Framework of understanding idea related to God is the voice in our heads
Some ideas fall into a special category of idea, that I call “toolkit” ideas. That is, they are valuable models that we can use in all sorts of situations; they are overview templates which we use to organise all the events in our lives into a pattern by which we can make sense of reality.
A key idea that strikes me is the importance of our framework of understanding. That is, ideas don’t exist independently in a “free-floating” format; they acquire sense for us precisely because they are held in a particular framework. For most of us, most of the time, I think these frameworks are invisible to us: we just look at the ideas within the frame, and don’t appreciate that those ideas depend on the framework for their validity.
I want to apply this idea to belief in God.
I really want to be a Christian, and I truly love being one. However, I cannot be immune to the attacks on belief in God, and I can only be a Christian if I feel that such a belief is justified. Like many religious believers, I have had periods of severe doubt, and many have given up – not in the sense of giving up as being a failure, but rather that, as persons of integrity, they just don’t see how they can continue in their cherished beliefs if they’re not true. Likewise, many would have loved to have started on a life of faith but felt unable to do so because of the problem of uncertainty.
Perhaps an illustration will help.
Let’s think of life as making a beautiful embroidery. Our focus is on the pattern we are making, and we love the picture that is emerging. However, while the embroidery is being made, the cloth is stretched across a wooden frame. This frame consists of key ideas such as:-
- God is real
- We can have a relationship with him
- These ideas depend on accepting a metaphysical reality beyond the observable material universe
What doubt does is, it cracks the frame; the cloth crumples up and it becomes impossible to work on it anymore.
What I want to do is to create a new framework of understanding within which we can understand what it is we are doing when we believe in God.
My aim is not to replace Christianity with a new “philosophical Christianity”. I want to be a Christian, and I want people to be able to be a Christian without being held back because the doubts that modern life throws up makes them feel that their faith is unjustified. Within the new framework – as it was with the old – our focus and enjoyment is on the picture we are creating. We are free to be Christians. While we live our lives of faith, our experience is exactly the same as it ever was; it is simply that we are protected from the destructive effects of doubt by our new framework of understanding. Within this framework, our faith is as wonderful as ever. It is simply that the foundation that “our cloth of faith” is attached to is completely secure. We don’t actually look at this framework very often, but, if we do, there is no anxiety because our framework is completely unshakeable, and so our faith is untroubled.
My new framework is contained in the idea that God is the voice that we create in our own minds.
This seems to me to be a new basis for a religious and spiritual life that cannot be shaken.
Spiritual Devotion 