RADICAL FAITH AND SIMPLE QUESTIONS

I'm tired of relativism. Most problems in life present us with a question that must be answered yes or no. That's it. Really. We cloud issues with externals to make it nearly impossible to see this but that doesn't change the truth.

There may be a whole series of questions surrounding any given problem but they can always be reduced to one core question, the answer to which all the other questions depend on. This is especially true in matters of religion.

This is America and you can worship any way you want. I certainly don't care. Really, the only thing that's important is whether what you believe is true. Not true to you or true to your circumstances; not true because of the particular political cause you follow or the time period you live in. Just the simple yes or no answer to the question, is it true?

The answer to your question must generate a response. In computers they call this an if-then statement. If "a" is true then "b" is the result. This process then cascades through the program. We know "b" is true, now what? This can lead to a myriad of solutions and questions but the fact is that they all relate to a central truth, "a".

I spend a lot of time talking to people about religion. Most of them suffer the same problem. They have a set of beliefs based on doctrines they've accepted for a variety of reasons, perhaps familial or societal, whatever. They seldom seem to ask the central question though; is what they profess to believe true? Not just around the edges where they feel comfortable and agree with their faith but all the way down at the core, at the level of "a". I think this is because most understand, maybe not consciously, but at some molecular level, that an if-then situation exists and they just don't want to open that can of worms.

Because if-then statements require a response to truth. That response has to be logical and proper or the program breaks down into an illogical and dangerous lie. It may be a lie we feel comfortable with but it is a lie none the less and will result in a program creating a result that was not intended and will be damaging to a process the program was designed to support.

Anyone that spends much time at all reading history knows that most of it is based on eyewitness accounts of something that happened long ago. If we're lucky. An awful lot of what we accept as historical fact is in reality cobbled together from evidence that is circumstantial at best. The evidence in some cases is overwhelming and in others, not so much. It is rare to have first person accounts of any ancient historical events. Yet, much of our understanding of history is based on these tenuous links. We make decisions all the time on the best knowledge we have even though that knowledge is far from complete.

The Judeo-Christian religions are the exception to this rule. Between the holy books of Judaism and the writings of the New Testament and the early Church Fathers we have an abundance of historical information to work with. It really is possible, especially in the case of Christianity, to go back to the original sources and read them for yourself. Much more so than in most cases. And archeology is increasingly backing up the stories of the Old Testament and the traditions of Judaism.

All of this gives each of us the opportunity to make a decision. Are the claims of Christianity about the divinity of Jesus true?

More importantly, did Jesus even exist? That is the "a" question. Once that is answered you have to move on to "b", is Jesus God?

And from there the cascade of if-thens begins. But, until each of us answers the foundational "a-b" formula all of our beliefs about religion and faith rest on sand. We're not talking about sports teams here, the Catholics versus the Lutherans or the Methodists against the Baptists. It doesn't matter which team wins as long as the winner is the truth. We're not rooting for our team just because they're our team. We have to belong to team truth, regardless of which team that is. Truth is essential to our salvation, not name brand.

I'm Catholic because the foundational "a-b" question led me to Rome. I'd be somewhere else if some other team was true. But they're not. My life has been radically transformed because of the "a-b" question. The answers have forced me to accept the teachings of the Church and I've had to try my best to live up to them. I believe, based on a whole bunch of historical research that I've done that the Roman Catholic Church is the Church created by Christ who is the Son of God and who did exist and can be proven to have done so in the historical record. I've read the opposing viewpoints, secular and religious and none have been convincing.

Truth is truth and it demands a response. We can shut the program down to avoid responding or we can respond with a lie distorting the program and creating a useless string of distortions and falsehoods. Or, we can answer each simple question as truthfully as possible and then follow the answer to the next logical step until we run out of questions. I don't know about anyone else, but I doubt I'll ever run out of questions. The thing is, every question must relate truthfully and honestly to all the questions that have come before, all the way back to "a".

If it doesn't, if the chain is broken with a lie because the lie is comfortable or convenient, then every answer from that point on will be a lie, progressively expanding and obscuring the truth. I'm seeing this happen in my Church today with the Progressive leadership in the USCCB. It forces me to untangle their assertions to return to the point where they diverged from the truth. Then I can follow the logical and truthful line of if-thens to refute what they say.

Ask yourself the foundational questions about your beliefs; about religion, politics and everything else. Don't accept anything as true because others say it's so. You have to do the research yourself. Most everything we read and see in the media is a lie meant to advance someone's agenda and power. The world is black and white. The grays are created by the forces of evil to confuse us. We can know the truth. It just requires a simple question.