Re: Enhancing faith / conflicts & confrontation

But I think those of us here are right on in insisting that if our faith is to
be ultimately worth anything, then it must be faith in something true. It's one
thing to toy with doubts over whether you received a placebo or not, or to
'psych yourself up' with positive thinking so you can feel better or conquer
some shortcoming, even if you suspect in the back of your mind that your
superficial activity has no effect except through your mindset. But Christian
faith cannot be like that if it is to be taken seriously.

Part of my faith struggle is that my own interactions with other Christians (or
actually my internal mental response to them) seems "polluted" with less than
encouraging thoughts. E.g. when someone shares an amazing way that God
apparently answered a prayer for them, my mind immediately jumps to a speculated
analysis of how many times I was prepared to give God credit for certain
outcomes that didn't happen, but when they did, I was happy to verbalize God's
praise to others. The skeptic light starts flashing in my brain that when a
person has enough premonitions (prayer requests, ...) probability alone will
ensure that once in awhile they come through. And then 20-20 hindsight takes
care of the rest while the others fade into forgotten oblivion. The Godless
person will immediately jump on that as the only explanation necessary, and with
a grand sweep dismiss personal testimonies as all being in similar categories.

I should stop calling this "evolutionary philosophy" since evolution is only
part of this picture. Perhaps the term: "selectively skeptical philosophy" is
a more accurate phrase. If a natural explanation can seem to suffice, then
jettison the God-talk. In other words, doubt almost everything. But especially
doubt religious claims. Evolution is, for some people, an extension of that
very thing. But as others point out in this thread, a world that can produce
what it has is a pretty awesome thing -- I agree.

--merv

Quoting Randy Isaac <randyisaac@adelphia.net>:

> Merv wrote:
>
> >But have any of you, because of your
> > evolutionary beliefs, found your faith enhanced -- built up?
>
>
> Reading this and all the various responses caused a few perennially repressed
> musings to surface from my sub-conscious vault of worries. I've never
> articulated it but here's a try:
>
> That which enhances faith isn't necessarily true,
> That which is true doesn't necessarily enhance faith.
> That which destroys faith isn't necessarily false,
> That which is false doesn't necessarily destroy faith.
>
> Substitute "faith" with "comfort" for those who are grieving. "joy" for
> those who aren't. "democracy" for the politicos. or "peace", "assurance of
> God's will", "conviction", etc.
>
> The net is that we can't determine the truth of a claim or a philosophy or an
> ideology or a factoid based on the effect it has on people or to the ideas to
> which it might lead someone. But neither can we ignore the impact that truth
> may have on ourselves or on others.
>
> This leads to some problems in dealing with people. Take a simple and
> oft-used example: consider someone who is extremely emotionally distraught
> about the death of a pet and who is greatly comforted by the thought that
> they will see their pet in heaven some day. What comforts them is believing
> it to be true, not whether it is in fact true or false or simply unknown. Do
> we affirm their belief? or seek to ensure they only believe the "truth?"
>
> Getting honest with myself, how many of my own beliefs are that way? Held
> dear because of how they affect me rather than any objective reality? Do I
> really want to apply the objective reality test to all my beliefs? I wonder
> how many I would have left--or if I would ever have time to figure it out.
>
> Regarding the topics we've been discussing, I'm sure we can cite examples on
> all sides. YEC and evolutionsim have undoubtedly both destroyed many
> people's faith. And both have probably enabled it for many others.
> Atrocities as well as acts of outstanding mercy have been committed in the
> name of Christianity. Atheism does not strip a person of altruism.
>
> In the end, our knowledge and wisdom are finite and we must always seek truth
> in love, being sensitive to the implications of our view of truth as well.
>
> Randy
Received on Tue Jun 6 12:37:21 2006