Ascent
Summer 2005

Review: GAJ The End of Religion
Leslie Schachter

Robert Lewis continues where Nietzsche left off in his exploration of The End of Religion. Not only is God dead, according to Lewis, religion as we know it has gone with it. Fortunately for everyone, there is something else, even if it's not God or Allah or Jehovah. GAJ is an acronym for God Allah Jehovah, a term used by Lewis to unite the three monotheistic religions.

Lewis begins his exploration with the following dedication: “To those who have been engaged by the dialogue and to those still to be so.” In so doing, Lewis invites anyone, from the most learned theologians to the casual observer of religion, to take part in his historical recapitulation of religion, as well as his theories on modern-day religious beliefs, in which New Physics plays a large part.

From Lao-Tzu to Buddha, Plato to Jesus, Mohammed, Descartes, Shakespeare and Einstein, Lewis provides a comprehensive guide to concepts of GAJ, starting from a religious perspective and then progressing onward in history to philosophies of GAJ and on to GAJ and New Physics.

When reading this book, I felt a profound sense of interconnectedness associated with all the examples touched upon by Lewis. Even though, as he states, the three great monotheistic religions of the West base their beliefs on a godhead who resides without, as opposed to the more pantheistic religions of the East, which base their beliefs on the spirit within, there is a strong balance between the two. "The problem with the Western religions," Jung insisted, "is their extroverted focus... As a result the Western mind represses what it fears in itself, seeks to destroy in others what it fears in itself."

To me, religious figures, philosophers, scientists and poets are all seeking out truth under whichever domain they seem to be most familiar with. The uniting factor in all of these is faith, and in Einstein's words, “a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law.” To me, this is the essence of religiosity.

To Lewis, the New Physics has reached the same degree of influence as religion. He unites science with religion by probing the mysteries of quantum physics, where the observer cannot, at a certain point, be separated from the observed, right down to the smallest observable particle. The satisfaction of the mystery of the eternal, of the marvelous structure that is our universe, has always been present among us. It is in our attempt to define the mystery that we turn to religion, art, science and philosophy.

Lewis ends the book with an examination of Church and State and his criticism of how God is used to justify war. When both sides invoke God as their central battle cry, there is little chance for hope, seeing as both sides call upon the same God, thus creating a contradiction of God's will. Perhaps a reconciliation of religious practice and Divine worship will bring about tolerance and respect in the world. The more people open their hearts and minds to other ways, the more people will realize that they're on the same side, and the greater chance we have for peace and prosperity as one nation under the sun.

ooo