The Wolves of Midwinter

Friday, January 08, 2010

Many Christians know the main tenet of Christian belief lies in having faith within the inexplicable and indescribable. We are taught to have faith that our God is merciful and understanding of the human condition. This simple answer seems to be voiced in a condescending voice when some followers are approached with the hard questions. If heaven's supposedly blissful,then where's our free will? How can we have blind euphoria if we know our loved ones are in hell?

A myriad of other difficult questions sprout from my mind, similar to a faucet which continually allows minute drops of water to fall within the sink's basin below. These difficult questions similarly infiltrate the frontal lobe of my mind and demand to be answered. With my OCD mind though, those numerous questions are refuted by a number of contradictions or hypothetical situations. In effect, more questions stem from a lower quantity of questions. These questions when voiced to fellow followers is met with antipathy and disapproval of being inquisitive and the unorthodox nature of even trying to understand the nature of my belief within God.

Why do we as Christians fear the questions and readily distill them? Why are we so ready to detonate our faith or another person's due to these doubts. Ironically, are we not limiting the limitless bounds of our intricate mind by eschewing these questions. Personally, I believe faith can be bolstered by doubts and in actuality, true faith is formed through our questions and the innumerable clauses attached to those questions. Interestingly, our questions themselves lend to the image of an incomprehensible, wondrous God.

When some Christians meet doubts with ire, are they not squeezing God within a prim, tightly packed box? Unconsciously they are telling believers that God may have a grand visage but at his core, he is easily definable through a human lens. Basically, God can be described in superficial terms as being absolute authority whose supposed to be followed blindly without any question.

Brandon Sanderson's "Warbreaker" intelligently details the erroneous elements of blind faith. Within the book's imaginary kingdom of Halladren, populated by Gods fabricated through human means. We are shown the shortcomings of blind faith with a pretense of majesty. Though externally, the city and Gods themselves boast grandness, internally they are being fueled by stoical denizens who wish to subject to authority in a soulless manner.

As with these humans, doesn't blind faith basically satirize or disrespect God's gift of free will? When we bleach our faith of it's depth, are we not rebelling against God's gift of intellectual freedom? Without thinking through things, do we not become mindless zombies? Sure, God has paradoxes and contradictions. Then again, is it not that our minds are limited to a certain extent that we can not entirely understand eternal things? Instead, we can only postulate and continuously wonder. Confusing works of art with an array of layers certainly presents the true nature of God, someone who we can only speculate about. But it's that very speculation and wonderment that opens our eyes to God and substitutes ignorance and blindness with eyes filled with hope and curiosity.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey there! No offense to any other Christian...you know what: I do mean offense to those "Christians" who dismiss questions with antipathy. God opens the doors for questions! He definitely wants your questions about Him, about His will, about what in the world we're here for...about anything about Him! That's the cool part! The first part of your article states: "Many Christians know the main tenet of Christian belief lies in having faith within the inexplicable and indescribable." But, the thing is - religion or belief in God Almighty can really be determined by science and faith. :) That's the sweet part! I'd love love love to talk to you about some of your questions because I've had many as well! That's why I'm going into the Physics field of study. :) Please drop me a line at my blog or email; I am by no means a philosopher or professional or whatever, but I'd love to talk to you. :)

God bless,
Taylor J. Beisler
taylorbeisler@insightbb.com
www.taylorbeisler.com