MYSTERY AND BEYOND

Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research

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  • Who is “GOD”?
    • Supermanager?
      • Six-day creation?
      • Prayer of petition?
      • Children suffering?
      • God in my Bones
    • Four Components
    • 1. Root Encounter
      • How exciting is Wonder!
      • Journey into the Unknown
      • Face to Face with Whom?
      • The Breath that is Me
      • The Touch of Tenderness
    • 2. Clearing up
    • 3. Articulation
    • 4. Celebration
  • Why Religion?
    • The Mystery of Life
      • Human but real
      • Psychological needs
      • Concepts of God
    • The ultimate questions
      • Dogmatic creed of science?
      • Values honoured by scientists
      • Our roots lie in mystery
    • Our true self
      • Failures of religions
      • To love ourselves
  • Conscience – from where?
    • Human Dignity
      • The individual person
      • Free and Autonomous
      • God does not interfere
    • Conscience points to God
      • Conscience and evolution
      • The Reality we respond to
      • Is morality absurd?
    • Humanist Conscience?
      • Does religion hinder progress?
      • Does religion erode responsibility?
      • Morality and self-interest
  • Is God personal?
    • If we have mind, so has ‘God’
      • ‘God’ grounds our personal self
      • Is our universe personal?
    • Is ‘God’ a person?
      • Images of ‘God’ in Scripture
      • Three ‘Persons’ in the Trinity?
    • God makes contact from within us
      • ‘God’ in sacramental realities
      • Religious experiences? True or false?
      • The effects of meeting Christ
      • ‘Incarnation’ on other planets?
  • God in our world?
    • The universe demands an explanation
      • God’s ‘mind’ and truth
      • Our dependence in ‘being’
      • We touch God in love
      • Does evolution disprove creation?
      • Causality and the whole world
    • Is belief in creation stupid?
      • The root of our self-worth?
      • No larger frame of meaning?
      • Belief and wholeness
      • A psychological need for God?
      • Can arguments convince?
  • Is God Love?
    • Evil in our universe
    • We ourselves inflict evil
    • God shares in our suffering
    • Evil can be transformed
    • Did God design Hell?
    • Love in our universe
    • Love means forgiveness
    • Love means happiness
    • Love means life

Why Religion?

Why Religion?

Religions are human — so what?

Religion is all about the mystery of our life.

Yes, religions are shaped by human imaginations, but they point at something real.

Religions respond to human psychological needs – this does not invalidate their basic claim.

All human concepts of God are limited and flawed.

In our scientific age we need religion as never before

Science does not supply answers to the ultimate questions of life.

The kind of science that rejects God amounts to a dogmatic creed that that contradicts true scientific principles.

Scientists too derive their values from outside the realm of science.

We must return to our roots by recapturing what is mysterious and sacred.

Questions and answers

“Religion is useful for social functions. That’s all.”

“The history of all religions, including that of Christianity, is a litany of injustices and failings.”

“Religion makes us hate ourselves.”

Simple Course on Prayer

film on discovering God

Simple Course on Prayer

Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research