Reasonable grounds for God and faith?

For some of the hard to understand challenges about believing in God, it can be helpful to consider things from the point of view of how they might appear if seen from his perspective, rather than considering how we think he should be responding to the issues as we see them (i.e. from our more limited viewpoint).

An example of how such perspective might provide insight can be found in common objections to claiming that the Christian God is the one and only true God. This view commonly lacks credibility with non-believers who see a myriad of alternative religions and cultures all having a god or gods in whom they also believe. If there are so many, it is reasoned, considering one to be true and all others false is arrogant and divisive. The fact of so many religions makes it seem obvious, from a position of non-belief, that they must all originate from human thought and imagination in some form.

Supposing it were to be true, however, that a separation and alienation has developed between God and humanity, as the bible portrays, so that a spiritual capacity to know and ‘commune’ with him has become lost, while a sense of awe about our world and a drive to find meaning and purpose in something greater than ourselves remains. It would follow, from this perspective, that such a need and desire within us would lead to many forms of meaning-making and a seeking out of objects for worship and sovereignty in what we see about us. Such a drive, exercised without knowledge of its source, could equally explain the many and varied cultural expressions of religion, religious belief and philosophical thought that is witnessed. Viewing the many religions and beliefs that exist in the world can therefore be consistent with a view of God and faith as portrayed in the bible in the same way that it can also lead to non-belief.

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 The propositions presented in these introductory remarks are not intended to convince on the say so of this writer’s views alone, but they are an attempt to show an available pathway to faith and belief that does not require abandonment of reasoned thought, but that is possible for a person who is seeking to follow. The intention is to offer a pathway to finding for oneself an assurance of knowing – i.e. by getting to know and respond to the heart of God, with confidence to believe that he has a desire to reveal himself and a longing to become known to each and every person.

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The hope of faith is to gain an understanding from God’s perspective, rather than our own, of his (eternal) reality and greater purposes of goodwill toward all – purposes that are being played out in this (passing) dimension of time.

This is not to deny or minimise tragic issues of pain and suffering that occur in human existence, as well as death and destruction from natural disasters and cruelties that can occur in nature. These realities are among the most difficult issues to come to terms with but, if nothing else, they raise the stakes as to the importance of coming to right conclusions in how we come to understand them. Similar issues exist as a result of exploitation and abuses perpetrated in the name of religion by Christian denominations, past and present. Nor is it the purpose of this site to promise or imply that faith (in God) will ensure an idyllic lifestyle, free from trouble and adversity. Yet it urges serious consideration of the initiatives claimed to be taken by God and offered to us (if we will seek him) bringing reconciliation, redemption, salvation and restoration into his original purposes for a world of people he longs to be in relationship with and to live among.

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