During my last year in university, I came across a TV program that focused on prophecy and Jesus’ return, and urged listeners to receive Jesus as their Saviour. My friends and I discussed these shows and as a result, one friend invited me to church. I went with some hesitation. Then I heard the music! It spoke of hope and assurance from God–things I didn’t have. Moreover, the way the congregation sang surprised me–they sang as though they had this hope and assurance.
Read MoreThe “religion” of my parents and of me was the striving to build a “better future” with our own hands. We believed it was possible, if every person puts common good above his/her own good. The very History seemed to be on our side. The victory in the World War II, successes in the space and in other areas of science. What God are you talking about? Everything can be explained if one only thinks hard, and everything can be accomplished if one tries hard enough.
Read MoreWhen I was studying for my PhD, a good friend (who wasn’t Jewish) and I used to talk about God. One day, my friend told me he had become a Christian. I thought that was a rash decision. He invited many of his friends to church, but I was the only one who came. I don’t even know why I went; perhaps it was because he was one of my closest friends and I wanted to honor that friendship. Perhaps I just wanted to understand why he had made such a choice.
Read MoreI was a scientist, an engineer. The only God I could bring myself to believe in was far too busy coordinating the clockwork of the cosmos to concern himself with me, and I saw little reason why I should concern myself with him. Faith in a God who actually cared would be intellectual suicide. Unless, of course, God was not who Spinoza and Einstein made him out to be.
Read MoreI was raised in a traditional Jewish home in Melbourne, Australia. My grandparents were killed in the Holocaust. Our family were founding members of the Moorabbin and Districts Hebrew Congregation, where I attended weekly until I was 19. I married a Jewish woman, but we were divorced. I married again to Priscillia, who is a Christian. In the early years of our marriage, I was quite comfortable with the differences between us.
Read MoreI grew up knowing I was Jewish, but not knowing much about what that meant. We celebrated one Jewish holiday, Chanukah, mainly so we had something festive to enjoy while everyone else was celebrating Christmas. I had no understanding of why we lit the Menorah or what it commemorated. In fact, I took no interest or pride in my Jewishness, because I was a child who always felt “different” and left out, and to me, being Jewish was one more thing that separated me from others.
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