An Answer for Everything, Proves Nothing

Someone very dear to me has schizophrenia. He thinks that he's living the life of the Truman Show. He believes everyone in the world knows who he is and is watching his every move. He has an answer for everything.

I challenged his view one day by telling him that if he did a Google of his name, he'd be hard pressed to find himself even listed. I proposed that in a world where everyone is watching you and knows your name, a Google search was bound to prove this.

His explanation was simply that God could have manipulated the results of the Google search to hide the truth. We could all even be a part of a conspiracy. His answer was expected. "You have an answer for everything", I replied. The problem with his way of thinking is that there's nothing anyone can say or do to prove or disprove his beliefs.
He proves nothing by answering everything.

The brilliant scientist Stephen Hawking is very ill right now. He has spent much of his life working on a theory to unify Einstein's theory of relativity (which deals with physics on a large scale) with quantum theory (physics on a very small scale). His hope is that this unifying theory will explain everything.

I can't help but wonder, in the light of my schizophrenic friend, whether or not Hawking is looking for a system of truth that is just as insane.

Reading the doctrinal statements of some churches and Christian universities, I wonder if I don't see the same sort of insanity. They seem to have everything in life figured out. Is Christ anything if not a paradox? Does not the Christian see life in Christ's death, power in the cross, strength in His display of weakness and hope in His suffering?

I have always been skeptical of skepticism, but I am now becoming skeptical of any theory that claims to explain everything. I am starting to bring my skepticism of the "too good to be true" product that "slices and dices" to my philosophy.

Perhaps the best worldview of life purposefully leaves room for mystery. Perhaps the healthiest dogma is that which includes faith.

And why would the best worldview leave room for mystery if mystery wasn't the door for worship?

Exhibit A

Remember when I said that truth is a great book with a bad cover (see "You Can't Judge Truth By Its Cover")? I give you exhibit A:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk

Susan Boyle.

How shallow have we become to judge things by the outside instead of the inside? How foolish are we to embrace style over substance?

Why Die On A Cross When We Can Be Good Instead?

According to the Barna Group, 73% of adults believe that one can earn salvation through good behavior.

Almost half of all born-again Christians believe this as well.

I wish this were the case. I specifically challenge Christians with the following question (for non-christians, this question has too many assumptions).

If all it takes for someone to obtain salvation is to be good, then why would Jesus have bothered dying on a cross? Why wouldn't he have simply come to earth, preached/teached that everyone should be good and then ascended back into heaven?

I Want to Believe

“Do not seek the because - in love there is no because, no reason, no explanation, no solutions.” - Anias Nin.

As I encourage the questioning process, do I seek reasons in areas where there are none? Anias Nin, was no Christian, but she had a glimpse into the Christian concept of grace. Grace is NOTHING if it can be stood up on the legs of reason.

8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast" - Ephesians 2:8-9

I've been reading Pascal's Pensees lately. In it, he argues that there are some things that we know to be true that can't be proven via the reasoning process. Believing tomorrow will come is one example that I remember. Love is another.

I've always believed, against the grain, that faith and reason are supplementary as opposed to the common view that they are antithetical to each other. I've written about this in other postings and therefore won't repeat old ground.

However, in light of the nature of love and grace, I have to ask whether or not I go too far.

Perhaps the skeptics who think they have refuted religious faith, are standing on piles of mud that they have mistaken for gold. They think they have refuted faith by showing that there is no reason to hold it, but in doing so, they are really no different than the delusional person who might say that airplanes can't really fly because everything must be supported by the terrestrial. Perhaps their minds are too earthly. Or perhaps mine is too much in the clouds.

If airplanes operate by different rules when set in motion, despite the fact they are physically heavier than air, wouldn't God do the same?

Perhaps all that we call faith is really a test of our volition.

Perhaps what we believe (and even skepticism is belief) is really the naked exposure of our will.... our heart itself.

I was made for another. I am "otherly".

I want to believe...

Why Faith?

If there is a God, have you ever asked “Why would He use faith as the channel to relate to Him?” Why wouldn’t he post a huge sign in the Cosmos that was not ignorable? For those of us on the earth, the Sun is a great example.

Imagine that you are extremely rich and famous. What a great dream! Now, imagine that you are searching for true love. How would you ever know if anyone really loved you for who YOU were vs simply loving all that comes along with your wealth and fame?

One way would be for you to hide who you really are.

You might hide your wealth and fame and search for someone who really loved you for who you were, not for what you have.

Christ hid His fame and fortune and came down to earth in a humble manger.

I often see God as someone who appears to be hiding. But He wants us to find Him. He also wants us to love Him for who He is and not because we have no choice.

If God appeared to us as a giant in the sky, we'd be stupid to not at least act like we loved Him.

So He seems to veil Himself in such a way as to give us a fork in the road. That fork gives us two interpretations of life. One is the materialist's worldview that says man is the arbiter of all things. Such a view might even allow for belief in a god, but he/she/it is impersonal (Deism).

The other option is a God that loves us, a God who cares about how we live our lives and wants those lives to be acts of worship.

I'm not here to tell you that one of the two interpretations makes more sense or is more rational than the other.

I'm asking you "Do you want to believe?"

Which came first, intelligence or curiosity?

Does intelligence cause curiosity or does curiosity cause intelligence?

I don't have all the right answers, just the right questions....

Shortcut for the simple-minded

I believe very much in rationalism. I believe that it supplements faith in the same way that I could say as a musician, that music theory supplements creativity.

But in music there are musicians who have achieved greatness solely on their creativity and natural talent, devoid of music theory. There are great musicians who are long on creativity but short on musical analysis. Eddie Van Halen is a great example of this.

There is no doubt that the questions that this blog asks are some of the most important questions of life. I ask questions like, "What is this life?", "Why are we here?", "Is there a God?", "Who is God?", "How shall we live?", etc....

This line of questioning inevitably leads us down a complex and intellectual road. Although, we might enjoy this journey if we are intellectually inclined, how do we reconcile the exclusivity of such thought with the universality of these questions?

In other words, if we have discovered that these universal questions many times require more sophisticated, analytical thinking, then what about the exclusion of the simpler minded among us? Have we discovered truth as merely an intellectual, academic exercise?

If knowledge is virtue, than only the highly intelligent among us are virtuous. This is clearly not the case.

If there is a God and this God is a personal, loving God who wants to reveal Himself to us, then it would make sense that He would want to reveal Himself to everyone, regardless of intellectual propensity. How is He doing this?

Perhaps we look with the mind, when we should be looking with our hearts. If our hearts are pure, is there anything we can't see?