Why do some believe while others do not?
Have you ever wondered why there are those who believe in God? Where does this need come from? There are so many interpretations of this God; so many different belief “systems.” Can we say that these systems are designed to give those in charge of said system money, power and control? Isn’t that the real reason for these religions? And do we really even know if there is a God? We have suffering and pain in the world. We have science and evolution as well to explain why we are here. But we are human and humans have needs. One of our primary needs is to eat. When we are young we cannot feed ourselves but need another to feed us. Over time as our mind becomes stronger we can become self-reliant.
It is not a normal everyday thing to be a Christian. Most of our everyday life is focused on work, school, food, sleep and play. We don’t need to believe in order to live. Living requires food, water and sleep. Nothing more is required. There is no requirement to be spiritual for the animals don’t go to church or pray and aren’t we animals? Those who are Christian or practice Yoga and those who are atheists all live the same way by food and water and sleep. What else is required? When our plates are empty and we feel hunger pain we put food on our plate. What drives us to get food? It is pain. If we don’t eat we feel pain. It is this pain which let’s us know we must eat. Eating food then relieves us from the hunger pain. When we are thirsty we drink. When we are tired we sleep. But what about spiritual needs? If we learn by pain in the body do we learn by pain in the spirit if there is such a thing? In the immediate sense we don’t feel that sort of pain. Many people can and do live their whole life with no spiritual feeding of the soul. As we are in the moment of living and being we feel no immediate pain telling us to be spiritual. My point being that life teaches us what we need to survive by certain signs such as pain. These signs direct us and order our lives in a way that leads to survival. We plant crops, we plant trees, we raise animals and we know how to eat. And of course there is pleasure in food, drink and sleep. We can enjoy great food and wine and a good night’s sleep. These things are good and necessary. Food is necessary but it can also be good. And the greater our knowledge of food becomes the greater our pleasure is that can be derived from it. But one need not be knowledgeable to survive but only eat food, any food. But even unprepared food like fruits can be pleasing to the taste. So, food is simple; food is necessary and food is enjoyable. It lifts our spirits and makes us happy even if only for a little while. Drink is the same as it can also lift our spirits but even a glass of cold water can be pleasurable to drink.
If God created us for himself then wouldn’t he also provide for us some sort of inward way of knowing what we need? If that is absent then we could conclude there is no God. God would not abandon us or forsake us if he created us unless he didn’t want us and in this case we needn’t worry about what is required of us if anything. In the immediate we know we need food but in the bigger picture we also feel something is missing and that something causes us pain as well. This sense of longing can only be relieved by a sense of it being filled. What can fill something that is more of a conceptual pain? It is a pain not tied to an organ in our body but the pain is real. We cannot make it go away with something material since the source of it is not material. In the world there is fruit hanging from a tree and we can pluck it and eat it. This is a simple fix to an immediate problem. We have no similar thing to make this other pain go away no matter how hard we try to relieve ourselves of it it is still there. There is no hobby, drug or drink that will make it go away. It is always there. Sometimes we don’t feel it but it is there and it bugs us. So, if the world presents itself in a way which solves our physical needs is there an equivalent to our spiritual needs? If there were wouldn’t it be simple like the low hanging fruit? Shouldn’t it be good like food is good? Shouldn’t it be good whether we have in depth knowledge of it such as a piece of fruit or good if we make French cuisine? Yes, of course it should be all those things: simple and good whether we have great knowledge or little knowledge.
So, if it is better to fill this void, this pain, why isn’t it easy to find? Or is it easy to find but we just aren’t looking? We could point to a number of reasons for this and we also cannot share the feeling of being Christian to another like we could the taste of a piece of fruit. We can simply say to another “take this fruit and eat it. It is good.” It is more difficult to say the same thing about God to another. There are a number of reasons for this. Some of these reasons are hypocrisy, scandal, bad example and opposition.
“It is not surprising that such discord and error should always have existed outside the fold of Christ. For though, absolutely speaking, human reason by its own natural force and light can arrive at a true and certain knowledge of the one personal God, Who by His providence watches over and governs the world, and also of the natural law, which the Creator has written in our hearts, still there are not a few obstacles to prevent reason from making efficient and fruitful use of its natural ability. The truths that have to do with God and the relations between God and men, completely surpass the sensible order and demand self-surrender and self-abnegation in order to be put into practice and to influence practical life. Now the human intellect, in gaining the knowledge of such truths is hampered both by the activity of the senses and the imagination, and by evil passions arising from original sin. Hence men easily persuade themselves in such matters that what they do not wish to believe is false or at least doubtful.” Pius XII, Humani Generis
That last part in bold is saying that we have imaginations that lead us to things like watching grown ups wearing skin tight costumes play act as “super-heros” and what’s more we spend billions upon billions of dollars each year in this endeavor. We watch grown men in uniforms play a kid’s game each Sunday and spend billions per year doing so. We spend countless hours taking pictures of ourselves and posting it on social media or we talk about the food we ate. We spend time shopping or doing other hobbies. We know everything about cars but nothing about God. Then, there is our wounded nature as Pope Pius XII says “the evil passion arising from original sin” which leads us down many dark paths such as pornography, drugs, sex, gambling and alcohol. These things also lead us away from the truth.
