Wednesday, April 13, 2016

A Matter of Faith

A Matter of Faith

What Faith is, and What it is not


So accordingly, if you were to ask most Bible Believing Christians, what "faith" means, they might say something like...

"Faith is believing in something you can't see."

or, maybe something like this...

"It's like oxygen, you can't see, feel, or taste it, but you know it's there."

But the reality is, faith isn't some meager concept that we can simply brush of as a feeling, or give arbitrary answers like the oxygen analogy. A Christian's faith is extremely important. It is essential to understanding the gospel, and ultimately our Lord and Creator, God.

So, what is faith?

Simply put, faith isn't a feeling or a "I just know, because of faith" gimmick in all actuality, faith is far more scientific than most people give credit to. Faith isn't just believing in what cannot be seen, but is done through research, evidence, and ultimately through what modern empirical science calls the "Empirical Leap" what a laymen's term is called a "Leap of Faith" now a leap of faith, might sound no different than saying, "Faith is believing in something you can't see." But in actuality it is so much more... take for example...

Theistic Creation vs. Atheistic Evolution

So not to create to much of a debate issue over a blog, If you disagree, I'd ask that you kindly allow me to illustrate... I propose that Creation and Evolution both at some point have to make a "Empirical Leap" this is purely based out of the law's of Modern Science which proposes that anything that can not be observed can be dubbed as scientific, observation by definition is that which can be either seen visually, touched... tested... so let's play this out... i'll start with Evolution

Evolution

- The process of the origins of the universe basically works this way; their was a collection of matter, particles etc. that exists in space, or pre-space... as the particles or atoms rotated they became tighter and tighter until they collided, creating an explosion, or a "bang" as some have dubbed. This process is the onset of all creation through a chance situation, which through chemical composition or chance chemistry all life was started. Now I am no scientist... therefore I only understand the major concepts. This by definition cannot be considered science under Modern Empirical Science, because it is not by definition empirical or observable... although they have created a particle excelerator, that can mimic particle collision, they conveniently forget that they've created an environment where they can collide the particle, the big bang  in and of itself cannot be re-created... or observed physically, so Humanist or Evolutionary Scientist propose this happened by the collection of evidence that seemingly supports their presupposition that life was created through this method.

However because it cannot be supported through observable science, it is in essence only a theory, but it's evidence leads humanistic science to the empirical conclusion that this is a logical explanation of the creation of the universe, however seeming that in and of it's self isn't observable, it requires faith to believe it. but you see it was educated faith, based upon evidence, leading to an empirical leap... 

Theistic-Creation

I purpose that Creationism especially that through Theistic Creation, or meaning that God created the Universe and everything in it. Such is the Christian/Judeo, Islamic, and most other religions believe that this happened, whether through a monotheistic theology or a pantheistic theology (Mine being Monotheistic = One God) believe that this happened. But again like Evolution creation isn't observable under the law's of Modern Science, and I wont argue that, however I will put forth the hypothesis that Creation makes more sense that the origins of the universe that humanism supports... So in keeping with the empirical nature of science, and purposing that Creation is a viable and trustworthy theory, we look at the evidence of creation... starting with the Holy Scripture... The Bible being our first piece of evidence, which promotes that God created the earth/universe etc. Which humanist would question, isn't a viable piece of evidence, because; "It has been manipulated by man" or "It's just a bunch of fairytales." however it is without question by scholars through-out the ages that the bible has been the only book to stand the true test of history... The first author being Moses who wrote the Pentateuch (The first five books of the bible). but the stories in these books dates from far before, talking about such things as the Samarians, ancient Egypt, and ancient cultures, talking about the "great flood" and other writings, although the critic would try to discredit the bible by saying that it borrowed from other belief's and or writings of that timeline. but the proof of authenticity (in the other historical writings) must be shown for that to be true, Critics will simply point to some hieroglyph or some scroll that has a date later than the events told in scripture... simply there is always a logical and rational explanation for every critique in the Scriptures, and seeming the bible has infact stood the test of historicity and authenticity, Christian's can safely assume that it is in fact a trust-worthy piece of evidence... Additionally, we can look at other theories such as Complex Specificity and, Irreducible Complexity, both have logically and rationally given evidence and proof of lifeforms and organisms that are either too complex, or specific to reduce them to the evolutionary theory. Additionally we can look to Astrophysics and the complexity of the universe, and beg the question, "Is it really practical to believe that a chance happening, created such a finely tuned group of algorithms and mathematic equations that is our universe?" But I digress...

The Christian Theistic Creationist, takes the amount of evidence, built upon empirical evidence supporting that evidence (i.e. the Scriptures). And then because again like evolution it cannot physically observe the creation event, we make the same empirical leap to support our theory...

So what's the point...

So basically I propose that both the Humanist/Evolutionist and the Theistic-Creationist have faith, this faith is not blind, but in all reality it is educated faith. I believe that God desires the believer to educate themselves, this is seen in several places in scripture where either Paul or other's warn the church, "guard yourselves" from false teaching, for wolves will come among you etc. To guard ones self is to prepare for an attack, in our case it is to be educated in our scriptures, educated scientifically to give an answer to those who question God... because if were not prepared, we can be taken off guard, and seeds of doubt have a funny way of working their way into our lives...

So faith is to be prepared, to educate oneself in the ways of the Lord, in science and understanding, to test what is put before you, to challenge false teaching.

Faith is not simply saying, I believe because I believe...

Now having said this, I too understand that there are those who don't desire to have such a heavy burden of knowledge upon you... I get that, there are times when it's best when it has been left simple... What I am merely asking is that you make a concerted effort to understand what you believe, to train up others in what they should believe

In the end it is to treat each other with love and kindness, respect, and understanding. Thank you for taking time to read this blog, I hope it helped you, and was not a hinderance to your faith.       

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