Mrs. du Toit has an entry about why she is an atheist. I found it fascinating because she basically says she wants to believe, but can’t. She sees the benefit of being religious, but can’t believe there is a God – take a leap of faith – any more than she can believe in a Easter Bunny.
I wrote a long comment that I’m going to quote here.
Interesting post. It is always a pleasure to get your unique perspective on things.
I guess I don’t see faith as a leap, but rather a struggle, and not in a big is-there-a-god kind of way. In my experience when I seek G-d he provides me experience and evidence that he is there. The struggle is in continuing to hope when things look hopeless and trust that He is there to help me through like he has in the past.
Jesus said that if you follow his commands you will know that what he says is true. This is experiential. Seems to me when you look at the life of people and you find they are happy, full-filled or self-actualized you are seeing that what they believe is true. It works.
My relationship to the Trinity is not so much about me and what I do, or believe. It is about them seeking me. Father-God is seeking us, pursuing us, like a obsessive lover.
I don’t know if any of this is making sense. Part of the problem is I’m talking as much about how I know something is true and real. For me that is looking at the results. To me its isn’t a logical set of arguments that make something true. I’ve heard too many logical arguments that prove crazy stuff like the Illuminati. If I want to know if what Jesus said is true, I have to try it and see the results. If I want to know if He is answering prayer, I don’t try to convince myself prayer will work, I try it and see. I pray – talking as if I was talking to a loving father – and see what happens.
I’m also not talking about testing Deism. I’m talking about testing Jesus of the Christian Bible. So if I want to learn how I should pray I look there. If I want to test how I should live I can look at the teaching and example of Jesus.
I like the title of your post because I rarely comment on religion. Most people are just interesting in arguing as an intellectual exercise. But you seemed to just be expressing your belief.
Ron
I’ve been thinking a lot on this post. Firstly it is a little strange I even commented. I’m almost phobic about commenting on talking about or posting online about religion. It is a very contentious subject, fraught with conflict and I’m a big time conflict avoider. I like to say I’m perfectly willing to talk to people about my faith and theirs, but only if it is out of a genuine desire to seek the truth, and not just to argue. On the internet, the land of more heat than light, most people just want to argue. But it didn’t seem to me Connie just wanted to argue.
And I like Kim and Connie. I enjoy reading their stuff. I think of her as being a lot like my wife. An intelligent, accomplished, conservative woman, who home-schools and is well read.
As I mentioned recently I’m going through something of a spiritual reawakening. And I think the next post I’m going to do is to fisk my own comment. There is just more I want to say.