A “New” Argument – Sixty Feet Deep

Over the course of my life I’ve doubted, more than I’ve believed… even now I still find myself stuck on some basics.

“Big omniscient power in the sky is going to listen to me personally and help me through it all…” just doesn’t seem realistic.

“I pray for an outcome… and I praise and give thanks when it comes true because he did that for me… or I acknowledge his will for all of creation when it doesn’t.”

“Im a Christian now, but life isn’t getting any easier”

These are challenging thoughts to wrestle (I’ll answer them all at the end… but for now, I acknowledge the questions themselves can be enough to make one shy away from even asking them… or worse, trying. To answer them.)

Over the last few years, I’ve been lucky enough to have a few small epiphanies that are helping to answer them, or at least shed light on them. And I’d like to share here not only to help any that are facing the same, but to catalog my own thoughts for future reference.

But most of it comes down to the following:

Largely, we have learned Christianity at such a basic level, that we can’t answer questions that are posed outside that basic framework.

And that is mostly because…
in order to learn calculus, it’s necessary that we first learn basic arithmetic. But in learning those basics, we tend to not feel the need to go further, as these basics answer most anything… and if I ever did need calculus… other people know that, right?

But if something happens in our lives that sparks questions that require more than addition, subtraction, division and multiplication… they are ill-equipped.

Where it diverges however is here:

If a first grader has to answer how to find the surface area of a dodecahedron, (and he doesn’t find the answer straightaway or after some consideration) he doesn’t say “well, math must be fake.” He acknowledges the lack of information in the matter.”

But those who disavow Christianity seem to take a different tack. “I can’t find the sense in it, or the answers I’m able to find don’t match what I’m seeing practically, so… it must be wrong.”

So let me introduce you to a slightly deeper view of things…

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Whether you are Christian, Atheist, Agnostic, or anything in between… you have to acknowledge that the universe is a mystery. Our existence is a mystery. There are more mysteries than facts available to us.

But specks of truth, moments of insight, and glimpses into the vastness of reality dot our existence, our experience, and our lives… and in those moments we are aware, if only briefly, of our limitedness.

And it’s in these moments we have to start our journey. Not one in. Which we seek a religion or a philosophy, but one in which we seek a truth itself, and a truth that is larger than ourselves, and one we will (with 100% certainty) never fully grasp.

Unfortunately, there’s one last pre-amble about the nature of truth which we need to cover to prepare the conversation… which is that NOTHING is 100% knowable.

Science still has more unanswered questions than we are comfortable admitting. Scientist admit there are limitations to what we know now, and how much we ever CAN know. Part of that is due to an inability to DISprove theories. (Quantum physicists for example, believe that Multiverses are possible, but that even if so, we will never be able to verifiably prove them.) I could rant on this for a long time, but essentially. Full 100% proving and verification through 100% disproving isn’t possible; therefore “faith” in a belief system is and will always be necessary.
Even when we discuss experientially gained information, it’s often been argued by philosophers that (since we must process the world through our brains which are flawed) we can’t even be sure we are here, much less that what we process, can be called correct by any standards.so, strike two on immutable experiential truth.

That being said:

I’m not refuting truth, or the ability to know it. I’m acknowledging the limits of known truth, and introducing the deeply seated need for faith (blog coming soon) in this journey. A faith which is defined as trust in, and an adherence to, a belief… that is driven (not by blindness) but by being truly open to all information, as it comes, up to and including a perpetual reconsideration of that truth as further information is revealed.

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So let’s start with a biggie… the Bible, itself.

I was taught the Bible is the source of all truth… and while I still believe that (in some sense)… maturity, experience, and the addition of nuance has taught me more. But instead of saying it… I’ll illustrate it.

