I’m afraid I’ve struck a negative chord with a fellow blogger. The writer of Heaving Dead Cats, an atheist blog, has taken offense to some words I shared on Friday. In them, I referenced her blog post about her decision to create a new kind of holiday celebration. Just as her response was written for her readers, my initial post was written for mine and not to incite a battle. I knew I was taking a risk in sharing some of her thoughts, assuming she might find my post through a pingback, but it wasn’t meant to be a personal attack. Having found her blog by accident, and seeing the opportunity to bring forth light through an opposite point of view, it seemed a fitting way to share my thoughts on faith. Certainly, it’s within her right to respond. I might have done the same if the situation had been reversed.
Nevertheless, I find her response interesting on many levels, few of which I plan to expound upon here for lack of energy and desire to go much further with this. I am and always will be intrigued by how others think and process the world. Just as I’m curious about why and how people who lived for years without faith found it, as is the case of Jennifer of Conversion Diary, I’m curious about the reverse as well. I think it’s important for Christians in particular to understand why those who don’t believe have become (or have always been) disillusioned by faith. For one, within that mindset, there might be some clues into how we can lead even better faith lives. On occasion, we even find points of agreement within that atheistic mindset. But certainly, places of divergence as well.
Case in point: this particular writer contends that through reason, one can be lifted from the darkness of faith. And really, this is where I choose to bring my part of this online discussion of sorts to a close. There is nowhere for me, as one who has experienced the light of faith with every fiber of my being (body and soul), to go with this except back to the Light of Lights.
A friend of mine recently reminded me of something St. John of the Cross once said; something to the effect that it’s not the ones who boast about sitting next to God who are the closest to him, but those who are silent because they realize how impossible it is to contain God in their words. Though I have not always been silent about my love for God, nor do I think I ought to be, I do realize the truth of that very last thought. It is indeed impossible to contain God in my words. I might try, but I will always fall short in explaining the depth of all that God is.
And while we’ve got St. John of the Cross with us, the writer also argues that Christians are not thinkers, that those who truly think and reason inevitably become agnostic, and then, if they are really diligent in their thinking, atheist. I mention this because of the glaring error within those words. Who can call the writings of our church fathers, and the mystics, and all those deep-thinking saints who have brought us more deeply into our faith mere fluff, not reasonable?
In the end, though, there is nothing I can say to appease those who believe a life of non-belief is the more honorable, the right path. Nothing at all. And honestly, though I will stand up for my Catholic/Christian faith any day, it really requires no defense. The lived reality of its fruits are enough. Words can only go so far in explaining faith. It must be experienced to be grasped.
Before I go, I do feel I owe Heaving Dead Cats an apology for having pushed a button or two through my desire to make a point. As with all those with whom I come into contact, I wish her peace. She has a right to live her life however she sees fit.
And on that note, peace to all you readers in the week ahead. May you be blessed often in this waiting time of Advent’s third week!
Q4U: Where did you see/feel the light of faith this weekend?
Maybe what we really need to say in regards to belief in a Higher Power is not so much that it require deep thought, rather deep feeling. Emotions, belief without proof or explanation, hope in what can be – that is Faith – in whatever form it takes for whomever is seeking. Keep believing in that which fills you up and gives you hope.
Oh yes, in reading Mary’s response, I too thought of the role of “feeling” in our faith life, oftentimes in ways that are difficult to articulate.
Thank you Roxane, for your willingness to tackle the subject of faith for both believers and nonbelievers, in a forthright and non-judegemental way.
Keeping the faith with you! Blessings on your day!
Geez, It must be something in the water this last couple of weeks! I think as writers & bloggers, we might want to respond to something a fellow creative has written as a way of explaining why it is something doesn’t set well with us.
Our words can sometimes offend without us meaning to, but differences of opinion will somehow end up doing just that:) Perhaps deciding to just “squash” it might be the best course to take!
Best,
Clara.
Mary and Vicky, excellent point about the feelings involved in the faith life. What I’m curious about is why some people feel this and others don’t. I realize the answer is fairly complex. But Mary, I agree that you don’t need to be a deep thinker to have faith. That’s the way some people initially find their way to Christ, but ultimately, it goes beyond thinking or it cannot be true faith.
Clara, I agree that at some point, it’s best to just agree to disagree and leave it at that. I feel no need to defend any points here. I set out with a fairly simple goal that sort of took on a new direction when put “out there,” and that’s to be expected when we go public with our thoughts. We can’t always control where our words will fall, how, and with whom. We can only stay true to ourselves and what we know and have experienced and go from there.
I appreciate that much of the response to this came into my inbox rather than here in the comments box. My intention in sharing what had taken place after my Friday post certainly was not to enact a public defense, but to say what needed to be said from my end in order to let things rest.
I do want to share that one of those friends mentioned the following title as a possible food for thought challenge: the book called, “A Case for Christ,” by Lee Strobel.
Blessings All!
I get this criticism a lot from atheist readers, any time I refer to feeling sad for atheists. I don’t get it. Even when I was an atheist I would have agreed that it was a bleak worldview. (I would have thought that faith was a type of darkness too, since I erroneously saw it as avoiding thinking and facts and reality, but darkness of a different sort.)
A lot of the atheist philosophers throughout the ages openly admitted to the sadness of this worldview. Atheist Bertrand Russell wrote:
That man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and beliefs are but the outcome of accidental collections of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave.
That all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius are destined to extinction…that the whole temple of man’s achievement must inevitably be buried.
All these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand…Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.
I agreed with all of that when I was an atheist. So it’s always surprising to me when atheists are shocked when we say their worldview is sad.
Anyway, great posts Roxane! Glad you’re tackling these subjects!
Jennifer, naturally, I value your thoughts here, so doubly appreciate your having stopped by! Thanks for shedding light on the before and after of the atheistic viewpoint. You bring great hope and light to the darkness, friend, and are a constant source of inspiration to me and other Christians and other faith-filled people. Bless you!
You have blessed me and others with this exchange, both you and the other blogger. I am glad for this reminder of what it was like to live without faith, and I also appreciate your response. You put the “Peace” in Peace Garden Mama. 🙂
Rosslyn, I can imagine few higher compliments, as a natural peace-maker. (Not saying I don’t do my share of disrupting peace as well from time to time, but it’s a goal ever before me!)
This post was beautiful. If I may, I’d like to add that it takes far greater faith to believe there is nothing out there when so much testifies of God than to have faith that He is there.
Thank you for the post!
Bonnie, exactly. You just made the very point that my teen daughter made recently, which sort of was the impetus for this discussion (post prior to this one). I love it when thoughts converge like that. To me, that points to the cohesiveness of God’s mind and heart.