reflections on God on a sunday afternoon
today in the church, the pastor was talking about Faith and Science. I think the title of the Sermon was something along the lines of "Can a smart person believe in God?" It was interesting, as I was listening to him speak, I realized how much my mindset towards the whole thing had changed so much in my last two years of being at TWU. He pointed to the 1953 Miller Experiment (creating amino acids) and how it had been later disproved, which I interpreted as a sort of 'science-is-fallible' type of argument. I'm not sure why, but I just don't find arguments such as that compelling anymore.
Perhaps I have just become increasingly sick of 'rational' arguments for the existence of God. Philosophically speaking, God is a problem for His existence can neither be proved nor disproved. And I am beginning to believe, more and more, that in my finitude, I will simply have to accept most of what I believe simply as belief. But I am not bothered by that.
Why do we feel so compelled to "prove" the existence of God? And why do we feel it so necessary to intellectualize Him, interrogate Him, and rape Him of His mystery? Our belief in Him is not any less valid simply because we cannot know everything about Him.
I don't think we ever really "know" anything -- that is, with any certainty. Are we not condemned to merely "see through a glass darkly"?
I'm sick of seeing God as a list of characteristics determined by human logic. When did He stop being God?
Perhaps I have just become increasingly sick of 'rational' arguments for the existence of God. Philosophically speaking, God is a problem for His existence can neither be proved nor disproved. And I am beginning to believe, more and more, that in my finitude, I will simply have to accept most of what I believe simply as belief. But I am not bothered by that.
Why do we feel so compelled to "prove" the existence of God? And why do we feel it so necessary to intellectualize Him, interrogate Him, and rape Him of His mystery? Our belief in Him is not any less valid simply because we cannot know everything about Him.
I don't think we ever really "know" anything -- that is, with any certainty. Are we not condemned to merely "see through a glass darkly"?
I'm sick of seeing God as a list of characteristics determined by human logic. When did He stop being God?
posted by kris @ 4:13 p.m.
1 Comments:
At 6:17 p.m., April 11, 2005,
Anonymous said…
It seems as though every metaphysical belief requires a leap of faith. Believing in God takes a leap of faith, but strangely enough, so does not believing in God. Fence sitting seems like a silly attempt to "win the argument" with everyone else.
I heard (or read) a quote this week about believing in God that I found insightful.
"An atheist telling a Christian that God does not exist is like a blind man telling a man who can see that this idea of 'colour' that he believes in can't exist".
How could either of those two people "prove" the other wrong?
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