part 1: “A Testimony of Belief”
I must confess myself to being a person who probably spends too much time in his head. I mostly look at the world through a lens of creeds -what I believe, what a person believes, and what our actions tell us about what we believe.
Strangely, I have found this way of thinking either bores a lot of people, or comes across as highly irrelevant. Perhaps so. I have enjoyed the company of not a few down to earth folk that insist I explain myself in liveable, applicable, straight-forward terms. Touchée. What are creeds for but to live by, right?
Though I may be a theoretician in heart, it still stands that all people, great and small, educated and not, live by certain beliefs, “creeds” that they hold deep in their hearts.
A creed is above all, something deeply personal. We are proud of our knowledge, we cherish our understanding of things -it’s hard to imagine trying to live by anything other than what we understand. Personal creeds are those beliefs which we hold to be true, and attempt to order our lives around. Christians have creeds, Atheists have creeds, Skeptics and Agnostics have creeds, for we are all believing creatures: thinking and believing comes as naturally to us as breathing air.
Some beliefs have different characteristics than others. Some we can articulate as clear as day. Other beliefs run our lives for us without us really thinking about it. Some beliefs puzzle us, some we hold tentatively, some we care little about, others we would lay down our lives for.
When someone becomes thoroughly convinced of something, they in a strange way, cease to think about their beliefs unless that belief is brought into question by someone or something. A person becomes convinced that God is at work in every moment. From then on, their thought-life becomes one big prayer list, and the Lord is seen around every corner. He guides the world, he creates chance encounters, and all things fit into his divine purposes.
Others become convinced that life came about through natural selection operating on mutations, and all of life takes on an “evolving” flavour: governments, history, and especially biological reality all can be seen through the lens of the Darwinian imagination.
For some, God becomes a sufficient explanation for what goes on in life. For others, natural processes make good sense of the data. Whether Christian or not, we all have these “thoughtless structures of thought”: lenses that we perhaps thought hard about once upon a time, but now simply becomes the intellectual house we wake up in every morning.
Evidently, the person who is aware of what he believes is in an infinitely better position than the one who is thoughtlessly captive to the daily churning of his “thoughtless thoughts.”Sometimes upon close examination, we catch ourselves believing truly ludicrous things that we know can’t possibly be true -but we hold them dear enough to live by them! Think of the young girl who, upon some reflection realizes she genuinely thinks having the latest fashionable garment will make people like her. Or the religious person involved in a frenzy of churchy activities because he supposes God is impressed with his industriousness.
In a manner of speaking, our beliefs enslave us. If we think something is true, we will order our lives accordingly. Beliefs aren’t the only things that run our lives for us, or cause our actions, but I think they’re influential enough to be worth thinking about. Have you ever asked yourself “Why did I do that?” Related to those actions are those unspoken “thoughtless thoughts” we live by every day.
In the following blogs, I would like to explore the formation of such personal creeds, specifically as it relates to “the problem of evil”. Some, in the face of great evil, have found profound basis for faith in Christ. Others find in the same evil solid justification for the non-existence, or irrelevance of God. The following blogs (I have no idea how many) will be my thoughts on the issue.
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Hey Rob,
ReplyDeleteI tried to translate the name of your blog, through an ancient Greek translator, word by word, and all that I could manage was "keep calm by the reason of the Emo" ( a style of rock music:)
I some how don't think hit the nail on the head. But if I did, I think it's an awesome name. Perhaps you could enlighten us on what it means...or just keep us guessing:)
I like the topic you have chosen. I have been encountering a lot of different creeds while traveling through France and getting to visit some other countries along the way.
I suppose some creeds are a culturally enforced creed, others might just be habitual.
I have visited some catholic churches now and I am amazed at how many rituals people have. Every time they enter the church they take a knee and make a cross symbol. Every time they pass in front of the cross, clergy, nuns and alter boys do the same (I was watching to see if any of them would miss it once and none did).
I realize that a my protestant church, if during the music at the beginning (me the song leader) doesn't have the opening prayer after the first song, someone will notice and might even point it out that that's the way we do it here.
I wonder, how long does it takes for a habit to become a creed?
For me, food has been a type of creed. One that I have tried to change, or even forget. The truly French people here, have bread (with butter and Jam) and tea for breakfast. The lunch is long and served in separate courses, even though one course is pasta and the next might be something that would have gone very well with the pasta, but they have it separately.
All that I am trying to say is that I agree with you. We all get caught up in our unconscious modes and think that the way we do things is right. If anyone else does something differently, then they ARE different and must wrong, therefore unloved by God.
I am not accusing the Catholics or the protestants of this (even though both are guilty), I am actually trying to say the opposite. In seeing the creeds that others have, I have sort of coming up with my own. We all are just a bunch of people who are loved by God, weather we take a knee, or pray at a specific point at church.
I would love to be able to get rid off creeds, to have people try something new, from someone else's point of view. But I still think that crepes should be for breakfast, and peanut butter should be loved by everyone, so who am I to say that creeds are stupid.
I look forward to your further intellectual musings on this subject.
-Mike
Cool, I wasn't expecting anyone to read the URL, I was just trying to pick something no one else was likely to have. :) It's my abysmal transliteration of "remain in my word." (John 8:31)
ReplyDeleteI think habits become personal creeds quickly if they're not challenged. Our habits also tell us what our creed already is. I also think creeds are good and necessary -we are meant to have habits, the question just needs to be asked if those habits are good, and if those creeds are true.