Since I’ve come back to the Faith, and talked to others about it… one of the most common responses is… “that’s great that you have something to believe in… but I just find it hard to believe in anything… much less God.”
And while that seems like a reasonable (and maybe even a relatable answer) on the surface… it denies one very simple fact… which is that you can not, categorically, believe in nothing. Living life requires belief systems to function. It may be a simple belief like “being good is its own reward” or a belief in something like karma, that if you do good, good will come back to you. It may be about energy and positive vibes, or a personal virtue system of “if I’m true to myself, all will work out for the best.” There are a million variations of belief systems, and to some extent… people accept them because, on some level, they ring true.
So they put that stake in the ground, close the book, put it on a shelf… belief system, acquired.
The irony is that these are the same people who struggle with the concept of God for very specific reasons like misalignments in their understanding of the Genesis origin story vs. the Big Bang, or an aversion to Old Testament judgment. They don’t realize that if they dug just a millimeter deeper into their own beliefs, they would encounter the same issues.
For example:
- If Karma is true, and you will get what is coming to you (good or bad)… Who is judging? And who is meting out that judgment?
- If doing good is its own reward… by what qualitative measure is “good” being measured, and what is the origin of that truth.
- If manifestations of energy are the fundamental building blocks of reality… and the Big Bang is the origin of space, time AND energy… what was there before that energy? And what caused it to begin in the first place?
- If meditation connects you to all things equally, and you can almost tangibly feel it… what is that you’re actually connecting with? and what is the origin of that?
So, when you look a little deeper, it’s not that people don’t or can’t believe in “something…” it’s that they are choosing to accept truisms, and choosing to ignore that which takes a bit of work (intellectually and emotionally) to access.
So, the first big takeaway for someone who is challenging God’s existence because it is not 100% clear, opaque, or presented in the way they need to see it to believe… is to acknowledge that, truly… nothing is.
The second is then to ask… “WHY then were they so comfortable accepting those simple truisms?” The answer there is quite simple… because WHEN they followed through with it, they found that it felt true. They found that when they acted in a certain way, there was a simple and repeatable re-action… and that (semi-)tangible “proof” gave them what they sought… and that was enough.
This is where the discussion breaks into multiple parts and needs to be addressed as such.
First is: Why might “truth” be found in things outside God?
Second is: Are these truths found indicative of final, absolute truth?
Fourth is: Is there a better way to define truth?
I’ll start with the why…
- Why are some belief systems found to be effective to some extent?
This may be an unpopular statement, but… generally speaking, those simple guiding principles are rarely questioned because following them DOES yield some level of success. It IS true that when you do good, good comes back to you. It IS true that being positive yields a more positive outcome. Meditation DOES create a more peaceful, unified self in relation to the outside world. Manifestation DOES have effects beyond what we can normally control with outside influence.
But why?
The answer is because God made all things. All rules. All parts of reality. All tools for humans to use to get closer to him and each other. He is the source of all things, so it stands to reason you CAN find him (or parts of him) in things that are not Him directly. I, personally, believe that these align with His desires for us so closely that you can find them in the Bible… it’s just that over 1000s of years of free will, ego-centricity, society’s humanism over deism, we’ve (attempted to) unlink these things from God and put them in man’s hands. Karma is just divine judgment, meditation and manifestation are prayer, psychology was always a powerful tool; that we now can name and affect our brains does not diminish the fact that God them to work like that.
Now, I understand that may not be the answer you currently have, but reaching back to the beginning of this, I would ask that you get more intellectually honest with yourself and try to identify the real origins. The real roots. The real rules and laws that dictate your beliefs and structures, and you will find that you are (not surprisingly) lacking detail and clarity on those. (Hold that thought until part 3.) - Why wouldn’t it be OK to continue believing in these parts if they help? it’s not like it’s hurting anyone…
So, let’s say you acknowledge that your information and clarity are lacking… but you aren’t open to God as the origin. Is it really wrong to keep following these mantras and ideas? For me, the answer is a decided no… because once you open the box of truth and find none… that box is (somehow) more empty than before. You can choose to abandon your beliefs… (harsh)… or you can dig deeper and try to find the real seed from which truth springs, the real reason for cause and effect to exist at all.
To put it another way… continuing to live by a portion of truth (knowing there is more out there) is like finding yourself stranded in a desert, coming across small oasis with one tree and a few animals… and deciding to stay forever (meagerly surviving on scraps)… knowing that nearby lies a rich, oceanside jungle (that would allow you to live abundantly all of your days.)
If you think you’ve tapped into a bit of truth, why not submerge yourself in the endless source itself?
The main problem with following a fraction of a larger truth is that it has a logical, tangible end to its value. Human life is not always pleasant or easy to deal with, and while these fractional truths may hold value in some domains; they are not sufficient in all. They will reach their natural limits, and you will find yourself stranded without the tools needed to deal. - Taking a new, experiential approach to truth, when confronted with a lack of clarity on all sides…
So, here’s where it gets fun… if you are where I think you may be now… you’re in a stage of pure doubt or a state of “I don’t know.” Let me focus on what that REALLY means: One can’t say “no…” to that which one doesn’t know. Which means we have to hold all ideas (even ideas we may have previously disposed) as possible again. We have to revisit them. Give them a fresh eye.
But, if we’ve been through the logic, the rhetoric, the debates, the arguments, the reading We’ve done the homework, we’ve put in the hours, we’ve challenged it all from all side…(I mean, I sure hope you have if you decided to completely give up on something, anyway…) and where did it landed us? at “agnostic” at best. So then, what else can we turn to for “proof” or “ways to define the validity of ideas?”
Well, we can revert to what has been found to be most natural to us since the beginning… namely, our experience. Action and Reaction. Cause and effect. Repeatability of outcomes after consistent inputs… Emotional sciences, we might say. We learned that fire hurts from touching it. We learned that punching people usually (or eventually) gets us punched back. We learned that hugs from those we care about feel good when we are down.
We believed in those things from previous because we tried them… and we found them to hold certain truth. And we trust that we are right. But… have you REALLY tried Jesus? Have you tried living your life to be more like him?
I’ve always thought it interesting that people will buy hundreds of dollars of crystals… they’ll read and plan around horoscopes… they will meditate daily… they will get dozens of books on self-help and act out every daily list of requirements… but they won’t read the Gospels or go through a 30-minute devotional daily for 3 months. They won’t just “try living like Jesus.”
Now, I also know that it’s likely that you may have had gripes with what you “understood” about the Bible, or God, or Jesus, or Christianity, or Christians as a whole. You may not like the political leanings of those who are most vocal about their faith, or you may have known (or grown up around) some very un-Christlike “Christians”… but please remember… Christ-followers are just that… followers. And many of them are following FAR further back in that line than others. I’m not asking you to try following a religion… I’m asking you to follow the one and only. Try it… and if you do it well, I don’t doubt at all you’ll find a much deeper well than you currently knew existed.