God-in-the-box

Four walls and a door are all that makes up this simple structure. Yet, the simplicity is exactly what makes it so captivating.

How can something like a box so inauspiciously tackle the very questions that challenge our understanding of God?

Tomorrow evening, Nathan Lang will be showing his documentary “God in the Box,” which details his experience with not only finding the origins of the concept of God but also in evaluating the way that everyday people view the concept and persona of God.

In the documentary, students enter a large black box, and there are two questions written out on a piece of paper:

“Do you believe in God?” and “What does God
look like?”

These two questions can be answered either by a personal dialogue, which is being filmed through a two-way mirror, or through writing, drawing or any other form of personal expression that comes to mind.

The Box, the namesake of the documentary and the experience, will be available on campus for students to participate in the same type of situations as are shown in the film.

The film, which I have had the opportunity to view, is one of the few times in which we are asked not to view God within the structures of what we know but rather through the lens of what we feel.

Organized religion is becoming less and less popular among young people, according to a Pew Research Center study. Individuals want to have little to do with the structures of religious institutions.

Without “religion,” though, individuals still must believe something. Even the belief in nothing is, in and of itself, still the belief in something.

This is where “The Box” proves to be most valuable. By asking each individual “Do you believe in God,” it is not asking whether you believe in the Christian God, the Jewish God, Allah or any other derivation of a similar specific faith.

Instead, it opens up the opportunity that a different answer can be given by each individual. No two answers need to be the same.

God is often blamed as the root of conflict. Religious texts are used as rallying cries to take up arms against some form of enemy, some form of “other.”

Yet, we rarely see a conflict when two individuals have found some form of inner understanding and peace within their own constructs of God.

This is the road that Lang is creating.

The difference comes down to a dichotomy in the meaning of two specific terms: religion and faith.  Religion is a belief within the confines of an institution and a like-minded belief with some form of common culture and belief with others.

Faith, on the other hand, can be found with complete independence and individualization. What one person believes has no effect on the faith of another.

In challenging the beliefs of individuals, the “God in the Box” campaign is allowing the general public to evaluate God.

The movie viewing is meant not only to show examples of what “The Box” can bring out in others but also to set the tone for one’s own personal reflection.


­— azoot@indiana.edu