July 7, 1998
I used to argue with my mother about evolution. She believed in a six-day creation by God and I thought horses used to be the size of small dogs.
One day, after a few major failures, I invited Jesus Christ into my life. I wanted His forgiveness and help with what I had ruined. At that point, the creation/evolution conflict was not an issue. Sometime later, I realized that I no longer believed the horse thing. I had much the same belief in creation as my mother. My mind had somehow changed although no one had tried to convince me with various points from either theory. I had read the Bible, trusted God, and despite so-called scientific evidence to the contrary, my position changed without any effort on my part.
Descriptions of experiences like this cause some people to think Christians “park their brains” when they embrace faith. They wonder how a thinking person could possibly believe that there is a God or that He created the world. This especially includes the scientific community.
Several years ago, someone researched this issue. They discovered that many founding fathers of modern science were Bible-believing Christians. This includes names like Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal, Louis Pasteur, Francis Bacon and German astronomer, Johannes Kepler.
For instance, Kepler reasoned that since the universe was designed by an intelligent Creator, it should function according to some logical pattern. In his day, other non-believing scientists thought the universe was a product of chaos, therefore had no order. Kepler countered that a chaotic universe was inconsistent with God’s wisdom. Because of his faith and thinking, we now have a better and more accurate understanding of the consistency in planetary motion.
In more recent research, it has been noted that 40% of the scientific community professes a belief in God. The writer who reported this number seemed surprised. The percentage turned out to be the same as statistics before this century. He thought that since more “scientific evidence” had been discovered, more scientists would dismiss God and embrace evolution.
In my experience, faith seemed to sidestep the creation/evolution debate, yet I realize that faith is not about believing something without evidence. Nor is it believing in spite of evidence to the contrary. Instead, faith is “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” based on a deep trust in God and in what He says. If it opposes other theories, who is right?
In relation to how the world was formed, God says “what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” Believing that God created all things is not based on what I can see or not see or figure out by my own reasoning. My faith is based on what God has revealed about Himself and my trust is in Him. When I ask “Is God telling the truth?” — faith says, “Yes, He is.”
Faith is reasonable. If God is the God described in the Bible, God can make a universe out of nothing. He can do whatever He wants, even form a spiritual dimension or reality that is totally unlike those things we can see, yet exists parallel to them.
The Bible says sin has flawed human reasoning. We cannot always depend even on our own common sense. Gideon is one example. He went into a battle against a Midianite army of more than 100,000 but God told him his army of 32,000 men was too big. God thinned it to only 300, then instructed Gideon to use a battle tactic that was absurd.
Gideon’s faith saw both visible and invisible realities. He knew he was hopelessly outnumbered. However, he did not allow what he could see to detract from what God said. His faith went beyond what his common sense told him. He believed in the unseen God — and won the battle.
Faith is not blind but accompanied by inner vision. Faith sees past theories and suppositions because it is focused on God and His Word.
Showing posts with label believing is reasonable. Show all posts
Showing posts with label believing is reasonable. Show all posts
Friday, June 16, 2017
Monday, June 20, 2016
Faith vs. Reason? .................. Parables 447
November 15, 1994
A couple of centuries ago, some philosophers and theologians began to promote the idea that faith in God is contrary to reason. They decided the spiritual realm is unseen so any ideas concerning it are speculative and too subjective. Thus faith is illogical for modern man.
This reasoning came when the scientific community began to discover and experiment with concrete examples rather than myths and folk lore. During this time of “Enlightenment,” many thinkers were impressed with their findings and with themselves. They decided their own ability to discover and reason was superior to faith in a God no one could see and in a theology that no one could prove in a laboratory.
The argument grabbed hold. Soon theologians separated human rational ability and faith. For many years, thinking and believing were considered incompatible.
Since then, rationalism is regarded as an unbalanced way of interpreting the religious side of man. Other theological concepts have been introduced to correct the imbalance and reason is now seen as important to faith. Those who believe do not throw away their brains.
