This Is What I Think

It is quite clear to me that what we believe, what we hold to be true, affects our every waking moment. If I believe that I am superior, then those things which are not me must be inferior. The converse is also true; if I believe that I am inferior, then most everything else is superior to me. If I believe there is a God, then I will act accordingly. If I do not believe there is a God, then I will again act accordingly. And if I do believe that there is a God, then the way that I behave will be further influenced by what I believe to be true about God. If I believe that the Jesus of the Church was/is God on Earth, and if I believe that the scriptural portrayal of him is inerrant and infallible, then I am going to end up with a very specific “picture” of God and how God functions. If I choose to believe what others tell me is true about God that is going to be quite different than if I base my belief on personal experience. It is the difference between the abstract and the concrete, both of which are included in the human persona. Where science is seemingly at odds with religion is the issue of empiricism, that firsthand experience that can then be independently tested for the same results. For far too long, religion has emphasized the secondhand experience of others that, rather than being tested, is accepted on “faith”. Because it says in the Bible that Moses found God in a burning bush, much of organized religion will say that this is to be accepted as unquestionably true. Such “faith” unfortunately rules out a further questioning of just what such a report may be really trying to say. Theology, as opposed to religion, is highly instrospective precisely because it ultimately requires firsthand experience.