Does the Bible explain to me the structure of atoms? No.
Does the Bible tell me about how gravity works? No.
Does the Bible tell me how to reset a bone after it breaks? No.
So clearly it’s not “everything.”
Ok, then what DOES it tell me?
Does it tell me what God represents? Yes. Through a series of stories of his feelings and reactions to creation and man’s actions, I can get a sense for the nature of the being by which all rules apply. The good, the bad and, the ugly. (It’s odd to me that people get angry at God for reacting consequentially to man’s defiant actions, but never get angry at gravity for doing what it does when a person ignorantly defies it.) But I digress.
Does it tell me about human nature; the duality of man, the capability for good and love and justice… and also for evil and selfishness and greed? Without a doubt! Thousands of years of perfectly (all too) relatable human stories of failures and triumphs, falls and redemptions, denials and homecomings, spiritual deaths and resurrections.
Does it tell me how to act, how to behave, how to craft a fulfilling life, how to connect with others… how to live a life of intention and purpose to find satisfaction in what really matters? Absolutely.
Does it also tell me clearly and explicitly that I will struggle through that, but then tell me how to deal with those struggles and to continue on without beating myself up and/or giving up? Yes it does

The Bible is a book of everything I NEED to know in order to find purpose, to deal with the negatives of the world, to see what truly matters, and to offer examples and guidance of how/what to do to get there.

But it is not an entire textbook of everything that has been, is, or ever was factual.

And we need to stop treating it as such.

One thing I’ve thought a lot about lately is, why then is THIS what we have, and NOT a textbook. And the answer is surprisingly simple, and a little funny…

I ask you reader: “when you were in school did you read your biology textbook cover to cover? or did you just read what you needed to get through?” And “even if you had read it all the way through (other than possibly changing careers) would that have changed the course of your life?

The answers are likely “no” and “no.” But why?

We are humans. I may go longer than I want I this next section, but it’s because this is the next fact that requires some acceptance and acknowledgment of it ramifications, particularly as it relates to what we believe about the Bible.

We are humans, and for good or bad, that means we are emotional, illogical, relational creatures. Knowing facts and figures may increase our confidence in some cases, it may even serve as a source of pride… but it doesn’t make us better people, make us happier, more fulfilled or add any meaningful quality to our life. But what the Bible teaches us… can.
Because we are humans, we learn slowly. And often to our own detriment. So, when asked the question, “why is the Bible so rough in the OT.. why does THAT God seem so much harsher than the God of NT?” Easy… people themselves and societies were still learning. The cause and effect cycle was more pronounced. It NEEDED to be more harsh to be more explicit. Imagine a parent to their disobedient child (let’s imagine a child adopted at 3, so as not to imply a gradual learning from the start). If the new child comes into the home with no prior discipline and no boundaries… the new parents must set clear, heavy, strict and strong boundaries until the child knows inherently what IS and ISN’T correct. After some years, that child knows. They still might disobey, but the rules themselves no longer need to outlined harshly for the purpose of clarity.
But there is another more subtle nuance at play which is this: People wrote the Bible… it is inspired by God, but it is not written in Gods handwriting. But what does inspired means realistically. It means that humans existed independent from God. With the same access you and I have; meaning the occasional epiphany, the realization, the pattern recognition, the revelation, the accrued wisdom of one’s own experiences plus the experiences of others… THAT is what was written down.
Sidenote: if you’re prone to try and disavow the Bible with the reason that “humans wrote it”… I’d ask you in response “what have you ever learned that either wasn’t written or spoken by humans?” Go ahead, I’ll wait. And while I’m saying that for effect… that leads me to try and pay off the previous point… whatever thought came to mind when you imagined what you learned without others “telling you” is that which you know in the same way they did. And just as you then likely shared with others to corroborate the revelation, so did they… over and over for thousands of years until it was finely honed and ready for sharing.

Man, that was a lot… you may want to stretch a bit and grab a drink, ‘cause we’re in the home stretch now…

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Ok, so the Bible has all the answers to who is God, who am I, what is this world really about, and what can I do about it. So what?

Well, that means there are certain questions we have to ask (and answer) in the same ways as the ancients… through a combination of Bible reading, but ALSO by utilizing other available information and personal revelation through experience, and the experience of our community.

I’ll now go back to the first questions and try and show this in action:

“Big God making it happen”

