I Believe In God That The Bible Is The Greatest Book Ever Written And That Religion Is The Frontier Of Morality
God, faith and religion are issues found at the basic core of our being and are the essence of our soul. And although they are subjects of self discovery, I offer you my experience and thoughts and say to you, here is what the universe of human experience has meant to me; the best that I know and like other open letters, hope it serves as a begin for you.
For me, the world is one that is scientifically validated, yet combined with intangible human values such as hope and fear, worship and hate, dreams and defeats. To paraphrase Albert Einstein; a universe of human experience, governed by the power of nature and the limitlessness of the human mind.
I believe in God. I believe he is responsible for our creation as well as the unity of all things around us and whether we find him through faith or science; either way, I see him as absolute.
I believe that the nature of God is often used to describe the forces that many scientists attribute to the creation of our universe and our place in it. Although a great machine governed by scientific laws that are inexorable and unchanging, I refuse to believe that man simply rises for a moment, thinks that he amounts to something and after a brief life drops out of discover while the universe continues to move on, uncaring and unknowing. I have we are defined by our legacy and it is the quality of that legacy that makes us significant.
God does not determine our actions. I believe in free will and I do not believe our lives are in the hands of fate. Triumphant by nature, we will inevitably rise to proclaim our freedom and challenge the forces that beat us down. “Though beaten down time and time again by the forces in the universe, man rises up again and again to proclaim; I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”
I believe that the Bible is the greatest book and collection of writings ever written. Having impacted more lives than any other book, it is a road map for many current archaeological digs. With more copies in print than any other book, the Bible is a record of centuries of religious change that spans approximately 12 centuries and contains as much fact, as it does fiction or legend with its most defining issue being the Resurrection.
Neither lunatic nor Messiah, I believe that Jesus was a true man and an acolyte of John the Baptist. Crucified, dead and buried he was the greatest of men, philosophers and teachers and continues to impact more lives than any other man, both living and dreary.
Not an entity or thing that man possesses, the soul is an activity that is spiritual. Man is a highly specialized evolutionary development, able to do things that are wholly impossible at any other evolutionary level. We are able to reason, assume, plan and carry out the results of our planning; make adjustments to our environment, form plans to master that environment while conceiving spiritual values and striving for their realization. Greater than anything else that we know, these values still do not constitute an immortal soul or spiritual activity that can be left unhurried after death.
It was Socrates who said; that all men contain both pleasant and nefarious and that we must work to subjugate that which is evil and rejoice in that, which is good. There are absolute goods and absolute evils in life, there are Divine Laws (Those that are established by a religious faith), there are Man’s Laws (Those civil and criminal laws developed and passed by government) and there are Social Laws (A foundation of one’s reputation).
To borrow some thoughts from Bertrand Russell; in the struggle between Science and Religion, most men will fall into one of four areas:
- Those that see an opposition or warfare between Science and Religion, with the two making contradictory claims about reality. This is exemplified by the clash between Biblical literalists (Creationists) that claim the early chapters of Genesis are true, word for word. (Six Days, Adam and Eve, the Universal Flood and that nothing is more than 6 thousand years stale) And the evolutionists who claim that the earth is billions of years old and that all of life is the product of a wearisome natural growth or development from simple forms vastly different from life as we know it today.
- Those that separate Religion and Science. They believe that there can be no clash, because the two phenomena deal with entirely different areas of experience, asking and answering different questions. They claim that Science Deals with the how questions and Religion deals with the why questions. The stories of Adam and Eve are not intended to tell us about how we appeared, but rather what we ought to do and why we should do it. Particularly in our relations with the earth, with animals and each other.
- The dialogue advocates, believe that Science and Religion deal with different issues, but that they overlap and interact. This Christian tradition of so called “natural theology” is an attempt to understand God and his works through reason. Going back to Saint Augustine (Four Hundred Years after Jesus) who warned the faithful that to literal a reading of the Bible would only lead to contradiction and empower the non-believer. The dialogue person would accept human evolution, but would argue nevertheless that there was an actual moment in historical time when one man and one woman deliberately defied God.
- Then there are those that would integrate science and religion. They see the two as essentially one, kept apart only artificially. This shows a progressive evolution up from the simplest life forms to humans and that this history blends naturally with a Christian vision seeing future development up to a higher Omega.
As you, I am pleased any time someone finds the Lord through Jesus Christ. Probably hypocritical, I pray for guidance and strength everyday. Especially during times of fear, I have found myself on my knees in prayer and at my demise; I am confident that I will be looking for support from God and possibly even Jesus Christ. I maintain in religion for religion sake and when I hear footsteps behind me at midnight, I pray that they are individuals who have objective left a religious rival and not the local bar.
Within my Christian tendencies are the same basic tenants found in most religions: Good thoughts, Good words and Good deeds. However, the difference is typically between those religions that try to lead you down a path and those religions that give you the tools to guide yourself. Life is complicated and no amount of praying, fasting or holey wars will get you through life with dignity, but finding a few basic rules to live by and enough common sense to know when to apply them will help.
Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them.
Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain but for the heart to conquer it.
Let me not look for allies in life’s battlefield but to my own strength.
Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved but hope for the patience to win my freedom.
Grant me that I may not be a coward, feeling your mercy in my success alone; but let me come by the grasp of your hand in my failure.
Rabindranath Tagore
Love you son!
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