I’ve been going over a list of Bible “contradictions” and objections that I plan to blog my way through. Most of these can probably be categorized as “taking two verses completely out of context to find a contradiction.” Many would be appropriately described as “failure to recognize subtle nuances.”
Then there are those that fall under “I won’t believe if I don’t understand every little detail.”
Where is heaven? What is it like? Where is hell? What is it like? Where is your soul? How can God be one and three? How can God be eternal? How can God become human?
My inability to explain every detail of Christian theology does not disprove Christianity. For that matter, having a convincing explanation for everything doesn’t necessarily prove it’s true either.
I think it’s reasonable to expect an authentically divinely revealed religion will have things that are hard – even impossible – to understand. An eternal, holy, omnipotent God is not going to be easily described to finite, terrestrial, limited humans. Some aspects of noncorporeal existence will be difficult for corporeal beings to understand.
So we should expect aspects to Christian theology that are hard, even impossible, to explain. That shouldn’t stand in the way of believing based on those things we can understand.
And it doesn’t in any other context.
One of my professors told me once that there are maybe a dozen people alive who understand general relativity. (Some say that is overly optimistic.) Another said that no one really understands quantum mechanics – and yet lots of people believe it.
In science, medicine, and philosophy we expect things to find things that are over our heads, beyond our comprehension. Theology should be the same way.
4 comments:
Chris, I appreciate your common sense application to the biblical topics you cover on your blog.
"Detail doubters" miss the Spirit in the beleaguering of the details...No matter how interesting digging for the details might be...it's the Spirit that brings life!
Thanks, Nancy, I appreciate that.
I think it’s reasonable to expect an authentically divinely revealed religion will have things that are hard – even impossible – to understand. An eternal, holy, omnipotent God is not going to be easily described to finite, terrestrial, limited humans. Some aspects of noncorporeal existence will be difficult for corporeal beings to understand.
This seems like a sensible observation, lets assume for a moment that the statement is absolutely true... how can you be sure that you understand the parts that you think you understand. Your finite human powers might have utterly mis-understood this text. It's apparent simplicity may be deceptive.
And why do you think a divine revealer might have made parts of his divine revelation impossible to understand. Surely the purpose of revelation is to reveal something?
In science, medicine, and philosophy we expect things to find things that are over our heads, beyond our comprehension. Theology should be the same way.
But there's a big difference: We expect a scientist to be an expert in his field. Naturally some mysteries exist but these are open to further research - the scientist can hope to make progress in his field.
Contrast this with theological knowledge: Even the world's foremost expert in heaven can give nothing more than a subjective opinion about his field.
Do you still feel that this comparison is appropriate, if so in what sense?
"why do you think a divine revealer might have made parts of his divine revelation impossible to understand."
I don't think He made them impossible to understand. I think He is beyond us.
There are things that my children see in my life, personality, habits, that they can't understand. One day they will be able to, when they have more knowledge, a context in which to place what they know.
We do not have the capacity to understand everything. We may never have it.
"Naturally some mysteries exist but these are open to further research - the scientist can hope to make progress in his field. "
I'm not talking there about knowledge -- facts -- that we lack. I'm talking about brains that simply cannot process the facts we have. Quantum mechanics isn't hard because we lack facts but because we lack the ability to think in terms of that scale, in probabilities, in uncertainties.
"Even the world's foremost expert in heaven can give nothing more than a subjective opinion about his field."
Spoken like a good agnostic.
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