The Bible tells me God is everywhere, all the time, and able to do anything.
The Bible tells me that God created all things, and that they are inherently good.
The Bible tells me God is the basis for justness and justice
Experience tells me that world is a consistent place where a seed grows when planted in the right conditions, an apple comes down when tossed up, etc.
Experience tells me I would very upset if presented with a world that didn’t work in such a way.
The Bible tells me God loves us humans, but also that He can’t do so at the expense of that justice and truth and order
The Bible tells me that my actions have consequences within that just universe
The Bible tells me my obedience will will pay off by aligning me more with God (see cycle that has arisen in previous 3 notes)
The Bible also tells me this is true of all people.
The Bible (and experience) tell me that humans have free will.
Experience (and the Bible) tells me people don’t always use their free will for good
Math tells me that randomness exists
Experience, math and systems thinking tells me that one’s use of free will in an individual capacity has a rippling effect out to the communal whole; making parts of the whole unstable, making the potential for the whole shift, but rarely destabilizing the whole to the point of destruction (although it is possible)
The Bible, psychology and experience tell me that people are imbued with an internal sensitivity to their surrounding situations, and in those choices can use their free will for to good or back for themselves or for others.
The Bible tells me that God IS good.
Literature (and experience) tell me that previous statement can be literal, figurative, or Metaphorical…
The Bible tells me (either literally, figuratively or metaphorically) that we are made in the image of God (aka Good)
The Bible tells me all things that are not good are not of God
My experience of making decisions is that I’m not always 100% in control. I might make a decision that doesn’t suit me, or one that does but I don’t understand why I made it. I might base it off a “random” thing j recently experienced or read, or I might even have a moment of overt clarity that defies understanding.
Psychology and sociology tell me I’m not unique and this experience is mostly if not entirely universal
The Bible tells me that Lord works in mysterious ways, that his agents “appear” when needed
My experience is that despite my best efforts to self-destruct… I’ve been unable.
My understanding then; of all these things together… is that God may not be tangible. He may not be “present” in a physical sense. But just as truth is always with me, so is he. Just as the force that holds the atoms together within me is with me, so is he. Just as whatever this consciousness I have seems to stay with me over extended periods of time and maintains internal consistency, so is he. And if that is true of me, it’s true of all people. And if it’s true of all people, and all that is knowable is that they contain SOME part of goodness, justness, fairness, truth inside them, and THAT is part of what compels them to mak the decision they make… then again, YES, he is there, he is at the center of it all. And he is consciously acting to instill those insights into them.
Counterbalance: it also stands to reason then, that the more they attempt to align themselves with that part of Him, the more his nature WILL be expressed in them.

I realize there are two further thoughts/questions that are naturally adjacent to this so I’ll continue with those:

How can something be omniscient, omnipotent,

In the previous section I already showed how something can be everywhere. (Omnipresent) Because less than a “person,” God is more like a spirit, a concept, an idea, a ubiquitous force, a field within all things.

But how can He be all knowing (omniscient) or all powerful (omnipotent) and thinking goes something like this:

The Bible tells me that God is present in all things (because he must to be sovereign)
Science tells me that the laws of nature guide all things.
Physics and Math tell me that all things exist and continue to exists because these rules are present and active in all things
My experience is that fingers don’t also occasionally becomes cats or bicycle tires. So, because there must be A force that is present within all things, I have to accept the possibility that it may not be the only thing, OR that this force itself IS God (or at least one aspect of Him)
The Bible tells me God is sovereign and that he rules over all things, imparting his will over all things.
Mathematical probabilities tell me that (outside of free will) any action which has a reaction, is in some part the result of original force. Meaning any further is aware of both the previous force and the probabilities of future forces.
That awareness, as I see it, is the omniscience.
Omniscience doesn’t have to be a man on a throne saying “I knew you’d do that” it can also be an awareness of and a reaction to what may come (per the previous section about guiding through insight)
Said another way: if your friend routinely dates toxic women/men, and you are out and one catches your friend’s eye… you may not know what will happen, but you do know that the probability is high that the pattern is beginning again. You can choose to guide your friend out, or not… and your friend can then use his/her own free will to follow or not.
This understanding allows God to know, in the moment, at any given moment, what the chances are that X, Y or Z might happen. And to offer those insights/revelations/epiphanies that allow you to amend your course.
Said another way (again) God is aware your habits, your proclivities, (as well as all others, including inanimate objects in motion) and the likelihood that this person will do that thing to this person who will react his way… and in a moment (that you are lucky to have) he can reveal a course correction that you have the chance to act on which could allow that will to be done.
Of course, that’s more complex than the traditional view, but it allows one to process it more functionally.
But that leaves us with all-powerful (Omnipotent) to which I think is still simpler to explain using existing notes
If God is present in all forces that make up our ordered universe. Or if He IS all of the forces that make up the universe. Anything that CAN happen by use of this force, would HAVE to happen by Him, rendering him as “All Power” or the only power capable of making anything happen.
Again, a far cry from the anti-omnipotent argument of… “but can God make a stone so big he can’t pick it up?” But with a more mature look at what power really means, it makes more sense than the myriad farsical jabs I’ve seen taken at the idea.

