It's Illogical...

I have been a keen STAR TREK fan since the age of 8. At that time, there were only three terrestrial TV channels in the UK with no particular focus on children and young people. I was allowed to stay up later than usual to watch it, and the programme was rationed to once a week. In this age of media, we have lost the sense of anticipation and the joy of wondering how things might turn out… a certain romance you might say. My fondness for STAR TREK grew into me having to make a playground decision between STAR WARS and STAR TREK. 

When you state to your peers that you have an allegiance to one musical style, band or football team, you seek acceptance in that decision, and you gravitate towards like-minded people. It always makes me chuckle when my son has his friends around and they discuss whether they support our local team ‘Southend United’ who languish in league 2, or whether they can go for a premiership team without being called a ‘glory-hunter.’

In their view point as 9 year old's, the idea that you can ‘spread’ your bets to cover the success or perceived reputation of being associated with a sporting hero or musical interest is accepted. You can support a premiership and a non-league team at the same time. In the past, we made a decision and we stuck to it, revelled in the glory of success and defending our support when the team was perceived as the underdog. 

We learned how to defend and support our belief in the manager and the players, citing difficulties on and off the field for the reasons for their success or the lack of it. I read this morning that Facebook had lost 2 million users in Europe due to them being ‘bored’ and looking for a fresh expression for their social bloging… so much for loyalty it seems. However, in the city, this type of analysis rings warning bells and affects share prices and company valuations. We can be quite fickle with our choices and change our minds on a whim.

Fads come and go within regular consumer cycles with fashion being the most obvious visual link to this. As a Dr Marten fan from the 80’s, it makes me smile to see my daughter struggle to lace-up and remove her boots, remembering the types of rights-of-passage that teenagers have to pass through in order to fit in. The social and cultural fads in our youth help to define our identity and fashion our thinking, influencing our adult life. I sit here in my work suit and DM’s… There is evidence that we carry into adulthood, our hopes and dreams based on the world view we develop. These dreams emerge from our reasoning and the emotional sense of well-being that they inspire.

Some of the things we hear, read and see rub off on our character and our experiences in the world. It is always better to hear a band live to get the full experience… perhaps an autograph? These celebrities that we look up to are here and now and I can boast of my association with them through the shared experience. Perhaps I will defend the actions of the celebrity I have idolised or associated with, in front of peers when their character is called into question… Our parents are the largest influence on our lives, with teachers and other significant adults such as youth leaders adding to the cultural experiences we enjoy. I hope that my children will also have a journey of faith with our church family that enhances what I can offer as their dad.

All of these actions will have some degree of reasoning about them, but generally we will enjoy the experience we associate with ‘having’ that product or being part of something, as it informs our identity. There are others who think deeper than the experiential, considering the capitalist or materialistic ideals behind consumerism; considering the needs of others; considering the socio-economic factors that support certain lifestyle choices to the detriment of others; or considering the environmental issues around our dependence on crude oil and the need for renewable's.

One of the effects of being a fan of STAR TREK has been to appreciate the logical and reasoned approach of one of the principle characters, Spock. His logical character was developed as a foil to the more emotional and heartfelt decision making of Captain Kirk who responded on instinct because it felt right. Spock would way up the situation and determine all of the factors that go into the decision so that he could be certain he had made the correct one: “Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

The search for truth to inform our decision making is the question that fills our minds from time to time. Making decisions about our career, life partners… faith. Some place their faith solely in rational thought and reason like the fictional Vulcan character Spock. We live in a post-modern society where faith is considered to be a set of quaint or perhaps superstitious beliefs from our ancestors that we simply have to let go of. Most things in life have rational explanations found through our understanding of science or good deductive reasoning. So where is the proof for God if I can explain my experience through the realism of life?

I happen to believe that finding faith is a rational decision that can be made through careful consideration of the facts available to us over many generations. Many scientists argue the case for the evolution of our DNA through natural selection and the redundancy of certain biological functions in favour of others to create better chances of survival. 

For me, the fact that we share similar strands of DNA with other animals, or that we can see an evolutionary pattern, points not to a ‘chance’ encounter, but reveals a designer… a creator God.

For me, belief in a creator God is more rational than stating that the universe is here and now through a level of probability… How by chance did the earth come into existence at the exact distance from the sun to create and sustain life? How did we arrive with a moon that reflects the glow of the sun even when it has passed over to the opposite hemisphere, sets a rhythm in synchronous orbit – Random chance or design? 

My rational mind chooses design every time. I can happily put side-by-side with a creator God, an evolutionary explanation of species because it is a probable explanation for life on the earth; although I may disagree with you on the origins. More importantly, we are given a story in Genesis of a creator God who was very pleased to create us in the first place. It was never intended to be a scientific journal.

The creation story is designed to reveal the nature of God and the nature man. In the story, God has a mission to establish a people who reflect his nature. We were created in God’s image and we were created with the free-will to choose how we wanted to reflect God in our lives. 

We chose to do our own-thing by disobeying the ground rules that God put in place. Some might argue that we do not need a supernatural being to sit in judgement over our conduct. We can make our own decisions and have our own sense of what is right and wrong. C.S. Lewis in his book ‘Mere Christianity’ makes an argument that our sense of knowing what is right or wrong is in fact enough to suggest that there must be some kind of universal truth. If we understand that there is truth, then an opposite untruth exists. What this means is that each of us has the capacity to choose to do the right thing, or get it horribly wrong.

