Take
an evangelical, fundamentalist preacher's kid and mix him with a
liberal arts education.
Season him with more than a few decades of
living, and you either come up with an agnostic, a metaphysical
schizophrenic, or a believer, stripped down the basics of his faith.
I
confess to, at times, flying like a confused, sometimes angry or at
least disheartened moth, too close to the flames of the first two
fates. The journey to faith — my own faith, not necessarily that of
my parents — has been occasionally exhilarating, often painful, and
all too human.
It
has been, philosophically, an eclectic odyssey. That likely was
inevitable, considering my History and Journalism double major and a
minor in Psychology, followed by a career in journalism (a petri dish
for cynicism, as professions go).
Ultimately,
it is human nature that convinces me my faith — albeit skinned of
what I concluded were doctrinal and theological assertions created
not by an infinite God, but by finite human minds — makes more
sense than pure secular humanism.
I
could (but don't worry, I won't) write reams on why I find this so.
Let a couple observations suffice:
—
The
fact that our species has not ceased warring with itself since it
began, committing genocide on ever-larger scales, makes me bitterly
laugh at the idea we are the pinnacle of sentient evolution on Earth.
We
may boast how much more sophisticated and civilized our high-tech,
educated society is now compared to our stick-wielding, tree- and
cave-dwelling ancient ancestors, but we continue to produce the same
rotten fruit.
It's
still about territory and resources, and who has the right — or
might — to claim them. And since such brutal calculus always makes
our "better angels" wince, we still use politics,
religion, culture and racism as excuses and justification for dehumanizing
and dismissing the Other.
— Yet, we desire to be more. I would argue that we were created for more, but
are broken. Despite all the pain and madness humankind inflicts on
itself and its planet, goodness persistently bubbles
up within individuals, and reform movements.
Changes for the better,
history teaches us, are as finite as our bodies . . . yet we continue
to reach down to the fallen with one hand, even as we bludgeon our
enemies with the other.
So,
faith. Because without it, without the saving grace of our Maker, we
will remain stuck, either as an evolutionary dead end, or a creation
to be ultimately redeemed, reborn and perfected.
I
prefer to believe the latter.
