Study 19 - July 16th - 22nd 2007

Is There More To Life Than Science and Reason?

“To the Jews who had believed in him, Jesus said, ”If you really hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John Chapter 8: verse 31-32 (NIV).

I have just finished reading two books on religion by atheistic authors, one by Richard Dawkins called “The God Delusion” and the other by Christopher Kitchens entitled “How Religion Spoils Everything”. One of their assertions in both books is that Christians are people who have faith in faith. By that they mean we put our trust in things that are not facts. They believe Christians are deluded and mentally unstable because of this.

It is interesting to look at the word truth and faith together. I have no desire to be a person who has faith in faith. What we believe needs to be true, at least credible if we don’t know all the facts, otherwise we may as well join the list of those who believe in fairies that we look for when we lose our teeth when we are children. As some say, it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere, but I say you can be sincerely wrong.

Even the atheist Richard Dawkins in his book is unable to 100% rule out the possibility that God exists. Also when he discusses questions about how life began way back in the beginning, he comes up with some clever possibilities that sound so non-rational they are humorous. He avoids the question about how matter came into being. Talking about the origin of life and matter require him to move beyond the realms of science and reason, and for him there is nothing.

When it comes to gaps in the evolutionary process moving from one kind of matter and species to another in the evolutionary train, his hope is that one-day the links will be found. When I look at Richard Dawkins words, difficulties and gaps above I see faith in faith.
The reality is that no one can settle the matter of truth and life through reason or science alone because it does adequately answer all the questions about life we have.

When Jesus said, he is the way the truth and the life and that the truth will set you free, it is a truth that is open to question and evaluation.

I did not grow up in a church and had no religion except a little at scripture in school and Sunday school until I was about 5. Yet at 19 years of age and searching for meaning to my life, I decided with the help of some Christians to read the life of Jesus in the New Testament. This was after I had looked at a Hari Krishna book I was given with snakes and animals animating from a Guru’s head.

While there was a lot of information in the New testament that was foreign to me that I did not understand, the clear message of Jesus’ life came through that was so powerful, honest, credible and challenging that I could not put it down. I found openness to truth in Jesus’ life that I have never met in any person, politician or philosopher. What touched the depths of my heart was the breadth of Jesus’ teaching about life, God, morals, sin, hope, love, forgiveness, suffering and death to name just a few topics. This in turn helped me to begin praying to God asking about whether Jesus was the Son of God and for real.

If I can be as bold as to say that God does come to those who seek after him, as he promises, and that those who embrace Jesus as the truth are people of faith. But we are not people who have faith in faith.

I have yet to find anyone who can dismantle the credibility and truthfulness of the life of Jesus or explain away the impact Jesus has had in our world. There is more to life than science and reason and you can find it in Jesus.

Prayer
Creator God, thank you for the truth that sets us free to explore the wonder and beauty of life while knowing that what we have, is to share with others. Amen.