We all have this sense of right or wrong within our decision making processes. We used to call this our conscious decision making… we do what we know to be right and true, and choose not to bring harm or to cause offence. The humanist would suggest that this was nothing more than a moral compass that is passed between the generations and that we all seek to live a life showing respect to others and in enjoying this one life. However this view does not consider the idea that not all people have the same moral compass; that even good people can have moments when their behaviour and conduct falls below the standards that society holds to.

I would feel extremely conflicted if there was no way to absolve myself of a past fault or the harm that I have done to others. Counselling may offer some comfort, but if I was a humanist, I would perhaps become conflicted by my emotions as it would all boil down to me and the same four walls, my conscience, and the shame of the wrong doing… perhaps I could turn to drink and drown my sorrow, or just ignore it and move on. In hardening my heart to the mistakes I make along the way, I could lose my sense of compassion or my empathy towards future events. In trying to protect my heart from experiencing those emotions again, I close myself to that which I recognise as harmful.

I prefer my belief in a creator God who has provided through the life of his son Jesus, a way in which my mistakes and my attitude can be made right. The process starts by admitting to myself that my way is not always the best way; that I get it wrong. In religious speech, we call this sin. It’s an ancient word that defines the way that we set ourselves against God. When we assume with a sense of arrogance that we can decide for ourselves what is best, it is at this point that my dependence on my own values and my sense of well-being that gets me into trouble. If I want what’s best for me, I can become selfish and self-centred. God meets me in my confession and provides support through filling my heart with the Holy Spirit, whose presence enables me to move forward in confidence, knowing that if I make further mistakes, I have no doubt that God is by my side.

Society is an extremely complex and dynamic entity of which we are all herded along on a cycle of consumption that doesn't seem to have any let-up. Many fall by the wayside, particularly if family life and the parenting we receive in our formative years are disrupted in some way. Our level of education too, may not meet the criteria expected to help us move up the social ladder. Our employment, career paths or life chances are affected by many contributing factors, some social and some economic, but by the age of 18 in the UK, young people have already had their life set in a particular direction.

If they perform well at school and fit into the mould that they are being poured into, then they will be able to navigate their way through to a successful career in a sustainable job, no matter how monotonous or routine it may become in later life! For others where the mould doesn't quite fit, their career path isn't so clear. 

Society is littered with adults of all ages who have missed out on their dreams, employed in low paid occupations, needing support with welfare payments or have experienced real poverty to the point that all of our self-esteem is eroded.

Humanists would have us believe that we have just this one life. It would not fill me with the desire to ‘better-myself’ if I had no hope and no faith. What would be the purpose of working long hours with such little leisure time, when in the end, we return to the dust we were created from? We might as well all become celebrity, seeking to look good and have the latest fashionable things that fulfil the life we have, however shallow or transient in nature. Life is not like that.

Faith in Jesus calls us to action. Part of the mission for the church I attend, as indeed many others in the UK, is to try to reach out and change lives – our churches neat little strap line. Jesus commands Christians to support the poor and needy, widows, and orphans; to reach out and save those who are lost in the world. My church started small, asking the congregation to put extra food into their weekly shop or use a buy-one-get-one-free offer and donate the second item. This grew into providing a space for those cut-off from society to meet together, with the church providing pastoral support. This service has now evolved, to one where those who were previously in need, now volunteer to offer the same support that they had received. It’s an amazing piece of evidence of my God at work.

This healthy dynamic has grown because people volunteer their time and energy to invest in others, building each other up, breaking cycles of addiction or of abject poverty, not from a position of strength, but from one of weakness. At no point have those volunteering, pushed Jesus on people, but when asked why they were doing it, volunteers are willing to share their experiences because they have had an encounter of God in that place. For me, this is where church is at... showing the heart of Jesus to all on the fringes of society, just as he did 2000 years ago.

What defines this charity is Jesus. He was willing to sacrifice his life for you and me. The challenge for my faith is in what I am willing to do to reveal Jesus? I have a friend who is a paranoid schizophrenic. He battles with alcoholism and believes he is well to the point he will go for long periods without taking his medication. He has a faith in God where he believes that without it, he would be dead. He also has some mannerisms that are not so easy to manage. I can do nothing for this guy medically but I can feed him, spend time with him, and invite him into my home and family and talk about religion, faith, politics… In relationship we can share our lives.

My friend knows that although in this world he has had a hard life, he has a hope for the future, He has seen friends die of violence and substance abuse; he has been emotionally hurt and wounded to the point that he cannot keep all of his feelings together. There are times when his pain is so raw that I get scared around him; when the burden of his life is so overwhelming that he cannot function or see reason. At times like this, it is my job to listen and offer my best joined-up thinking. To love him and remind him that he is a son and heir to the living God. In his kingdom, there is no sickness or suffering, no mourning or despair, only gladness. It is my duty to ensure by my faith and my action, that he knows that he is worthy and able to receive this love of God.

Christians can’t reason the answer scientifically, or rationally to explain the hope that we have within is. We can only invite you to experience the love of God yourself. It is a rational choice to accept Jesus as God, saviour and friend; not a sign of weakness or of childlike reason as some would have you believe. It is a choice we have to make to honour the one who at the beginning of time, planned for such a moment when he would become a man. Jesus existed and is a focal point that time itself witnessed in history. He experienced what we all experience today, love, pain, sorrow, gladness; being tested; having to prove himself; getting angry with the passion and courage of his conviction. He was falsely accused and rejected by his own people. In judgement he was sentenced to death by the very people he came to save. As Jesus laid down his life, he invites us all to lay down our lives with him, in order to pick up a new life with an eternal inheritance.

The experience of meeting our creator fills us with a deep joy that no rational person can deny… we just know it’s true, and it can be true for you. Suspend your dis-belief and invite Jesus into your heart Today.