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Editorial

Return to God?

by Rick Lewis

“And the people bowed and prayed,
To the neon God they made”
Simon & Garfunkel, The Sound of Silence

“Return to God?” you ask, with exasperation or hope or some other fine emotion, depending upon your temperament and your theological opinions. Gentle reader, I was pulling your leg a little bit, as I meant the title of the editorial more in the sense of “Shall we Return to the topic of God?” I am not about to invite you to a revivalist meeting. Instead, I invite you to read a selection of articles, from a variety of viewpoints, dealing with these ancient and profound questions: Does God exist? And if he does, what is his nature?

Religion has been a part of human culture for tens of thousands of years, if not more, and a major focus of philosophical debate within all of the world’s cultures ever since philosophy first began. Indeed, some of the points raised by ancient Greek philosophers still have resonance today, among them the Problem of Evil, the Euthyphro dilemma in Plato’s dialogue of that name, and the observation by Xenophanes that different societies tend to worship gods that resemble themselves. Soon after Christianity’s beginnings, St Paul addressed an audience of Greek philosophers on the Areopagus in Athens.

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