The Trinity Temple

  If God Is Real, Why Isn't He Obvious? Perhaps one of the most difficult questions a person can ask is this: If God exists, why doesn't God simply reveal Himself to everyone? Why doesn't God appear in the sky? Why doesn't God speak in a voice that every human being can hear? Why doesn't God give us undeniable evidence so that nobody could doubt? Think about how much suffering might be avoided if everyone knew, beyond any possibility of disagreement, that God exists. Why doesn't God simply say: "Here I am. I exist. This is what I want you to do." It sounds like an easy solution. But perhaps the question contains another question: What kind of relationship would human beings have with God if God's presence were impossible to ignore? Would we love God? Or would we simply obey because we could not deny God's existence? Would faith disappear? Would freedom disappear? Would people become morally better? Or would we simply become better at following ...

  The Fear We All Share There are many things human beings fear. We fear failure. We fear loneliness. We fear rejection. We fear losing the people we love. But beneath many of our fears is another fear: Death. Why are human beings afraid of death? Why does the thought of dying disturb us so deeply? Why do we cling to life? Why does the death of someone we love leave such an enormous emptiness? And why, even when we believe in an afterlife, can we still be afraid? Judaism, Stoicism, Hinduism, and Christianity have wrestled with these questions for thousands of years. Their answers are different. But together they reveal something profound: Our fear of death is not simply fear of an event. It is fear of losing everything familiar—our body, our relationships, our identity, our future, and our sense of control. And perhaps the spiritual journey is not learning to pretend that death does not frighten us. Perhaps it is learning how to live wisely because death exists. DEATH IS REAL, BUT...

Why do human beings judge one another? Why do we look at someone's race, religion, social class, clothing, accent, physical appearance, education, wealth, occupation, or status and immediately make assumptions about their worth? Why do we sometimes treat a wealthy person with respect while ignoring a poor person? Why might we trust someone who looks like us more readily than someone who looks different? Why do we sometimes assume that our religion makes us superior, our culture makes us more civilized, or our social position makes us more valuable? These questions are uncomfortable because they are not only about other people . They are about us . Human beings have always divided the world into categories: us and them, insider and outsider, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, beautiful and unattractive, powerful and powerless, our religion and their religion. Judaism, Stoicism, Hinduism, and Christianity each approach this problem differently. But all four traditions challenge ...

  “Why are people cruel to each other?” It is one of the oldest questions human beings can ask. Why does one person humiliate another? Why do people lie, betray, exploit, bully, oppress, or dehumanize one another? Why does power so often become domination? Why can human beings look at another person's pain and sometimes respond not with compassion, but with cruelty? Every major spiritual and philosophical tradition has wrestled with this question. Judaism, Stoicism, Hinduism, and Christianity do not give exactly the same answer. But each teaches us something important about human nature, anger, desire, ego, responsibility, and the possibility of becoming better people. THE HUMAN BEING HAS A CAPACITY FOR GOOD AND EVIL Judaism begins with a realistic understanding of human nature. Human beings are created “in the image of God.” That means every person possesses inherent dignity. But Judaism also recognizes that human beings have competing impulses. Jewish tradition speaks of the yetz...