by Craig
Rusbult
( and C.S.
Lewis )
Does God want
us to be certain?
Sometimes debaters, using logical and philosophical
arguments, try to prove or disprove the existence of God. But proof seems
impossible. And I think that a "state of uncertainty" is
the way God wants it to be, even though a lack of proof may feel frustrating
for
those who seek certainty.
Consider the most important event in Christian
history, the resurrection of Jesus. If God had wanted everyone to be
certain, most doubts would have been erased if the risen Jesus had marched through
downtown
Jerusalem, showing everyone (not just Thomas) his hands and feet and side,
asking the Roman soldiers "Was I dead three days ago? Am I alive
now? Are
you convinced?", and doing amazing miracles that would clearly demonstrate
His power. Why wasn't this done? Why was the evidence merely impressive
— with the testimony of many eyewitnesses whose lives were dramatically changed,
and a lack of disproof (no dead body could be produced,...), and more — instead
of overwhelmingly decisive?
Or we can ask: Why doesn't
God give everyone a Damascus Road Experience (Acts 9:1-31) that would convince
each
of us,
not just Paul, that there is a theistically active God?
Or, when we examine the Bible and nature,
we can find some evidence to support views across a wide range that includes
young-earth creation, old-earth creation, theistic evolution, and atheistic
evolution. Again, we can ask "Why isn't God more obvious?"
Currently there is no clear and obvious theory about origins that is accepted
by everyone. But if God wants us to recognize Him as Creator and to
understand how He created, why is there evidence that would lead rational
people to propose
such a wide variety of explanations?
Although it isn't stated directly in the
Bible, God seems to prefer a balance of evidence: there is enough
reason to believe if we want to believe, but not enough to intellectually
force belief
against our will. Instead of overpowering us with undeniable logic
or mighty miracles until we grudgingly give up and give in, God wants us
to want to come to Him. With this balance there is authentic free will,
and the choice is primarily made not by intellect, but by heart and will.*
A balance is also needed for developing the "living by faith" character
so highly valued by God. In a world where it may seem justifiable
to be intellectually agnostic, God wants a non-agnostic faith, a total spiritual
commitment,
a true repentance followed by a complete trust in God that is manifested
in all thoughts and actions of daily living. {* God also draws
us to himself through the loving power of the Holy Spirit; but this page won't
discuss tough questions about Calvinism, re: human responsibility and divine sovereignty.
}
Yes, Evidence is Available
A Summary
Living by Faith
| Appropriate Humility (not too little, not too much) is a useful attitude for thinking about proof-and-faith, and for living. It reduces a tendency to be a "debater" who wants to win every argument, including attempts to prove or disprove the existence of God. And it's related to Accurate Understanding and Respectful Attitudes. Here is a description of appropriate humility (or you can think of it as appropriate confidence) from Bertrand Russell: "Error is not only the absolute error of believing what is false, but also the quantitative error of believing more or less strongly than is warranted by the degree of credibility properly attaching to the proposition believed, in relation to the believer’s knowledge." |
Ideas
from C.S. Lewis He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys. |
Life as Educational Drama It's interesting to think of “life as drama” with humans as the audience, actors, and co-authors, with the script written by God and humans. Here are brief-and-tentative comments about two questions: How does God use life to produce drama? A key element of drama is uncertainty, when we cannot predict the differences in “what will happen” if we decide to do one action instead of another. And some suffering (along with the many joys of life) can be useful to produce drama, to make our decisions important (because there are significant consequences for suffering, joys, relationships, and other things affecting quality of life) and difficult (due to uncertainties). Why would God create life with drama? Maybe — and yes, I know this is speculation, because none of us fully understands the "why" of God, in His purpose for our life — the drama performs an essential educational function, helping us learn how to live by faith (so we can obey the 1st & 2nd Great Commandments by more fully loving-and-serving God & other people) and giving us opportunities to “practice” so we can improve this essential skill through our dramatic experiences with faith-based living. Afterlife we're wondering “why?” we can think about contrasts. When do you most appreciate being warm and dry in your home — when you've been warm and dry all day (like Phoenix in July) or (like Seattle in January) when you've been cold and wet during a long walk home? In a similar way, you really appreciate being healthy after you've been sick, and waking up feeling strong & rested if you went to sleep feeling weak & weary after a hard day of work. Yes, a transition from bad-to-good can increase our enjoyment now, but try to imagine the much bigger bad-to-good transition during our glorious future life in heaven when there is "no more death or mourning or crying or pain" and we will truly appreciate how wonderful is this Afterlife, by contrast with the dramatic uncertainties and suffering of our present Life. One reason for "uncertainty and suffering" is the sinful disobedience of humans that, beginning with Adam, produced three results for humans: a decreasing of relationship-quality with God (in Genesis 3:7-13) plus two judicial results decreed by God (in Gen 3:14-24) with a decreased quality of everyday living (Gen 3:14-19,23) and (Gen 3:22,24) losing the gift of divinely supplied human immortality because "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." But the grace of God, in Jesus, gave us back the gift of life through His sinless human life, obedient death (when God personally participated in human suffering), and victorious resurrection. In the future, believers will regain "the tree of life" (Revelation 2:7) and (in Rev 21:4) "there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain." (paraphrased from Death before Sin - you also can read my summary about the question of "no death before sin?") One perspective on Educational Drama is to view life as a series of inquiry activities. What is inquiry? Opportunities for inquiry occur whenever a gap in knowledge — in conceptual knowledge (so we don't understand) or procedural knowledge (so we don't know what to do) — stimulates mental-and-physical actions, with experiences that let us think & do & learn. Teachers can use two kinds of inquiry activities: During science-inquiry we ask questions (for example, does God exist? if yes, what does God do?) and seek answers. With design-inquiry, during our experiences in life we define problems (they're opportunities to "make it better") and seek solutions. |
This website for Whole-Person Education has TWO KINDS OF LINKS: an ITALICIZED LINK keeps you inside a page, moving you to another part of it, and a NON-ITALICIZED LINK opens another page. Both keep everything inside this window, so your browser's BACK-button will always take you back to where you were. |
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The area for WORLDVIEW EVALUATION asks "Can
we be certain?" and describes apologetics (to defend the rationality of Christian faith) and evidence that includes Jesus on the cross and out of the tomb. { Also check "Tolerance and Truth" on the right side of the page. } Reality 101: Postmodern Relativism & Reality, Truth, Theory useful lessons from a teacher: Accurate Understanding and Respectful Attitudes Christian Education: Glorifying God in Our Thoughts and Actions is written by me, and pages by other authors are described in Education for Living a Christian Worldview by Faith |