Download the latest sermonDate added: Friday, 21st August 2009
A Reasonable Faith? Oh Yes!
Up for a challenging read? Then this article by Jill Carattini will hit the spot.
Lecturing at a Veritas Forum several years ago, Dallas Willard spoke pointedly on the topic of "irresponsible disbelief." That is, choosing to disbelieve in something without a commitment to coming to that disbelief by way of sound reasoning. The burden of proof, he argued, is equally significant for both belief and disbelief. To ignore this is to address reality irresponsibly and foolishly.
If belief is the readiness to act as if something is true, it follows that unbelief, whether chosen consciously or unconsciously, still affects our behaviour. There are consequences to our non-answers in the same way that there are consequences to our answers. And yet, in our society where skepticism is almost encouraged, belief and unbelief are treated quite differently. We do not feel compelled to justify our disbelief in the same way we feel compelled to justify our belief. We expect a certain reasonableness about belief that we don't expect of disbelief, in part because we've been conditioned to see skepticism and disbelief as logical, and belief as emotional or irrational.
This is largely the case when it comes to belief or disbelief in God. As Napoleon once quipped, "Religion is excellent for keeping the common people quiet." Belief in God is seen as a superstition reserved for non-thinkers, while disbelief is thought scholarly. On the contrary, Paul Vitz, a professor who has written extensively on the psychology of religion, observes that quite often the decision to disbelieve in God is largely made apart from logic and sound reasoning. He writes, "The major barriers to belief in God are not rational but--in a general sense--can be called psychological.... I am quite convinced that for every person strongly swayed by rational argument, there are many, many more affected by non-rational psychological factors." His words are noteworthy; disbelief in God is more often a decision made by personal biases and emotions, than it is a decision made by sound reasoning.
In fact, such was often the case in the crowd's responses to Jesus. Speaking to the religious leaders of his day, Jesus once observed, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me! Yet you refuse to come to me to have life" (John 5:39). Jesus points to their irresponsible disbelief, their resolve that under no circumstances could he be the one they read about, the one to whom Moses pointed and the prophets announced. Therefore, Jesus concludes, "Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set" (5:45). All too often, the question of Jesus's identity is answered by a determination not to see the one standing before us.
Yet Jesus repeatedly voices the subtleties of our hearts, calling out our false hopes and misguided determinations. He reveals how often our expectations and biases establish our beliefs and disbeliefs instead of sound reasoning and honest investigation. His words pierce our faulty logic and the conclusions we have drawn irresponsibly, and he calls us to account even as he calls us home. The burden of proof is a burden the heavens have not overlooked; the God of all wisdom has not asked us to believe in Him without extraordinary attempts to be known.
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