Is our universe a happy accident or is there a Creator? This is a question that precedes religion. This is the question that Dr. Nicholi, Jr. tackles in The Question of God. As you can imagine by the title, this is a heavy one, not in size but in scope. The author, a Harvard professor, has been teaching this course for over twenty-five years where he has his students debate the philosophical arguments of Freud, a devout atheist and Lewis, an atheist-turned-believer. In short, Freud’s answer is “Grow up!” and Lewis’ answer is “Wake up!”
In an engaging and intelligent way, Dr. Nicholi, Jr. starts by examining the similarities between Freud and Lewis and takes us through how they formed their beliefs. Both were incredibly intellectual from an early age. Both suffered significant losses early in life. Both were close to their mothers and had fractured relationships with their fathers. Both had bouts of melancholy early on – Freud’s turned into depression and Lewis’, crediting his faith, turned into peaceful happiness.
Freud was born into the Jewish religion and raised by a devout Roman Catholic nursemaid who took him to mass. He studied Judaism in his early life until he turned away from it during his tenure at the University of Vienna where he experienced intense anti-Semitism. In his scholarly works, Freud refers to himself as “a materialist” and wrote that the idea of a Creator is “so patently infantile and so foreign to reality, that…it is painful to think that the great majority of mortals will never rise above this view of life.”
Lewis’ grandfather was a local vicar and Lewis’ early worldview was that religion was “silly”. He embraced atheism until he experienced a radical change during his tenure at Oxford University, which took him towards profound belief in the Old and New Testaments. Lewis came to believe that not only was there a Creator but that Creator stepped into human history. Lewis wrote, “Humanity could be divided into ‘the majority who believe in some kind of God…and the minority who do not’.” He goes onto further divide the Hindus “who believe ‘God is beyond good and evil’” and “the Jews, Mohammedans and Christians who believe ‘God is definitely good or righteous, a God who takes sides who loves love and hates hatred.”
From there, The Question of God dissects the writings of each to arrive at their fundamental worldview in the context of conscience, happiness, love, sex and pain.
This book is for anyone who enjoys well-constructed arguments presented by intelligent men with strong convictions about who they are and what they believe. It is natural to gravitate towards the argument that is more in line with your ideology. For example, as a ‘believer’, I found Lewis’ arguments more informative and compelling and I found myself offering excuses (i.e. his life experiences) as reasons for Freud’s worldview. However, this book offers an understanding of both sides and gives great insight into two brilliant men and how they experienced their lives while positing The Question of God.
