How Does One Find Faith? Fallen Away Catholic
The title of this article is a question that William F. Buckley
initially posed to the British essayist Malcolm Muggeridge in
one of the best programs ever produced in the PBS television
series Firing Line. Muggeridge answered the question by noting
that as a journalist and social commentator, he had observed
human events for more than fifty years. This personal experience
at seeing the devastation following World War II, the effects of
communism, and the decline of Christianity in Europe led him to
seek out a truth higher than what mankind could by itself
discover. It is the gradual unfolding of human tragedies that
taught Muggeridge that there must be more to the great drama of
human life than what reason can explain.
I have read and re-read the transcript of Bill Buckley's
interview with Malcolm Muggeridge many times, and I believe
Muggeridge articulated some enduring truths during that
interview. In this article, I pose and answer the same questions
as Muggeridge and compare our answers. At the time of his
interview, Muggeridge was a Christian though not a member of any
denomination. Buckley described him as the foremost lay apostle
of Christianity. Within a few years of his interview, Muggeridge
and his wife both joined the Roman Catholic Church; however, he
remained sharply critical of the reforms following the Second
Vatican Council and preferred the church in its pre-Vatican II
ways.
My own experience and background consists of a person born and
raised in the Catholic church, who subsequently stopped
attending mass, because he felt spiritually dry. I do not have
any major policy differences with the Catholic church, although
I distinguish between comments made to the press by members of
the church hierarchy from those that would be espoused by Jesus
Christ were he alive today. When there are differences between
the two, I come down squarely on the side reflecting Jesus's own
teachings as quoted in the New Testament. Today, I find that I
have a spiritual connection to the Catholic church and
frequently attend mass on Fridays followed by a brief rosary
service. But I am not spiritually fed with masses on Sunday.
When asked how he found God, Muggeridge laughed that he did not
have any type of Damascus Road conversion, where he was a
non-believer one day and a believer the next. Instead, he found
God through "the unfolding of an enlightenment which is full of
doubt as well as certainty. I rather believe in doubting. It's
sometimes thought that it's the antithesis of faith, but I think
it's connected with faith - something actually that St. Augstine
said - like, you know, reinforced concrete and you have those
strips of metal in the concrete, which make it stronger."
I agree that those who pursue enlightenment, not for the sake of
gaining knowledge but in an attempt to understand circumstances
and find truth, will discover the limitations of human thought
and scientific theories. Along the way, these people will be
exposed to religious explanations, which they can investigate
further or reject as mere superstitions. But the longer they
search, the more they will bump into matters in which they
believe even without evidence establishing proof for their
beliefs. These beliefs need not be religious in nature. For
example, people may believe that there are intelligent life
forms somewhere else in the vast universe. Or they may believe
there is no God, even though they cannot prove the nonexistence
of God any better than those who believe in God can prove his
existence. Perhaps less important than actually discovering and
mastering some transcendental truth is the search for truth;
truth is what the inquiring mind seeks to set it free.
Muggeridge was correct that faith without doubt is no faith at
all; it is a kind of mind-numbing acceptance of everything that
is taught without any second thought or questioning. If I asked
my religious friends if they have doubts about their faith,
most, if not all, would immediately say "no" and some would take
offense that their faith could even be subject to doubt. But
that is completely the wrong answer. To have faith in God means
that a person has tested and evaluated other competing theories
to explain various phenomena and has come back to his or her
initial beliefs. Unless a person has an open mind to hear
challenges to his faith, he can never be sure that his religious
beliefs are more than mythology similar to the kind that modern
man scoffs at with the ancient Greeks.
In Greek mythology, the sun went across the sky, because the god
Apollo was driving his chariot up in the heavens. The change in
seasons was supposedly due to some Greek goddess being denied
visitation with her daughter. Faith in the Judeo-Christian
concept of God must have a firmer foundation than silly
explanations for forces of nature. One way we can differentiate
the Judeo-Christian concept from Greek mythology is on the
longevity of the beliefs. The Christian church is almost 2,000
years old now. When I begin to wonder whether I am foolish for
believing in God, I draw comfort from the fact that on down
through the centuries, many very bright people (as well as an
even greater number of simple and uneducated people) have all
believed that God existed, and that we would have greater
closeness and communion with God in the afterlife. Is it
possible all those billions of people were simply wrong? Yes, it
is possible, but highly unlikely.
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Dr. Michael A. S. Guth, Ph.D., J.D. is a Professor of Financial
Economics and Law for several universities with on-line degree
programs and an attorney at law in Tennessee. He writes legal
briefs and appellate briefs for law firms as well as his own
clients. On the retail side, his law practice seeks to empower
individuals to represent themselves in court without a lawyer.
He assists these pro se parties by drafting court documents
(pleadings) and performing legal research. His contact
information is shown on each of the business web pages above.
In addition, Dr. Guth is a financial quant and former investment
banker, having worked for Credit Suisse First Boston and
Deutsche Bank in London and Frankfurt. He specializes in
developing investment strategies and hedging techniques using
derivatives. For five years, he consulted to the electric power
and gas industry in the USA, even managing the Middle Office
(financial risk control) function for two trading floors.
Dr. Guth has taught over 30 undergraduate and gradute courses
on-line. See http://michaelguth.com/courses.htm