Exploring my Religion and my Post-Modern World View

In the modern world, belief has become something of a joke. People either think that you are, in some way, in capable of rational thought, or that you are incapable of seeing why it is your belief doesn’t match the modern world. It’s a tough place to be in. The Post-Modernist View of the world maintains that there is no meta narrative, that there is no major story but your own. Religion, which ever one you subscribe too wants to give you a major story to hold onto. This puts people in an interesting dichotomy. On the one hand we have what we know about the world around us, that which science and modern advances have given us (such as Biblical Scholarship, and new ways of reading the information contained therein). Somehow we have to bring these two world views together. A world-view of Religion, and the world view of Rationalism.

I Believe. I am a Christian, and a firm believer in the God-Man Christ. I know that prayer works, and I know that there is much more to this world than meets the eye. Yet this clashes with the part of me that grew up as a scientist. That looked for empiricle proof, that knew about cause and effect, and that knew that there was a rational for everything. Despite this, I believed. I Know in a way that is very difficult to explain to those that have never felt it that there is a God, and that this world has much more to it that meets the eye.

So, where do I go from here? The Atheists would have me deny the feelings for God, under the auspices that the world is better without God(s). For them, God(s) is capricious and evil. Generally, those religions who have a Book have it used to show the evil of their chosen God, and I myself have in the past argued with those passages. I find it difficult, and in a lot of cases unpalatable to take as a literal whole. It means that you have to find your own way through the book, and there is a quiet grace between those pages that help the person who seeks find the answers. Though sometimes not necessarily on the first reading, or the second or third, and sometimes you have to rely on someone who’s been there before.

Yet we live in a world which demands more than personal experience as proof of God. They want to see a true miracle, and deny the records of the miracles in the Bible. They see conspiracy theories, and deny that Christ is a God-Man, perhaps a preacher, perhaps a simple prophet, or perhaps a war-leader attempting to rage a coup in Jerusalem and failed. It would mean that he had some of the best PR in history.

It is between these two world that I find myself. Where I find myself struggling with the problems of living in a world that denies God, and yet working as His representative. To reflect, however imperfectly, the Glory that I have for him in my heart. No matter how noble my inentions, however, the Atheists still wonder why. They still want to know why would someone do this for something that can’t be proved.

It’s almost like trying to make a dream real.

Some days it’s difficult. You watch the Atheists cheer as yet another beleaguered faith-follower wavers, or falls. They take great glee in the person’s suffering, cheering that they are now free. Yet they object when a faith-follower celebrates their joining of their chosen religion by the acceptance of the particular initiation ritual (eg. baptism). I can understand why Atheists strongly object to the conservative wing of the Religious institutions, I myself object to them, but what they are both missing is that both sides are sinking to being distasteful. State your piece, and move on. This is a post-modernist world. The lack of Meta-Narrative applies to Atheists as it does to the Religious.

So, where does all this leave me? Somewhere in the middle trying to find a way to show that Faith is still relevant in todays society. In a society where people want the BIGGER BETTER FASTER, and those that want to take time, slow down, and seek for something other are considered different. Well, it’s how it’s always been. The Myth of Religion being the be-all and end-all of people’s lives was already beginning to wane in the time of Plato. It’s had some resurgences, but there is never going to be a global religion, with all adherents agreeing completely. Religion is part of the fabric, part of the way the world is, at least, from my humble point of view. Though it still needs to be thought about, still needs to be considered, judged, weighed explored, investigated, rethought, redelivered, expanded, re told for the next generation, there is still a place for simply accepting, and going with that call deep inside. This dichotomy of the Natural, and the Supernatural is part of the world as we have it today. The challenge is to bring one to the other.

The only real question we must really answer, is which one to which one.

~Black Xanthus