The search for God can seem so puzzling and so difficult that many people feel like, “All that God-stuff is a mystery, and no one really knows what’s true.”
If this is how you are feeling, it makes sense to dig into this instinct and see if this objection to faith can withstand a rigorous investigation. Let’s start by considering some of the main reasons why the search for God seems strange and even impossible.
Another great quality of many atheists, which is too often unappreciated by Christians and other religious people, is an openness to doubt, a flexibility to look at the world from different angles, and an interest in the rational critique of established positions.
Of course there are atheists, who as much as some Christians, seem to display a boastful overconfidence about the evident certainty and obvious conclusions of their positions. But in general, my experience has been that there are very many atheists who are self-critical, open-minded, and interested in the rigorous examination of worldview claims.
One of the responses to yesterday’s item was this insightful comment: “[A] lot of people have the impression that they would be different. They’ll say, “Sure, those silly Israelites made that mistake, but certainly I wouldn’t. *I* would listen to God and would never forsake Him if only I saw him once.” In other words, the interpretive question that must be answered about the narrative I shared from Deuteronomy is: are we similar to those “silly Israelites”?
If you’re trying to find God, one thing you need is humility. What is humility?
First, humility is not thinking terrible, false thoughts about yourself. It is no virtue to believe harsh, negative lies about yourself. There is nothing humble about believing you are worthless, basically incapable, stupid, or any other variation upon these themes.
One often neglected component that is essential, when conducting a thorough investigation for God’s existence, is participating in community.
Think about it: how did you learn math or chemistry or English? It was almost certainly in community – with a teacher, fellow students, and books written, edited, published, marketed and sold by others you never met. Almost all of our learning, in every discipline, depends upon participation in a community. If you want to learn math, you get to know the math professors; for chemistry, with others in the lab; for English, through reading and the English department. The same is true if you are looking to find God: you simply need to be around people who claim to know God!
One of the most important virtues, in a genuine search for truth, is open-mindedness. The Free Dictionary defines open-mindedness as, “Receptive to new and different ideas or the opinions of others.” Apart from this value, we will only listen to and learn from those who confirm our existing beliefs.
Today we’re taking another close look at a statement from The Octavius of Minucius Felix. This writing comes from 160-250A.D. and includes a long section of objections to Christianity from a man named Caecilius. He says:
Let’s go back 1,800 years to one of the earliest Christian apologetic writings. There is a very interesting writing, The Octavius of Minucius Felix, which can be dated to 160-250A.D. In this document, the opponent to Christianity is a man named Caecilius. He is said to speak these words, which are surprisingly similar to what is often said today:
Your friend wants to know: “I understand you have a basically trusting attitude towards knowing things. But this strikes me as naive. Don’t you watch The Daily Show? Have you been in a cave while the postmodern deconstructionists dismantled, piece by piece, the problems of modernity? Are you unaware of the personal and cultural biases which we all bring into this world? How can you sustain such a basic trust in coming to know things?”