Wednesday, September 19, 2018

A Ramble About Answers

One thing which motivates me in going some of the directions I do where Scripture and theology are concerned is simply finding answers to questions. I can't count how many times I've either seen or heard of someone asking a perfectly rational question like "how can God be everywhere at once?" and then told he or she doesn't have enough faith or is just looking to make trouble (or some other similar defensive response) when they (reasonably) can't accept the "spiritual" answer they're given because it doesn't make any sense. What is worse is that often they're given such answers by pastors and Sunday School teachers who themselves don't actually know, and feel the question is a direct challenge to their own faith because they've always just accepted the "spiritual" answer and been told that should be good enough for them.

People don't question unless they really want to understand something, and Almighty God is worth attempting to at least try and build a framework with which to, if not fully understand, than to have enough of an understanding to work with. The Holy Scriptures are important enough to try and develop this framework as well.

Another question which might be innocently asked by an intelligent mind when told that "God is Spirit" is "What is spirit?" I will bet money that this is another question which throws people off when asked directly. You see, this word and its adjectival form "spiritual" is bandied about in church circles frequently. More often than not, it is used to describe or defend something which may either seem imaginary, or actually be imaginary. The dangerous thing here is how frequently pastors and preachers do this, building whole doctrines around "spiritual truths" that when closely examined disappear into thin air and are wholly unsupported by any measure or standard of either scientific analysis or contextual Scriptural interpretation.

The truth about this word is that it comes from the Latin word "spiritus" and means "breath". It is the direct Latin translation of the word used in the Greek New Testament "pneuma" also meaning "breath." But in the Greco-Roman worldview (and in the Hebrew for that matter), breath was more than just the air which was pushed in and out of your lungs. It was also the force which animated a body and gave it life. Thus "spiritus" is also the root word for the term "aspirate" meaning to breath. So, in the ancient worldview, one's spirit was the animating force which gave the body life.

Today however, we understand the human body to be a complex system of which the breath is only one part of and which has little to do with the unseen "essence" of the person and more to do with supplying oxygen to the bloodstream and removing carbon dioxide. A more modern analogue of the idea of "spirit" might be the electrochemical signals which run by way of electrical charges and neurotransmitters through the brain and central nervous system. In other words, the energy exchange system which not only powers the human body but carries all the thoughts, muscle commands, emotions, and memories through the firing of synapses.

So then perhaps from a modern viewpoint, rather than breath, "spirit" can be defined as "energy." "Energy" is something we can define and use in our framework of understanding and build off of (and lest someone balk at the idea of "God is energy" rather than "God is Spirit" on the grounds that it is equated God with a created thing let me remind you that energy can be neither created nor destroyed but, like God Himself is described, appears to be eternal; it's the first law of thermodynamics). It makes no sense to continue to use a first century Greco-Roman understanding of how things work two thousand years later when that understanding has been soundly disproven.

Here's the thing, I follow these trains of thought because I do believe, not because I don't. I try to understand and explain because I believe there are reasonably sound explanations out there without having to resort to disparaging people or doubting one's own beliefs, and I also believe that its okay to incorporate new data to help flesh out those beliefs or even modify them where they don't fit all the data presented so that you ultimately get a richer, more full picture rather than a Sunday School cartoon, however comforting it might be.

God says "trust Me" a lot, but He rarely ever says "don't question." He always works within the framework or worldview the person He's communicating with has and doesn't appear to see the need to correct misunderstandings about the universe or even His own nature where they don't conflict with His intentions towards the person. It is a truth that no human being will ever fully understand who or what He is, and that's okay. But it's equally true that it's okay to be curious and to want to know more about Him as He fits within reality, not some imaginary fantasy. In my opinion, and within my own framework of understanding, the closer you look and the more pieces you put together the more awesome and mind blowing He really is.

So go ahead and ask those questions which don't appear to make sense on the surface. Do the digging. Ask about that rock so big that God can't lift it and other uncomfortable questions about omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, transcendence, eternity, and all of the other things attributed to Him, but then look for the answers and be prepared to adjusted your framework of belief when you get them. It's okay to do it. I'm pretty sure He would rather you spend your time trying to get to know Him better than ignoring Him completely.

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