A Simple Faith?

Artist: David Arms

When I was a senior in high school, I began to have serious doubts about my faith, about whether or not God even existed. I had to choose where I would go to college soon and the choice was between a small conservative Christian college or huge public state school. I had to figure out what I believed. And I was on a deadline.

I read philosophy. I read apologetics. I read the Bible. I even prayed -- knowing full well that if God existed he would hear me and if He didn't, then well it was just a good way to sort through my thoughts.

I really am a scientist a heart. I like to do research. I like evidence. But, I came to the conclusion that some things in life are truly more than just the sum of its parts. Even though I cannot necessarily prove the existence of God, the deepest parts of my soul know that he is real and true.

I think faith is a lot like love. By the empirical evidence, love is just a bunch of synapses and hormones and other biological stuff. Maybe it's manifested in commitment and self-sacrifice and other things evolved by social evolution. But don't most people have a deep sense that love is more than just that? That love is more than simply the sum of its parts?

Recently, I've been thinking more about the solidity of my faith. One of my dear friends had expressed doubts about her faith. And recently, she has decided to reject her faith completely.

It's hard to process and doubts have crept into my mind in the past few weeks. She raises some really hard questions. And some legitimate concerns.

Yet, when I do the research concerning those doubts I find answers. So many of my questions can be answered by not only the Bible, but many times through general revelation (including secular philosophy, etc).

I almost wonder if I've gotten lazy since my senior year of high school. I don't do as much research about hard questions. I tend to accept the words of the Bible as true, without question. But is that wrong?

I don't think it is. I feel like the words of the Bible are instruction from a good and loving parent with whom I have a relationship.

Perhaps as a child, your mother tells you not to touch the hot stove.  Do you pull out books about stoves and heat and burns? Do you do a psychological analysis on other children who have touched hot stoves to see how they were impacted? Do you touch the stove yourself to see if she's lying?

No, you trust that what she says is true because you love her and have a relationship with her. Because she has been right about so much else in the past.

Am I saying that you should be naive in your faith? No. Am I saying that as a Christian, you should be anti-intellectual? Absolutely not.

If you have hard questions and doubts that need to be answered, you need to figure those out! If you have questions about something where much is at stake, you should definitely do some research!

But for me, I don't have time to research and form and intellectual rebuttal to every attack on my faith. There are people who do that and that's awesome. When I do have questions, I seek out answers. And I find them.

But in general, I am content with a simple faith, fully trusting the word of God.