Even if faith is an indispensable part of human nature, why does a person need to believe in an invisible, intangible God? Have we not advanced beyond the need for a God?
Image by Myriam Zilles from Pixabay
What about Faith in God?
Why does it matter? Is faith in God necessary for anything? Many people who don’t believe in God, live a good life as productive members of society and leave the world a better place than they found it. Many people on the other hand, claiming to be agents of God, have done some terrible things to their fellow man and left the world worse off than they found it. So maybe believing in God is less important than living a good life.
Faith is...
I think of faith as absolute, unwavering confidence or trust in something or someone. The kind of confidence that allows a person to rely without reservation on the thing or person he trusts. The kind of reliance that allows unquestioning compliance. Imagine a man who wants to send a rocket into space. By relying on rocket science and adhering strictly to the laws governing rockets, he is able to get his rocket to do exactly what he wants. His faith in science makes him rely on and comply with science. His faith assures him a successful flight. Now imagine a man who wants to send a rocket into space but who does not believe in rocket science. He can hope that his rocket will do what he wants it to but if he does not acknowledge and comply with the laws that all rockets obey, he might make an impressive fireball with his rocket but nothing more. Two things are required for a successful rocket launch. Knowledge and trust (no pun intended). To possess the knowledge but not trust it enough to use it is pointless and one cannot trust what one does not know. The two together are the key.
Soul brother
From as far back as I can remember I have been aware that I am a “me”, a unique being separate from all others who experiences the world from a vantage point only I can occupy. Nobody will ever feel what I feel, hear what I hear or think my thoughts. Intuitively I understand that there is more to me than just my body. Although my body complies with the laws of nature I can learn those laws and take advantage of them to make nature serve me. I can imagine things that do not yet exist and, by manipulating nature, bring something new into being. I make moral judgements. I judge some things right and some things not right, not simply based on my personal preference, but sometimes in spite of it. I make conscious choices sometimes in conformity with my own accepted moral codes and sometimes against them. When I violate my own accepted moral code, I am able to recognize that my action was wrong even if It was desirable. In fact I have become adept at squirming my way out of the guilt and shame I feel when I know I have done something wrong using all kinds of devices. Often it seems there are two principles at work in me. One is instinctive and urges me to do whatever feels good regardless of the rightness of it or the consequences. The other urges me to do what is right regardless of whether I like it or not. Somehow, in spite of the fact that everyone dies I have a sense that the thing we call life does not end simply because the physical part stops working. I want to live forever and I have this feeling that it is possible, that death is not right and not meant to be the end of me. This I think is what makes me a person, a soul who lives inside a physical body. This very real person is not physical, not made up of matter. Isn't it reasonable to expect that, just as there are laws governing the behavior of matter, that there are also laws that govern the behavior of beings like myself, souls not made of matter. Like the laws that govern the physical world it seems that knowing and complying with this other set of laws would be essential for a successful life.
Man, the image of God
Image by ThuyHaBich from Pixabay
“The picture bears an exact resemblance to the original...yet the man is not like his image at all in the important detail that they are essentially of a different nature.”
The God I have come to know, the Creator of the universe, is also described as the Original person the template from which man is made. I am made as an image of God; a much lesser person than he is, but still a person. An analogy I find helpful is the comparison between the picture of a man and the actual man. The picture bears an exact resemblance to the original and much can be known about the man from his picture. Yet the man is not like his image at all in the important detail that they are essentially of a different nature. One is three dimensional, made of flesh and blood and alive whereas the other is two dimensional, composed of paper and pigment and not alive. The picture only exists because the actual person existed first whereas the person would exist even if there never was a picture of him. There can be several pictures of the person at different times showing different poses, clothing, scenes etc. but there is always only one person. My existence as a soul living in a physical body is thus contingent on the existence of an original. I could cease to exist and the original would continue but I cannot exist independently of the original. Just as things that exist in the physical world must comply with the laws that govern all physical things I think all things that can be called souls must live according to the nature of the Original soul. Faith in the original Soul is reliance on and compliance with the laws governing all souls. Faith in God matters because no soul can exist on its own. I am not an original but a copy of someone several orders of magnitude more grand than I am. I must thus have absolute, unwavering confidence in, and rely without reservation on the source of my being if am to be a true copy. A soul that does not rely on its creator is like a flawed image of a man that poorly depicts the original.
Seeing clearly
If nature is God’s creation then relying on nature and complying with it’s laws is indirectly relying on God. So what more does God want from me? What more does faith in God require of me? I’ve come to learn that while nature itself reflects many aspects of God’s nature; his greatness, generosity, wisdom, kindness and dependability, the laws of nature only govern the behavior of the physical world. However since the world is made up of the physical world and the souls who live in it, faith in God requires me to operate my own soul in a specific way and treat other souls with a set of laws that cannot be deduced from the physical world. The natural law tells me that if I consider something good then I must accumulate as much of it I can. God’s law tells me that I should only strive for as much as I need of even good things. The natural law tells me that to have an abundance of whatever I desire I must accumulate as much of the thing as possible. God’s law tells me that to truly have an abundance of good things I must be prepared to give away what I have. The law of nature tells me that to be great I must run ahead of everyone else and stand on others’ shoulders. God’s law says to be great I must be the one on whose shoulders others stand. The law of nature seems to suggest that to prolong life I must cling to it at all costs. God’s law tells me that to really prolong life I must be willing to give it up. Natural law tells me that to be happy I must seek my own pleasure wherever I find it. God’s law says that true happiness is found in seeking God’s pleasure, that when He is most pleased is when I will be most happy. It almost seems like God’s laws are the direct opposite of nature’s laws. Could it be that the discrepancy seems to exists not because these two sets of laws run contrary to one another? Rather, when one looks at the world through one set of laws without regard to the other the result is a distorted and inaccurate world. The naturalist who only regards the laws of nature interprets the world with incomplete information and comes to a wrong conclusion. The person of faith who disregards the laws of nature makes the same mistake in the opposite direction. Faith in God is that connection to the Original that is required to show us how to live as accurate image bearers and enables us to do so in a physical world also governed by God’s physical laws.
Comments