Michael provided a rather lengthy response to my last blog entry and I have decided that it is time to move on to themes reflecting on the season. So this will be my last reflections on all of this.
One thing that is clear to me: to believe or not believe is, to some extent, a decision. Clearly for some it comes easier than others. I do not know where I am personally on that scale. I have never found it terribly easy (once I grew up). Being shaped and formed in the faith in Catholic schools no doubt provided me a wonderful basis, but tons of Catholic school kids have turned their back on the Lord as adults. Interacting with evangelicals over the years of my teens and early twenties increased and broadened my understanding of God, but evangelicals also say things which do not make sense to me, about God and the world. Spending endless hours in prayer and study, service and pastoral care has at times strengthened and at other times weakened my faith. One often asks, "Is it God or a coincidence?"
In the end, I disagree with Michael. I think the reasons to doubt God are less forceful than the reasons to doubt Atheism. Atheism does not take seriously the meaning of "contingent being." By definition God is different from anything else there is. That is why we worship Him. He alone is good. That is why He is the definition of goodness and truth and morality. That is why His commands are to be obeyed. He is the source of all things, that is why we cannot compare ourselves with Him in any meaningful way. Which, in the end, I did not emphasize enough. All talk about God is analogical. Words applied to God do not have the same meaning when applied to us. That is the first rule of any orthodox theology. I sinned by not making that clearer at the start. (Google apophatic theology for more info!)
Michael misunderstood my statement that I am glad that atheists do not act consistently with their (un)beliefs. It isn't because they should be immoral. It is because atheism means life is meaningless. Nothing really matters. Humans are an accident. Life is an accident. Beauty and goodness are accidents. If there is no God, then as the teenagers say, "whatever..."
The eternal God created time and space and populated it with all manner of living things. He also withdrew, giving His creation room to live. I believe that human dominion (Genesis 1) is real and that, for the best of reasons, God chose to make a world which includes all manner of mysteries and challenges. Is God in time, now that He created it? I do not know. I do personally think that, based on Scripture, He has enterred time to communicate with us. I believe He intervenes and touches our lives. Some call that a God of the gaps and equate it with primitive superstition. Perhaps. Certainly every claim made by Believers is not true. But I have wondered at times, how would God act in the creation if He existed. When I ponder that I realize that His approach, a more secretive and un-obvious approach, makes sense if He has entrusted the work to us. I worship Him as Lord of time and space. I worship Him as good and loving. It is a gift to do this and it is a choice I make. I choice I make over and again each day, sometimes several times a day.
The atheist dilemma is that they live in a world without hope. I still think that one cannot simply write off the hunger for God. I believe it is the finger print of our Creator. Nor do I think you can ignore the resurrection because resurrections just do not happen. After all, isn't that the point! No, in the end, belief is a choice. Living faithfully is a choice. A difficult challenging choice, but a choice. I do not think Believers are better because they believe. I do think we are blessed. And being blessed is what I want to write about next.
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