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About Michael Clark, Ph.D.
Expertise
If you’d like to explore the psychology and philosophy of religion, talk to me. I’m familiar with the main issues of most world scriptures and I’m well versed in comparative mysticism.

I’d be happy to answer questions about insight and the so-called "discernment of spirits" as expressed in the biographies and teachings of saints, gurus, seers, shamans, healers, etc.

I also enjoy commenting on theological issues as they relate to different religions.

Questions about Freud and Jung's views on religion would also be appropriate here.

If you just need simple facts about different religions, please see www.adherents.com and/or religioustolerance.org (I have no affiliation with these web sites).

Experience
I did my M.A. at Rabindranath Tagore's Visva-Bharati university (W. Bengal, India), a place that welcomed students from all around the world. A great chance to meet real people practicing different religions. I also run an educational website earthpages.org that touches on interfaith and related issues.

Education/Credentials
Ph.D. in Religious Studies
M.A. in Comparative Religion
B.A. Hon. in Psychology/Sociology

For more info, please see my CV and letters of recommendation and my blog at michaelwclark.com.

Publications
Print Media:
My table from "Religions and Cults" at earthpages.org is reproduced with permission in L. Lindsey, S. Beach and B. Ravelli, Core Concepts in Sociology, 2nd ed., p. 157

World Wide Web:
My online article "Letter to God" coauthored with Buddhist monk, E. Raymond Rock, appears on several different spirituality-based websites, including http://tinyurl.com/db7a5o

I've interviewed, as a Christian, a self-proclaimed mystic: http://tinyurl.com/cawykr

My articles appeared at the former New View magazine nuvunow.ca and are published at earthpages.org.

Education/Credentials
Ph.D. in Religious Studies
M.A. in Comparative Religion
B.A. Hon. in Psychology/Sociology

For more info, please see my CV and letters of recommendation and my blog at michaelwclark.com.

You are here: Experts > Religion/Spirituality > Religious Careers > Comparative Religious Studies > Conservative religion

Comparative Religious Studies - Conservative religion

Expert: Michael Clark, Ph.D. - 11/21/2006

Question
There is this girl I work with that engaged me in a talk about God and I felt like she talked me into a corner. Nothing she said I could really prove or disprove or otherwise argue against. I guess the main thing that was of bother to me was her persistence. I know religion doesn't have the property of falsification that science has, but it seems that I who am agnostic should have some leverage in a conversation of that matter since I would be kind of unbiased. I don't believe in God, nor deny that he/she exist. I think she forces fear on me. Fear of going to hell because I don't, "have a relationship with God," which she says is necessary in order to not go to hell. How exactly can one argue against the existence of everything that one sees as not being the creation of a single being? Must all existence have a creator, or how might one argue the contrary? And she made multiple references to the bible, which I can't argue against simply because I don't consider it as a book of facts and don't want to offend a highly religious person by arguing the details of it. I'm not sure if she holds the passages in the bible as being of greater validity than anything historians could tell her about the way things are and have been. Some practicing Christians seem to have a very warped way of seeing things, and a very closed-minded conservative way of seeing the world unlike with other religions? How can I even begin to argue that I will not go to hell because I don't see things the way she does?

Answer
I'm afraid I can't answer all of your concerns because it would be way too involved to go through all the points and cover them adequately. But I will just say that I do understand them. It seems to me that you are an intelligent person, perhaps on a quest, and don't want to be duped by historical "teachings" yet at the same time are open to truth, whatever that may be. My question to you is... "why bother argue with people about going or not going to hell?" It seems to me that if you just do the right thing as you see it, then you don't have to justify yourself to others.

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