The Virus of Faith

Jon, against my better wishes, your new found faith has got me thinking about God, Christianity and religion in general these last few months, and I’m surprisingly grateful for this (though still ultimately skeptical).

You may not realize it, but you have caused a massive of discussion amongst your friends. Recent events (deaths, birth, new opportunity…) have made me question ‘life’ more and think carefully about what you are saying. Thank you.

But you know what Jon: No-one’s getting out of here alive!

Hi Jon,

Faith, a favourite topic of mine, to be more specific, Christianity, although i hasten to add its has been a while since ive dabbled with the topic, but youve russled my feathers now!!

In responce to your comments, i pose the question; if you were to take away the early “teachings” your friend had from his parents, would his thirst to know more still have came about later on in life, ie Was it simply his influences which led him to where he is with his beliefs now?

You also say that without God the foundation will crumble into nothing - replace the word god with faith and you have the same result - with faith being something which comes from within a person or is self created.

One of the hardest things i find hard to grasp with Christianity (principle applies to all religions i expect) is the fact there is only one “path” to “salvation”, ie through Christ. Lets face facts, a persons environment has a huge bearing on whether or not they come to know Christ, and are more likely to share those beliefs. A person brought up in a Christian country, by Christian parents, or attends a Christian school, or has friends who believe are all huge factors towards a persons “conversion”. Jokingly, What about if as a child a parent left their kids sat for
hours in front of the “God channel” for weeks on end?!! This can be illustrated further by simply looking at what majority religions in specific countries ie Buddism in China etc…You are what your environment makes you, you have no real “choice” in what you believe.

In terms of Christianity and religion, the world is a completely uneven playing field. Why should one individiual be rewarded with “the gift of eternal life” as a result of circumstances he happens to stumble across, and another “be condemned to hell for all eternity” simply because another religion had the upper hand in the persuasion process?!

Remove religion and then maybe people will have a chance of a “relationship with God”, and not be pre-occupied with a book of rules which are constantly interperated as the reader deems fit and “convenient” for them.

Maybe religion was invented by man as a way of trying to make sense, and to apply some kind of logic to something that by all acounts is the complete opposite?

Hey Mark, cheers for your comments. I see your point, and this is something I’ve thought about a lot. I’ve long had several big, burning, unanswered questions about my particular faith. The fact that you’ve picked on one of the big ones gives me further food for thought. I’ll answer it to the best of my ability, but it’s a question that I’ll be asking myself.

I guess I’m lucky. I’ve never had my parents telling me that any of the religions are right. So this (to a certain extent) has given me the opportunity to choose. Although, I must admit I knew a lot more about the theory of Christianity than, say, Islam. And as you say, the world is on an unfair playing field, where some countries are defined by their religious standpoint. In this environment it must be very hard to look to other faiths.

Having sat on both sides of the faith/atheism fence I have to say that there is a big difference in perspective. As I said, it’s not a matter of “head” knowledge. As one mate said to me “I know, cos I know” which, admirally, sounds ridiculous. But that’s the point, faith is this ridiculous, intangible, heart-felt thing, and extremely hard to explain.

I know this is probably a totally unsatisfactory answer “I believe cos I believe”, but there you go. I’m in no doubt that my life has improved immeasurably since becoming a Christian. I feel God at work in my life. It’s not really about moral values (although these are part of it), as I think these are pretty much hard-coded in to all of us, but in a much wider sense. I still have the same fears, doubts, questions (in fact I have more questions than ever), but I have a hope. Can we really ask for more?

I was brought up by avid Christian parents, not the empty-headed, ritualistic, Sunday church going sheep type, but real, strong believers in every sense of the word. You could argue that this had the opposite effects on my beliefs, possibly causing me to turn away once i reached a certain age, an age where i started to explore the reasons of why we are here and trying to unfathom the universe.

Not wanting to offend, for me, followers of religion fall into 2 categories; 1) Those who have been programmed with it - the robots 2) Those who recognise the worthlessness and superficialness of their (or the worlds) existance and have taken comfort in believing that there is more - the comfort seekers.