But what about the opposition? This opposition is in the form of the devil and his millions or perhaps billions of fellow fallen angels. St. Anthony of the desert had a vision of how many demons there were and he said there were so many if we could see them in the sky the sky would be completely darkened with them. If there is a God who created what we call angels and as it says in the bible a third of them fell we can believe that this is true. But belief in God isn’t foreign to the demon. The devil believes in God and as it says in the bible, “Even the demons believe and tremble” (James 2: 19.) Belief in God is one thing but does it alone feed us and sustain us in the proper way? The demons believe but do not serve. The reason we are to understand is that Lucifer did not want to serve creatures such as us. So, when God told the angels His divine plan for humans Lucifer rebelled and was cast from Heaven in order to have free will. He especially hates our Blessed Mother because she, only a creature, was created free from original sin, as we say, she is the Immaculate Conception, and she is the mother of Jesus, our redeemer. And so, the devil, who knows quite a lot about our nature and can see things we cannot works tirelessly to enslave us and keep us from the truth so that he can have us in hell to serve him and be part of his kingdom. It even started this way in the beginning. We can see this from the story of the Garden of Eden. The devil said to Eve what was a lie even though a well-crafted lie. And that lying has continued until now. This opposition to the truth added to our already wounded nature leads us to not believe and follow because we believe what is convenient. We fear what obligation there might be if we believe. But if this is good food nourishing to the soul shouldn’t it also be good to partake of it? I understand that even mentioning the devil is seen as believing in some sort of fairy tale and it takes away one’s credibility when one speaks of the devil. The boogeyman isn’t real and we all know it and neither is Santa Claus or the devil. But unfortunately, he is real, and that is the greatest trick he ever played, to make us think he doesn’t exist. See my other post What in the World Part 2 for more back story on this.
We all have a longing in our hearts to find the truth and to find what will calm us and give us purpose. This is why the self-help industry is a multi-billion dollar per year industry. People buy things or join things in order to find the answers by working out, running, yoga, transcendental meditation, eating healthy and all these type of things. We’re looking for the answers but things get in the way such as we spoke about, our imagination, our intellect, our wounded nature and opposition. All these things hamper us, not to mention the social affect of where we are raised or the faith or lack of faith in our culture. This is a very broad subject which I couldn’t speak to effectively but only point out. So, why believe? That is the question being posed here. Why believe? To believe means to accept also what is being presented. In the case of the Christian it means changing ones’ life to meet the moral obligations placed upon him by becoming a Christian. It means living a clean life, being obedient, listening to others, turning the other cheek, forgiving, going to Mass on Sundays, helping others, and in all ways being a square but in return one also receives much more than one gives. I don’t ever wonder what is the answer. I know the answer. The answer is to follow Christ in His Church, the Catholic Church, to receive the sacraments, and to feel whole and satisfied. To look forward to what’s to come. To have joy that I don’t deserve to have, to have my sins forgiven, to have my past forgotten, to have and experience love. I don’t need to know about yoga or transcendental meditation because I have the Eucharist, I have the lives of the saints, I have confession and I have a foretaste of what is to come, Heaven.
And, why believe? Because it is good.
And why don’t some believe? Because, as stated, opposition, culture, original sin and the imagination. But there are other reasons, many other reasons. But sin and the pursuit of it, or money and the pursuit of it, or power and the pursuit of it lead one from the truth. We can tie all these things to original sin and that we are wounded, stupid and weak. We see Jesus in the great icon of the Good Samaritan pouring oils and wine on the wounded man, Adam, in order to heal him. The Eucharist and the other sacraments both heal and give real life. See my other post, Jonah and the Good Samaritan, for more on that.
There is another reason some believe and some don’t. The devil does not want us to be happy and in Heaven partaking of the great wedding feast that is said to come. We are not deserving of it but “Blessed are those called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” Revelation 19:9 In Matthew 22 and in Luke chapter 14 Jesus speaks of a King who invites others to the wedding of his son. We are also called to this wedding feast. However the devil makes us think it is hard so as to hamper our desire to become Catholic. Ask yourself if you are not Catholic do you think the Church is just a bunch of rules made to make us feel guilty? If yes, that is the lie told to keep people from believing but instead the church is a place of great healing, forgiveness and joy. Now, to be fair, for some there were great penances and suffering and for some now there may also be suffering. Just because one is part of the church does not mean there won’t be suffering but for those who believe the suffering has meaning. For those who don’t they whine and seek to avoid the suffering because suffering is always bad in their mind, especially their own.
If you don’t know if you can believe all you have to do is ask for the grace to be able to believe. Many don’t believe because they never asked.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matt 7: 7-8).