However, many people are still affected by rationalism. It is demonstrated every time someone says, “I will only believe what I can see” or “If God exists, prove it.” People who consider faith belongs in the realm of personal subjectivity say things like, “Christianity is fine for you... but not for me...”
Such talk is contrary to something I heard a few weeks ago. A man told others that God helped him through some difficult times and, while many people become fearful during trials, none of us need to be afraid. He added, “If we just stop and think objectively about this, we realize God is big enough to take care of our needs.”
For him, objective thinking did not put God outside the realm of reason but smack in the middle of it. How could he say this?
He gave his reasons. The Bible says certain things about God and he believes it. In other words, he is not making up a god that suits his own personal desires but allowing an outside objective source, Scripture, to tell him what God is like.
For him, believing in God is perfectly rational. How could anyone not trust Him? His revelation of what He is like make it perfectly logical to not only rely on Him but have a certain amount of distrust in human reasoning. So how did philosophers come to their conclusion that our reasoning should be above faith?
Romans 1 provides a clue. It says God does make Himself known through objective means, that is, creation gives enough evidence to verify His existence. However, human beings who rely only on what they see of Him in nature refuse to acknowledge and trust Him.
This passage of Scripture indicates nature’s concrete, objective evidence is misunderstood or rejected. Those who know of God only in this way, turn from Him and “worship the creature rather than the Creator.” They eventually become unthankful and caught away by their sin.
On the other hand, Christians understand that God can be known only through the revelation He gave as recorded in the Bible. Romans 10:17 puts it this way: “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”
We need our ability to reason when we study Scripture yet God is not discovered by reasoning alone, either in a lab or a think tank. We need the message He gave to us in His Word.
A couple of centuries ago, some philosophers and theologians began to promote the idea that faith in God is contrary to reason. They decided the spiritual realm is unseen so any ideas concerning it are speculative and too subjective. Thus faith is illogical for modern man.
This reasoning came when the scientific community began to discover and experiment with concrete examples rather than myths and folk lore. During this time of “Enlightenment,” many thinkers were impressed with their findings and with themselves. They decided their own ability to discover and reason was superior to faith in a God no one could see and in a theology that no one could prove in a laboratory.
The argument grabbed hold. Soon theologians separated human rational ability and faith. For many years, thinking and believing were considered incompatible.
Since then, rationalism is regarded as an unbalanced way of interpreting the religious side of man. Other theological concepts have been introduced to correct the imbalance and reason is now seen as important to faith. Those who believe do not throw away their brains.
However, many people are still affected by rationalism. It is demonstrated every time someone says, “I will only believe what I can see” or “If God exists, prove it.” People who consider faith belongs in the realm of personal subjectivity say things like, “Christianity is fine for you... but not for me...”
Such talk is contrary to something I heard a few weeks ago. A man told others that God helped him through some difficult times and, while many people become fearful during trials, none of us need to be afraid. He added, “If we just stop and think objectively about this, we realize God is big enough to take care of our needs.”
For him, objective thinking did not put God outside the realm of reason but smack in the middle of it. How could he say this?
He gave his reasons. The Bible says certain things about God and he believes it. In other words, he is not making up a god that suits his own personal desires but allowing an outside objective source, Scripture, to tell him what God is like.
For him, believing in God is perfectly rational. How could anyone not trust Him? His revelation of what He is like make it perfectly logical to not only rely on Him but have a certain amount of distrust in human reasoning. So how did philosophers come to their conclusion that our reasoning should be above faith?
Romans 1 provides a clue. It says God does make Himself known through objective means, that is, creation gives enough evidence to verify His existence. However, human beings who rely only on what they see of Him in nature refuse to acknowledge and trust Him.
This passage of Scripture indicates nature’s concrete, objective evidence is misunderstood or rejected. Those who know of God only in this way, turn from Him and “worship the creature rather than the Creator.” They eventually become unthankful and caught away by their sin.
On the other hand, Christians understand that God can be known only through the revelation He gave as recorded in the Bible. Romans 10:17 puts it this way: “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”
We need our ability to reason when we study Scripture yet God is not discovered by reasoning alone, either in a lab or a think tank. We need the message He gave to us in His Word.
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