Ok, its not quite as black and white as that.

Broadly speaking, I think that the purpose of all our lives is to do whatever it takes to be as content as possible, to make the days bearable. For me, acceptance tends to work. Acceptance that i am ultimately powerless to make a significant difference, and that it is how it is. The simple things, like seeing my kids happy gives me great satisfaction. Striving for perfection and answers for everything just makes me miserable. To find religion, i think is often a natural progression for someone who recognises that they are completely bored with the selfish, materialistic, commercialised crap the world has to offer.

Who am i or anyone else to criticise someone for finding peace with themselves through religion. Religion is thought provoking, a host of new emotions and questions, and as you say, if it works it works. But i cant but help see it as unfounded. I wish something had happened to make me want to believe, but i cant help that, its out of my control - The set of circumstances that convinced you its real didnt happen to me, and yet Christianity would condemn me for it.

hey…just wanted to have my say. great blog jon.
it got me thinking quite a bit. i was brought up in a church with my mom. one which was very strict. i used to go out to sunday school every week for about 10 years, and i can honestly say that i can not remember half the stuff we got taught in it. all i remember learning was the names of the 10 diciples, and even now i can’t name them all. at 13 i stopped going cause i found it really boring.

i started going to a more upbeat church, and thats where i found God. it didnt matter how much head knowledge i had…but it was where me heart was that counts.

I truely believe that….If you open your heart and mind to hear from God, then you will.

Hey Jon. I just stumbled across your blog, I think through technorati or something. I am enjoying reading some of your stuff. I would like to say that I was one of those who grew up learning from the Bible. My dad is a pastor and now I am a pastor of a church in Boston. That may discredit me in the minds of some of your readers, but I must say that my faith is more real than anything my five senses can tell me.

Let me explain: So many people write off Christianity because they believe that it is a blind faith. If I can’t see God, then I shouldn’t believe in Him. However, the movement of God can be seen. I can’t see wind either, but I see the movement of the trees in the path of the breeze. I can’t see my brain…well, you get the point.

The difficulty in explaining faith is that it can only be obtained by the step into darkness. In other words, I can’t show God to someone, God must be experienced by each individual person. I grew up knowing about God from my parents, but it wasn’t until college that I entered into a relationship with Him. So, as Morpheus says in The Matrix, “I can only show you the door, you have to open it.”(or something like that). So, I point people to Jesus because I trust Him and I prove with my life that I can be trusted.

What distinguishes Christianity from every other religion of the world is the fact that we believe that God made the way for us to know Him. Other religions create god in their own image and establish their own steps for getting to him. Christians believe that we are made in God’s image and that He established the steps for us to get to Him. He is a Supreme being and is infinitely greater than any of us, therefore, we couldn’t just get to Him on our own merit. He had to make the way possible. He chose faith. Specifically, faith in His Son Jesus. Why did he choose faith as the virtue that would bring us to Him? Because faith is the only virtue that is dependent totally on Him. If I could just love people enough, then I could get to God. If I could just do enough community service or be an ethical businessman, then I could get to God on my own. Only faith acknowledges that I am not capable of standing before a holy God. He is the one that gives me the gift of faith to begin with.

So, I can’t reason someone into faith. I trust in God by faith, but my reason supports my decision. There isn’t anything more logical or reasonable than that there is a God and that He loves the world and that trusting in His Son Jesus by faith will bring you into a relationship with Him. CS Lewis said, “I believe in God as I believe the sun has risen. Not because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” Because I know God, everything else comes into perspective.

WOW WOW!
Jon, I’m glad you’ve got all this stuff still here so I can finally read it. Jolly interesting and brain-tickling! I think Jesus is totally proud of you for getting so many people talking and thinking. It also wouldn’t surprise me if the whole thing was, lets call it: inspired!
Anyhow, time for a hot drink to fight this cold weather.
Rock on guys! I like a good debate.