The foundations of faith (2)

Introduction. Part 2: A few “framework” issues

Many atheists have abandoned, or never begun, a life of faith because of the obvious weaknesses in our position, such as proof that God acts in the world to make things better, and scepticism that life after death is possible. They assume that people who haven’t given up faith must therefore be stupid, blind, or so sucked into the religious system that they can’t think for themselves to escape. But the picture of God that atheists have rejected is one that many believers have rejected too. We can often say, “I don’t believe in that God either – it’s far too simplistic and ignores vitally important facts”. However, we believers continue to believe often because we have developed an extraordinarily profound and sophisticated understanding of who God is and what he does.

Note: I do NOT reject the traditional or evangelical view of God as invalid; it is an entirely legitimate faith. In many ways, left to my own devices, it is my preferred way to understand God. And after many personal struggles, I feel that I could happily continue to the end of my life believing in this sort of God.

The difficulty for me is that there are many people in Britain today (I suspect a large majority and growing) who do not, and cannot, accept my traditional picture of God. I do not want to simply carry on happily in my faith if I am not going to be able to share that faith with others because they have comprehensively rejected the entire system of thought in which my faith is held.

I’m afraid, as usual, I will be talking about myself a lot. Partly this is just a character weakness on my part, but it is also, I think, unavoidable on this occasion. I will be talking a lot about religious experiences and the spiritual life, and, really, I don’t know very much at all about anyone’s religious experiences except my own. So, I am simply hoping that my experience is pretty normal, and you will be able to relate to many of the things I’m saying. If you sit there thinking, “This isn’t how I see things at all” then please discount what I’m saying as largely irrelevant to you, and just hone in on anything that is.