are alive. Some Christians, who lean more to pantheism, believe that heaven is no more than a transformation that returns one to the great Cosmos created by God.

Who is to say which, if not all are correct? Generally speaking, one’s perception of heaven is tied to one’s perception of God. If God is a literal being and controls behavior and history, then it seems natural that God’s history continues after death. If one believes God is a spiritual force in the universe, then it follows that heaven is a spiritual state. If one believes God is a human-centered experience, then it follows that heaven also is to be experienced while alive. If one tends toward a pantheistic God, then the phrase “from dust to dust” is quite literal.

The modern Christian may incorporate any vision of heaven that is important to them. Choosing God’s will in one’s life is driven in part by the reward of peace and grace, whenever or however it occurs. However, the modern Christian should not follow God’s will for the heavenly reward. The modern Christian lives in the Spirit and gives one’s spirit to God’s will on a daily basis.

Reading through the Christian part of the Bible, the New Testament, there is constant affirmation of an inclusive God. God is not vengeful. God is not judgmental. God does not punish nor give favor. The New Testament God wants only that we develop a strong, mutually loving relationship between man and God. God speaks through Jesus to describe what we as followers should do to love God properly. One well known instruction is made very clear: Love God above all other Gods.

This reaches further into our life than we may think. A deity can take many forms that never occur to us. Any overzealous or self rewarding activity is a form of god-worship – called Baal worship in the Old Testament. I know friends who put the variety of life aside, including proper financial security, to be avid sports fans. How about the alcoholic who drinks away all the family money, leaving no emotional value in the drinker’s or the family’s life? How about the compulsive gambler? Then there’s the capitalist – including we small ones – who make decisions in favor of money rather than people. All these are Baal worship because these behaviors are used to appease one’s self. Only God can do that. One’s addictions to other icons prevent one’s ability to engage in God’s work or feel God’s joyful presence in one’s life. Without focus on the curing power of God, the loving relationship will never occur.

On the surface, Baal worship can seem innocent or helpful, even worthy of mental ease or meditation. Grow flowers, attend Zen classes, become a millionaire, paint pictures – it doesn’t matter. If the activity, whatever it is, becomes a source of dependence for fulfillment in your life, it is self gratification; it is Baal worship.

One may think such continuous focus on God will prevent living a complete, human life – quite the contrary. There is no requirement to be other than who you are. Enjoy the times you can enjoy; suffer the bad times. Fall in love, live the life you have at hand but take God with you to sustain your inner value, to be the rudder that steers you through those experiences and to ensure personal happiness.

What does this love relationship feel like? There are words like Grace, salvation, born again, God’s will and many other nuanced terms. But these words don’t describe the simple reality of a love relationship with God. Have you ever had a moment when mental anxiety was suddenly released? Remember a time when danger lurked but then danger passed and you felt a feeling of relief? The God relationship has the same uplifting effect but doesn’t require a continuous feeling of relief. Rather, it’s that tiny moment of discovered peace at the very end of the experience that we want to remember. Feeling at peace is a common experience in the God relationship. The God relationship provides quiet relief by letting you know that you are in a nonjudgmental world and trust that this quiet peace is able to guide you through the rest of your life. Don’t try to aim or direct this feeling; God is everywhere – even within you. It is within you that God can be felt. In time, you will feel a living guidance system; call it God’s rudder in our life.