IT IS UP TO EACH MAN...
A hellburner, huh? Well, probably not.
First, what was this country based upon? I keep hearing people talking about this country being founded upon Christian principles. I strongly disagree. Try as I might, I can find nothing in the Declaration of Independence about Christianity. Same hold true within the Preamble to the Constitution. And those are the only two documents that give us a hint. They lay out the reason the colonists felt it necessary to separate from England, and what the victorious rebels wanted to accomplish by their new Constitution, after suffering for eight or so years with the Articles of Confederation. They decided to use a federal system. And that system is still in effect today, the longest lasting Republic that has ever graced the face of the earth.
Were the framers of our freedoms and the Constitution which guarantees it religious? Very much so. Both documents speak of God or the Creator. Great obeisance is apparent. Some say they were Deists. Some actually persist in saying they were agnostic, some far outs also repeat the word atheist. They were neither agnostic nor atheist. But they did have a faith and reverence for God. As do I. I do not claim to be a Christian. But I do believe in God.
Why?
Probably I can illustrate this belief and the reason for it in a little story.
Back in the Dark Ages, some forty plus years ago, I was a member of the Jaycees. As an active member, I was involved in a number of different projects. At one time in particular, I had traveled to Charleston to assist in planning the statewide Miss America pageant for the state. After we had completed our meetings for the morning we got back in the station wagon and headed back up US 21 to Parkersburg. Somehow the topic or religion and God came up.
My boss was driving, my friend was sitting in the front passenger seat and I was sitting outboard in the rear seat. For whatever reason, we were stopped in traffic, and continuing the conversation Lee asked me if I really believed in God. I told him that I did. He then asked me the unanswerable question--why.
I sat for a moment collecting my thoughts. Then I replied that he should look out the window into the creek that ran beside the road and he would find my answer there. He did so, looking puzzled, and then said, "All I see are the minnows swimming in the creek." And I replied, "There is the answer you seek."
"But what has that to do with your belief in God?" he persisted. So I told him, roughly, as follows.
"You see, Lee, I cannot prove by science that God exists. I know He does because the father and mother of those little minnows were not rocks. Like all creatures, their little bodies are precise copies of their parents. Their hearts beat just as mine does. They are covered with skin, just as I. They have the exact same drive for living that both you and I have. They even have a brain as we do."
"Something created them, as a species, however many millions of years ago. Just as man was created as a species, so many millions of years ago."
And here he interrupted, "But the Bible says that man was created only some six thousand years ago."
To which I replied, "But the Bible was written by man and interpreted by other men through the ages. I do not say the Bible is not the inspired word of God, only that the Bible necessarily was written by man and is therefore subject to error in transcription and interpretation. We have all heard the scientific theory about the 'big bang.' Do you believe in that?"
He nodded in the affirmative.
"Is that also a Biblical event?"
He nodded negatively, but was considering the possibility.
I said, as the clincher, "Let there be light."
"Lee, as much as people may deny the existence of God, the very fact of original creation is now pretty much a scientific given--the big bang theory is accepted as the final answer to the beginning of the universe. And years before, 2000 years before someone finally figured this out, God had directed man to record this event right there in the Bible. So if there is a presence, a supernatural being that is capable of that, that we call God, that so accurately described the beginning of the universe, how can anyone say with finality that God does not exist? He has just proven his existence beyond a doubt. And the proof was right back there in that pool of water, if we are only smart enough to see it."
"I look around me, and I see butterflies, mankind, birds, squirrels, flowers, grass--all the living creatures and all the living plants, and I know that it took an intelligence far greater than any that has existed in mankind to create it all, set the laws of nature that we all are forced to obey--without even knowing we are--the laws that govern the motion of the stars, what keeps earth spinning around the sun and the moon spinning around the earth. My question to you is why would I not believe in God, with all this proof that he does exist?"
"And yet, I know, I cannot place God on a plate or table for you to see and examine. You must do that within yourself. Only you can convince you of His existence."
And Jim spoke up and said, "Lee. You lost that argument."
To which I replied, "No, the argument will continue until the end of our lives upon this earth. Because no one can really define his faith in God without saying simply that this is what he believes or does not believe."
And that is where I will leave it at this time.
First, what was this country based upon? I keep hearing people talking about this country being founded upon Christian principles. I strongly disagree. Try as I might, I can find nothing in the Declaration of Independence about Christianity. Same hold true within the Preamble to the Constitution. And those are the only two documents that give us a hint. They lay out the reason the colonists felt it necessary to separate from England, and what the victorious rebels wanted to accomplish by their new Constitution, after suffering for eight or so years with the Articles of Confederation. They decided to use a federal system. And that system is still in effect today, the longest lasting Republic that has ever graced the face of the earth.
