The foundations of faith (5)

God is unknowable, but we can experience him. Part 3: There is no need to let doubt hold us back; the way forward is clear

Now there are a few issues to deal with:-

“But I don’t want to look foolish or let anyone fool me!” We’re not being fooled; we’re accepting the reality of what we know to be true, which is our experience of love, joy, peace etc – and we are, quite rightly, being, in theory, agnostic as to exactly what or who is the cause of these experiences. We have very strong suspicions that these spiritual gifts come from God, but, strictly speaking – and there is no escape from this – we do not know for certain that they come from God. Fine! I can live with that, but, in practical terms of living my life, I am happily going to live with trust and faith that God is there, and he is the one whom I experience.

If it’s not provably from God, it’s worthless – No! The experiences God give us are wonderful; let them speak for themselves. The only problem is when believers allow the value of their experiences to be discredited because there is no proof that God is behind them.

Counter-intuitively, it doesn’t matter whether the experience comes from God or from “somewhere else”. Traditionally, people accepted the love, joy peace etc because they were convinced they were gifts from a God of love, joy and peace. IF somehow – though, of course, it’s not – it was possible to prove that God does not exist, and so the experiences of love, joy, peace must be coming from somewhere else, then those wonderful experiences would still exist. Whether or not God exists, the experience of “meeting with God” is exactly what traditionally we have come to expect an actually existent God to give us. Provided we can overcome the obstacle: “I can’t, or am not allowed to, believe unless I can prove and am completely confident God exists”, then it’s reasonable to say, “I accept I don’t know God exists, but in practice, when I act as though he does, and put my faith in him, I experience his presence exactly as though he does exist.

What I think these ideas can achieve is:-

As believers, we should not be troubled that we can’t prove God’s existence.
Or troubled that we have doubts.
Atheists should not allow this lack of proof, and existence of doubts, to disqualify the effect of religious experience.
Whether or not God is real / as traditionally understood, he appears to us as though he is real.
Therefore, it is entirely reasonable to hold our uncertainty peacefully within our faith while rejoicing in the reality of the experience and presence of God.
Whoever/whatever God is, is the ultimate. We are right to give our lives in devotion to what is ultimate and to rejoice and trust in the life of faith that is open to us.
It is entirely reasonable to believe in God.
It is supremely fulfilling to believe in God.