Part 8: Some Other Reasons To Believe
Part of what I've tried to do in this project is to show people how they already, at various times, live and act AS IF they believe in God. I think that I have shown fairly conclusively that many paradigm human experiences put us in a place attitudinally in a place that is already very much like faith. That we must then make a decision as to whether we are going to 'leap into' these experiences is something that is harder to argue for, but I think I've done a good job there. But the element of choice cannot be denied. In the end, we choose one way or another what we believe on these issues. I only think I need to show that the choice is not 'arbitrary' and starts from somewhere genuinely reflective to show that religion is indeed rational.
In the end, though, there are a number of other practical reasons to believe that help push us in the direction of faith. I would not appeal to these on their own as arguments for belief. But they reasons to believe besides. I address some of those here.
a. The Ultimate Play
If you ever go to a comic book convention, you will see a great many people play acting parts from movies, television and video games. People live into fantasy all the time 'as if' it is real. There is this great scene from the film GALAXY QUEST, where a trekker-like fan of the fictional show GALAXY QUEST is talking to one of the actors, who is now trapped in outer space on an adventure taken straight from the episodes. The boy begins by explaining to the actor that he knows that GALAXY QUEST wasn't real, and that his grasp on reality is better than the actor gives him credit for. The actor stops the young man and says "its all real dude" and the young man yells out "I knew it!"
In the end, I think many of us have a part of us that believes in our fantasies and our dreams. It is scary to admit this, for we fear being thought a fool. Life is dangerous if you believe lies, and an unbending commitment to truth is important for any mature human being. But the hardest truths to face, sometimes, are truths about ourselves. The truth is that many of us are still just big kids, and in our deepest hearts we believe, maybe we know, that the adventures of imagination that thrill us are more than just fiction. Religion can exist as a kind of justification for this attitude. It points to a truth, too big for any one imaginative expression, that lends some reality to every such expression. This is the ultimate vindication of the earlier-discussed experience of play. Religion gives us permission to be ourselves.
b. The Quest For Meaning
When speaking about the meaning of life, you have to be careful. I do not want to deny that atheists do very good things and can be good people. Some of my best friends are non-believers. Denying a ground for purpose may be seen as denying them a ground for morality, and I am not arguing that. But all of us, all the time, live as if what we do matters. To me, talk of meaning is simply talk of 'making a difference'. It is a matter of doing something that seems to make the world a different place. We experience life as ultimately valuable. But that experience has no justification in an atheistic world. Appeals to 'mattering to people' have no weight. For what matters to one person or another, varies based on taste. The serial killer's actions are meaningful 'to him'. And if all possible decisions are meaningful, than none are. In this world, all you do is wiped away by death. The world will be no different for you having been here, in the end. Unless there is a God that sees what you do and remembers. In the mind of God we have hope to make a real, lasting difference. I think our experience of meaning and purpose can only rightly be made sense of in a world with God.
No comments:
Post a Comment