Do you believe in God?

My answer to this is yes, probably! I cannot put it any stronger than that because I do not think it is possible to prove the existence of God beyond any shadow of a doubt. I do, however, think that if I weigh up the evidence of what I have studied and more importantly what I have experienced and witnessed, I am more persuaded that there is a God and an afterlife than not.

I think this is true for most of us. We are somewhere on the continuum of belief between radical atheist and fundamentalist religious believer. Some people do have what they claim to be an experience of direct communion with God or the afterlife, or to have had some "road to Damascus experience." Lucky them. I have had no such experience or proof.

Even so, I regard my self to be a liberal christian. What I do know is that I have a core truth and conviction that has been a part of my make up for all my adult life. This is a conviction that all people are worthy of love and respect and to basic human dignity. I believe passionately in social justice. Indeed I am a democratic socialist. I cannot really separate my spiritual "me" from this political "me". The two go together. I align my self with being a christian because of the person of Jesus. I find in Jesus also a passion for valuing all people and for social justice. I have never found it better articulated than in Jesus. So I follow his example and regard him as my teacher.

Of course Jesus goes on to say more. He claims that we are all the beloved of God, and he promises us eternal peace. This valuing of all people leads me to include all others as equally lovable, and, if He exists, equally beloved of God. This means all people regardless of race, religion, creed or doctrine, sexuality, gender etc. It also means I am committed to social justice. This does not mean we should all be the same; nor even that we should all have equal wealth. It does mean that we should seek to provide a basic level of dignity to all people which includes housing, economic means, health care, education and so on. That is my passion and I believe with all my heart that it was Jesus' passion too.