How can I believe in God with everything that’s been going on these days? From the world going crazy (I think it always was – it’s just come home) to what’s happening personally, it can be hard. But I don’t think you can have a healthy faith without doubt. Doubt makes you think. Doubt strengthens faith. Sounds crazy, but that’s what I believe. For example, I’m reading Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit. Good book.
For an eloquent answer, and what spurred me to write this, read Mean Dean at blogs4God.
Speaking of faith and doubt, let me again refer you to frontline: faith and doubt at ground zero. It will get you thinking.
FYI, I don’t wonder why you believe in God what with everything going on these days. I wonder why you do what with the lack of objective evidence of his existence.
I’ll take metaphysics over current events any day. 🙂
I’ll take Pascal as my guide here. It’s a wager. Just because there is no physical evidence of something (at least that we can see – yet), doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Actually, this is a justification not just for faith in God, but for science as well. I’m know little strange in believing that science and faith are not in conflict.
Pascal’s wager is a coward’s bet. You might as well believe in malevolent purple unicorns from Jupiter. Not because you’ve ever seen one, but because they might, just maybe, hop on the next spaceship to Earth and zap you.
(Douglas Adams had a much funnier analogy in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books: http://hhgproject.org/entries/greatgreenarkleseizure.html 🙂
And science goes on the hypothesis, test, conclusion cycle. Saying that faith is on an equal epistemic footing with the scientific method leaves out that important “test” step.
You can call it a cowards bet. I don’t think so.
I think some other, nicer, more politically correct, less scary, religious beliefs are cowards bets – like reincarnation for example. But who am I to know? I won’t until I die. I’m open to the mystery of it all.
I should have said instead of “actually, this is a justification not just for faith in God, but for science as well.”
“actually, this is a justification not just for faith in God, but for the pursuit of scientific knowledge as well.”
I do not believe that faith and reason need to be at odds with one another. I don’t think it’s an either-or proposition. I think many that have tackled the subject in the past – including previous Popes – are scared of asking hard questions that don’t have answers.
You may want to check out: http://www.pbs.org/faithandreason/ for some thought provoking stuff along these lines.
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