Journal
"Jesus: Model of Faith, Model of Humanity."
A statistic shows that of the billions of people alive today, roughly 99% believe in some kind of higher power. While this depicts humans themselves as being religious by nature, it seems one must look for supporting evidence of this yearned for higher power. Apologetics, a defense of the Faith by showing that the weight of the evidence favors Christianity, classifies this evidence of an existing God into two general categories, the natural world and the human person. The argument of the natural world uses teleology, the idea that the universe was purposefully created, to claim the existence of God, or in any case, a higher power. For instance, William Paley's "The Watch and Watch Maker" suggests that, like a watch stumbled upon in the woods, the existence of a design necessarily points to a designer, and, because the universe possesses marvelous design, there therefore must be "a designer." Furthermore, it is evident that it is very unlikely that the forming of intellegent life was accidental, further pointing to a designer who deliberately formed this intellegent life. The Kalam Argument, in addition, points out that everything begins to exist with a cause outside of itself and, therefore, the universe has a cause outside of itself. Lastly, the existence of a hierarchy of perfection as made evident by comparing simple matter to the complex moral and spiritual character of a human being serves to point to a perfect, pure, being who is infinitely intelligent and infinitely free--a God. Human beings themselves, however, through their experiences, desires, and yearnings further point to the existence of a God. A person's thirst for happiness, awe in the mystery of death, pain from loneliness, and need for meaning in his or her life seems to point to a human's desire to quench these thirsts with a perfect happiness. The existence of a God would unquestionably satisfy these desires for meaning, love, security, and peace. Hoping to not be eternally frustrated, we look to a God to satisfy these desires. God, does seem to guide us, however. Our consciences, our sense of right and wrong coming from knowledge, intuition, and personal experience, seems to be one of the simplest arguments for the existence of God. It is the voice of God, the ultimate, unavoidable authority, that tugs at us influencing our internal morality. This morality, natural law, says that actions are morally good if they are conducive to the fulfillment of human nature. Not only does our surrounding world point to the existence of a Creator, but our very beings themselves point to a God who desires to satisfy the very yearnings of our everyday lives.
Three Important Ideas of the Section:
You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.
1.The human experience of pain resulting from a consistant lonliness, for me, seems to point to the existence of a God. It seems that, despite our family, friend, and romantic relationships, that there is a part of us deep inside that always seems to be lonely. For instance, no matter how many people seem to know me--friends, family, girlfriends--in reality, I often feel that no one truly understands my thoughts, my goals, my "internal self",(soul). This resulting isolation leaves me feeling like I am enduring my life alone and that it is my excluded experience. Furthermore, as much I desire to share what is going on inside of me, I often find it difficult because, although I know my thoughts and my immediate desires, I definately do not understand myself completely, and I therefore cannot explain myself to someone else completely. In the words of a song my band wrote this past summer, you must "know yourself, to show yourself." It seems that we all desire to be able to express ourselve completely and still be loved for who we truly are. God, I believe, is the one who knows us completely and loves us for who we really are, and therefore, "our hearts are restless until they rest in thee."
2.Bertrand Russell, a British philosopher and mathmatician, stated that religion is a crutch that we rely on to aid us with the troubles that everyday life brings us. For me, however, and several others, religion truly is a crutch. It seems that the stressful challenges of everyday life leave us begging for something to fall back on, something to take our mind off the problems, and something to make these wounds heal faster. While some turn to materialism(possessions), sex, drugs, or science, many, including myself, frequently rely on the belief in a God who cares for us and who is capable of satisfying our internal and emotional desires, healing the "wounds" that our often troublesome lives bring us. Religion, however, should not be used as an excuse to escape our harsh realities; it should help us to move on in hope that one day our God will heal our lonliness, quench our thirst for happiness, provide us the fullest meaning that one could ask for, and grant us the completeness that our regular lives cannot offer. Religion, like a crutch, does not permit us to forget that we are "crippled," but instead allows us to move on despite our injuries in hope of one day being completely healed.
3. One thing I never fully agreed with was the song lyric that follows: "And they'll know we are Christian by our love, by our love. They'll know we are Christian by our love." The reason I never fully agreed with this claim seems simple to me. It seems that we live in a world where a moral law exists and that kindness, politeness, and love are regarded highly in most cultures. Therefore, how would anyone distinguish someone as being Christian by the fact that they were loving if every moral Jew, Moslim, and atheist was loving as well. While I probably over analyzed the song lyric, I additionally always sought a deeper definition of what being Christian meant. The following definition by Jesuit William O'Malley, therefore, struck me as very significant as it seemed to provide my long desired definition. His definition states that to be Christian one must accept that Jesus is the embodiment of God, that Jesus died in order to rise, that to become part of the Trinity family we must give up the values of the world, and lastly that we celebrate our community of service at a meal. Aware now, and accepting, that these beliefs are essential to being Christian, I have a better understanding of what separates Christians from those who possess the same moral standards.
Images of Key Ideas:
Who do you say that I am?
Honestly, my faith seems to be mostly reliant on God the Father figure and his Spirit. When I pray, I find myself talking to the Father and asking for the help of the Spirit. Being a Christian, I sometimes find it troubling that I am so unreliant on Jesus. I find myself asking what Jesus has to offer me that God and the Spirit don't, a rather selfish and ignorant question. Failing to remember that they are one and the same, being part of the Trinity, often I isolate Jesus as a separate entity trying to figure out who He is. On reflecting, I seemed to find an obvious fraction of the answer: Jesus is the human side of God, as O'malley states, the "embodiment of God." Saying Jesus was fully human often seems easy to accept merely because he had a human body. However, it is usually difficult to understand that Jesus, like us, possessed every single quality we do that makes us human. Jesus went to bed every night with thoughts on his mind and faced difficult life decisions as well. He, too, had to find out who he was and who people saw him as. For me, Jesus, through his very life, gave us everything we need to know to "be human." He offered us the things that a seemingly untangible God could not and resultingly brought us significantly closer to this God--Himself, His Father.