Were the framers of our freedoms and the Constitution which guarantees it religious? Very much so. Both documents speak of God or the Creator. Great obeisance is apparent. Some say they were Deists. Some actually persist in saying they were agnostic, some far outs also repeat the word atheist. They were neither agnostic nor atheist. But they did have a faith and reverence for God. As do I. I do not claim to be a Christian. But I do believe in God.
Why?
Probably I can illustrate this belief and the reason for it in a little story.
Back in the Dark Ages, some forty plus years ago, I was a member of the Jaycees. As an active member, I was involved in a number of different projects. At one time in particular, I had traveled to Charleston to assist in planning the statewide Miss America pageant for the state. After we had completed our meetings for the morning we got back in the station wagon and headed back up US 21 to Parkersburg. Somehow the topic or religion and God came up.
My boss was driving, my friend was sitting in the front passenger seat and I was sitting outboard in the rear seat. For whatever reason, we were stopped in traffic, and continuing the conversation Lee asked me if I really believed in God. I told him that I did. He then asked me the unanswerable question--why.
I sat for a moment collecting my thoughts. Then I replied that he should look out the window into the creek that ran beside the road and he would find my answer there. He did so, looking puzzled, and then said, "All I see are the minnows swimming in the creek." And I replied, "There is the answer you seek."
"But what has that to do with your belief in God?" he persisted. So I told him, roughly, as follows.
"You see, Lee, I cannot prove by science that God exists. I know He does because the father and mother of those little minnows were not rocks. Like all creatures, their little bodies are precise copies of their parents. Their hearts beat just as mine does. They are covered with skin, just as I. They have the exact same drive for living that both you and I have. They even have a brain as we do."
"Something created them, as a species, however many millions of years ago. Just as man was created as a species, so many millions of years ago."
And here he interrupted, "But the Bible says that man was created only some six thousand years ago."
To which I replied, "But the Bible was written by man and interpreted by other men through the ages. I do not say the Bible is not the inspired word of God, only that the Bible necessarily was written by man and is therefore subject to error in transcription and interpretation. We have all heard the scientific theory about the 'big bang.' Do you believe in that?"
He nodded in the affirmative.
"Is that also a Biblical event?"
He nodded negatively, but was considering the possibility.
I said, as the clincher, "Let there be light."
"Lee, as much as people may deny the existence of God, the very fact of original creation is now pretty much a scientific given--the big bang theory is accepted as the final answer to the beginning of the universe. And years before, 2000 years before someone finally figured this out, God had directed man to record this event right there in the Bible. So if there is a presence, a supernatural being that is capable of that, that we call God, that so accurately described the beginning of the universe, how can anyone say with finality that God does not exist? He has just proven his existence beyond a doubt. And the proof was right back there in that pool of water, if we are only smart enough to see it."
"I look around me, and I see butterflies, mankind, birds, squirrels, flowers, grass--all the living creatures and all the living plants, and I know that it took an intelligence far greater than any that has existed in mankind to create it all, set the laws of nature that we all are forced to obey--without even knowing we are--the laws that govern the motion of the stars, what keeps earth spinning around the sun and the moon spinning around the earth. My question to you is why would I not believe in God, with all this proof that he does exist?"
"And yet, I know, I cannot place God on a plate or table for you to see and examine. You must do that within yourself. Only you can convince you of His existence."
And Jim spoke up and said, "Lee. You lost that argument."
To which I replied, "No, the argument will continue until the end of our lives upon this earth. Because no one can really define his faith in God without saying simply that this is what he believes or does not believe."
And that is where I will leave it at this time.
posted by tanstaafl | 6:48 AM
1 Comments:
Ah. Simply wonderful entry.
You know, on the notion of being founded on Christian principles...there was a time some twenty years ago as a very young woman that I believed it simply because that's what I was told. But then I got to thinking about it, and realized that we weren't founded on Christian principles, we were founded on human principles. We have the freedom to choose our religion, we have the freedom to have our own opinions and ideas, the freedom to make our lives whatever we want them to be.
I think the first time I realized the disconnect between what I thought and what life really was came from a book I read (can't remember the title) about slavery. I'd never made the connection before, for some reason, but for the most part, slave owners were professed Christians. And yet those members and builders of our society weren't recognized under our laws...so how could we say those laws were founded on Christian principles? If a man can't serve two masters, that is.
If our society is based on Christian principles, I cannot explain the bizarre level of materialism. And, it seems to me that if our country came to be in large part due to religious persecution, it would be rather hypocritical to then structure it in a way that didn't allow freedoms to insure against a repeating of that persecution.
I read an interesting column a few years back by a person of faith. In that piece, which was entirely opinion, the person expressed the DESIRE to be a Christian, but believed we didn't actually reach that status until we faced or judgement day. That we are all just works in progress, so to speak. That resonated with me.
Wonderful way to answer the "why" of believing in God. We shouldn't believe in God simply because we're told to, or so we can feel good about ourselves, but because God, by whatever name, is an undeniable presence in the diversity that is life. Some things can be left to chance. Others, though...chance just isn't a reasonable explanation.
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