It's Really All About God

It has been a joy to read Samir Selmanovic's wonderful new book, "It's Really All About God: Reflections of a Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian". If your idea of a good time is being told what you want to hear, then don't read this book. However, if you like to be challenged, and if you enjoy thinking outside the box, then this book will be a treasure.

Too often, progressive pleas for multi-cultural inter-faith dialogue just fall flat on their face. They can seem like a watered down version of political correctness. Samir is asking us for something much more substantive. Instead of simply exploring other faith traditions as a way toward shallow tolerance, Samir is suggesting that we learn to experience "the other" as a way to learn about ourself.

To say "God is a mystery", is too often used as a self-serving conversation stopper, effectively avoiding the task of addressing questions we don't yet know how to answer. We can keep our images of God safely unchallenged and protected from conclusions that might force us to concede the presence of God in people with whom we disagree. These questions, if entertained, might demand that we change our theologies, liturgies, and practices. The bondage of certainty can supplant the freedom of faith and make it impossible for us to say, "We don't know," "We apologize," "We want to change," and "what can we do to make things right?" - pg 11

One of my favorite chapters is called "The Blessings of Atheism". In this chapter, Samir shares the interesting story of his TWO weddings. Having been raised as an Atheist, his family was not happy about the idea of a Church wedding. His wife's Christian family was not particular excited about the idea of a wedding with what they considered to be the "twin evils of the world: alcohol and dancing". The result was back to back weddings (literally one day after the other). Surprisingly, Samir doesn't seem to be bitter about all of this. The experiences of Samir's life have given him a wonderful perspective that allows him to see the good in these different views of the world.

Atheism does not have to be the end of the mystical; it can be the beginning.

Religion does not have to be the opium of the people; it can be the poetry of the people.

Both faith and doubt are opposites of certainty and therefore part of the same whole that refuses to see all but the obvious. To end either of them would be to end imagination.

Faith imagines. And so does doubt.

We both have both.

And we are better together. - pg. 198