A Question of Faith

I came to Ghana with as few expectations as possible in order to be open and objective towards the new culture I would be emersed in. It's important to leave your baggage at the door so to speak, in order to experience life from various perspectives. I feel that I have been successful in doing so, but the one thing I constantly get hung up on is the question of religion. Before leaving, I knew that Ghana was a deeply religious country, with the majority of the population involved in the Christian faith. Like I said, I knew Ghanaians were religious people, but in fact I had no idea of the level of their piety. Along with everything else, being here has me seriously questioning my own beliefs about the legitimacy of the supernatural world, of god, and the creation of mankind.

Religion is practiced in a different manner here. Ghanaians are not Sunday Christians by any means. They recognize god and the occult realm in every moment of every aspect of daily life. Unlike academia at home where there is a stark seperation between education and religion or science and religion, the two coexist in Ghana. It may be subtle, but it is there. A professor might say something like, "God willing we will discuss the topic of biodiversity next lecture." Therefore God, religion, whatever is evident everywhere and always. Being surrounded by religiousness is one thing, but being inundated and indoctrinated by it is something completely different.

My first serious and unwarrented account of an attempted conversion was last Sunday. While the rest of the country was in church or on their way I decided to sleep in until about 9:00 a.m. On my way down to get some breakfast when a fellow student said to me, "why weren't you in church this morning." LIke he knew me or something. To which I responded, "because I'm not a Christian." He asked, "well then what faith are you?" "Actually I don't have a faith" "Well haven't you heard of Jesus Christ?" "Yes of course I have." "I want you to believe in him." Tired of being quasi-attacked about my lack of faith I said the first thing that came to mind, "Oh well that's nice." The conversation ended at that point, but I continued to replay the encounter for the rest of the day.

I guess the thing that is hard for me is answering the question, "why don't you believe in Jesus Christ as your lord and savior?" How do I put that in words? How do I explain my belief in non-belief to someone whos beliefs are backed by an ancient and easily understood book. They have chosen sides and never looked back. I am realizing how important it is to be able to explain your opinions, values, beliefs, whatever you want to call them. Even if you believe in nothing you should have a valid argument and a clear understanding of nothingness. I won't figure out the answer to the question stated above any time soon. For me there is no rush, but I will continue to go over it and discuss it because I do believe that with self-realization comes great insight and empowerment. For now I'm going to do some thinking and when I come back hopefully I'll have a few more things to say on the subject of religion