Also, I’d be remiss to not address them together when someone says: “but if he’s all those things… why didn’t he save me from XYZ”

And while I can’t answer each and every response, as I’m sure they all contain subtleties… the answer is likely hiding in plain sight if you spend open, honest, time considering all paths that led to the issue… and also understand there are (statistically guaranteed to be) hundreds if not hundreds of thousands of details you don’t know and can’t know.

Which quite naturally leads to the question of “I pray for an outcome… and I praise and give thanks when it comes true because he did that for me… or I acknowledge his will for all of creation when it doesn’t.”

And I think this answer requires two parts.

Part 1: Destiny, Fate, Sovereignty, what will be…

In a Christian or non-Christian worldview, we have to admit a single thing… what happens, happens, and once it’s over, it’s happened… no going back. (Quantum physics may complicate this one day, but for now, my experience backs this up…)

Interestingly enough… the Bible tells me something very similar. The name of God, in Exodus, is YHWH, or “I am what is” or “I am what will be” or “I am what will become” or some similar riff on that. “… what is/will be…” requires some consideration. It’s not a statement of “has already been destined” or “will be controlled” it’s an acknowledgement of the fact that things will happen in the future, and they will be consequential to future events to come. And those facts together will stitch together reality itself. “What will become” will create “what is.” Said another way… it is what it is. The question is… what will you try and make it.

Part 2: The role of Prayer in that

As I’ve stated previously, we are finite. We don’t have all that much control in the future. But we can control, or at least mildly guide, our selves and small surrounding communities through our actions, through our output, even through our very nature.

To that end, I can employ again some Christian doctrine, some experience and some science.

Let’s start with science:

Psychology tells me that positive thinking can literally rewire your brain. From dealing with trauma to stress to general well-being.
Neurology tells me that rewiring your brain can change your physiology; your brain chemistry, your nervous system response and much more.
Biology tells me that a well-regulated system functions better.
Sociology tells me that a mentally and physically healthy person has better relationships, and is more capable of being a benefit to their families, friends and local community.
Science tells me that prayer is all of the above…
The Bible tells me that prayer can do all the things it says abovez
Whether there are supernatural things at play between these two dichotomies? I (nor anyone) could prove true or false. But it works… and it should not be discounted that the Bible’s version of predates all sciences by 1000s of years. I understand that doesn’t “prove” that it’s inspired BY God… but it is pretty divine, and it does speak to how humans have truths revealed to them, if only through experience.
But let’s do this slightly more specifically…
Consider a person who prays for safety with every car ride… and thanks God after every car ride. Soon enough that person will be confident in each and every ride even before the prayer.
They have created a spirit of calm. Or God has granted that spirit of calm.
Is that psychology at work? Is that God at work? Did God create in us that psychology, then give us the ideas/realizatios that it works? Again, it’s not provable (by either side.) but its efficacy is undeniable.

The last question I’ll touch on far faster because this has gone far longer than I anticipated, but the question was this (it’s a long article, I imagine you forgot it… I did.)

“I’m a Christian, but life isn’t all going in my favor… what’s that about?”

And this is likely the easiest of all. We were taught wrong. Belief in God, and following what the Bible says we should do, doesn’t (necessarily) change the events of our lives. (After all, what will be will be, right?) But what that belief can do is change how we deal with those events, how we recover from them, how we view ourselves and others in the midst of them, a humility that we never controlled them in the first place, the hope we are able to glimpse during the dark times, and the community we have around us during them.

Conclusion:

Life is complex. The world is complex. Reality itself is complex. Understanding why it is the way it is, by extension, must be complex. So to try and resolve our doubts with pithy explanations, then getting mad at the pithy explanations for not answering our doubts fully… is… quite short-sighted.

The Bible never asked us to understand it all. The Bible asked us to read it, to wrestle with it, to try and follow to the best of our ability, but most importantly to not give up… even though you’re not likely to achieve any of the above… because in the seeking, you will find what you need, as you need it. So help me God.