The Everyday Club

2/3/12 Anroch, about 60
I stopped at a Burger King where I met an older gentleman named Anroch (spelling?) who agreed to answer some questions about his spiritual beliefs. He is an African-American from the old South and and a baptist upbringing. He said his name is a traditional African name, though I'm not sure if its a name he was given at birth or that he assumed later in life. He has explored many types of beliefs and has now created his own custom-made religion that is very much like that of the movie "Avatar", where God is seen as a sort of natural energy field where we all come from and to where we all return after we die. He critcizes the God of Christianity, saying that such a God would have no right to allow such pain and suffering to exist on earth, and he believes we create our own heaven or hell by the way we live our lives. Anrock spoke with an authoritative tone as if he has it all figured out, though he claimed no outside information source such as an established religion. I talked about the problem of believing God is like an energy source - that just like we now know a lot about using and controlling electricity for our own purposes, with enough information we would eventually use and control such a "higher power" in the same way. I reminded him that the God of the Bible makes choices and has preferences and is completely sovereign - if He wasn't He would be our servant and we would be the "gods" instead. Anroch saw no problem with this and said he believes we are all gods after all. I asked, "But isn't that what Satan tempted Adam and Eve with - that they could be like God themselves and make their own rules rather than obey the real God? What happens when the earth is filled with masses of people who each feel they deserve to be God and rebel against His laws - wouldn't that lead to the selfishness, violence and injustice that he was just complaining about?" Anroch has been inventing his own religion for years; he wasn't about to let a stranger at Burger King convince him of anything new. But I know God is much bigger than that....