Faith and Going Beyond What We Know

To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary.

To one without faith, no explanation is possible.

--Thomas Aquinas

Copyright © 2019

by Ralph F. Couey

In the 1989 period action film, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," the shared quest between the eponymous Jones and his father comes to a point of crisis.  Dr. Jones, Sr. (Sean Connery) has been shot by the villain and lays dying in the cave.  Indiana now has to complete three challenges in order to retrieve the Holy Grail, the sacred Cup of Christ and bring it back filled with the sacred water that will save his father's life.  The third challenge has stuck with me since the first time seeing the film.  The clue from the Grail Diary states, "Only in the leap from the lion's head will he prove his worth."  At that moment, Indiana finds himself standing on the edge of an apparent abyss staring at the other side.  Re-reading the clue, Jones then wills himself to believe that there will be a bridge when he takes that fateful step.  He raises his foot, steps forward...upon a rock span that to this moment remained invisible.  Making a long story short, he crosses the abyss, gets the cup and water and with it saves his father's life.

It's a marvelous moment that to an extent reveals the meaning and power of faith.  

We are a pragmatic people, driven by curiosity but demanding unchallengeable proof for everything we experience.  Faith is therefore difficult for us because at its roots, faith is the complete trust and confidence in the unprovable.  This is usually attached to matters of the spiritual, but even science engages in a form of faith.

Dark Matter is the term scientists have arrived at to explain the missing mass of the universe.  When all the galaxies and their constituent stars, planets, comets, asteroids, etc., etc., etc. were measured, it was concluded that there wasn't enough mass there to explain the amount of gravity that was present.  Dark Matter is invisible, undetectable by any sensor, technological or organic.  Therefore, it cannot be seen, felt, smelled, or measured.  The only proof of its existence is the effect it has on the objects around it.  

Likewise, the existence of God, or any supreme deity, cannot be proven using the science of our universe.  It is a presence that can only be acknowledged through faith.  I have had the same conversation with the atheistic and agnostic, in which they demand, "Show me proof that God exists."  I reply, "Sure.  As soon as you can show me a handful of Dark Matter."  I'm not being a smart aleck (at least not intending to be one), but merely trying to help them understand that there are things in the universe that will never be proven.

My perspective is a bit different. Sixteen years ago, I was lying on a steel table in a catheterization lab getting the first pair of what would eventually be five stents in my heart.  All the indulgences of Big Macs, deep-fried Twinkies and milkshakes had finally come home to roost.  Anyway, during the procedure, my ticker quit, and I... "went away."  I've blogged before on what happened during those few moments, and I won't drag you through them again.  A lot of knowledge and perspective were given to me in that experience, some of which I'm still processing.  But as far as this essay is concerned, one of the most profound insights involved dimensionality.

Our universe is defined by three dimensions, length, depth, and heighth.  Many also include time on that list.  Albert Einstein explored the possibility of higher dimensions and other theoreticians have suggested that they exist, but beyond our ability to perceive.  If you draw a line segment on a piece of paper, you have created a one-dimensional object. Draw another line a a 90 degree angle, and now you have a two-dimensional structure.  Now, put the pencil point down on the intersection of those lines, and now, adding height, you have a three-dimensional object.  Adding a fourth dimension, you merely need to add another line segment at another 90 degree angle. But you can't, since that additional 90 degrees is unobtainable.  Below is an image of a tesseract, or hypercube,  This is the shadow of a four-dimensional cube:

We can't point to the fourth dimension because it is invisible to us. The insight gained from my short stay in the afterlife showed me that those places we call Heaven or Hell are not above or below us, but exist all around in a separate dimension which we won't be able to perceive until we leave this existence.  So, I reasoned, if God as an entity existed on a dimensional plane infinitely removed from ours, could we ever prove that existence using science caged by a three dimensional perceived reality?  The answer is, of course, no.

So, like scientists seeking to prove the existence of Dark Matter, believers in God must accept that existence through the act of faith.

So, if God exists, why is there so much misery, violence, and death?  Didn't Jesus promise us life eternal?  The answer is that for God, life is not the few decades we spend here.  It is an eternal existence, one to which we will return when our time here is complete. That nebulous, indefinable thing we call soul or spirit is that part of us that is trans-dimensional. Of course, we must leave our mortal remains behind because they were built to work in this universe.  But because that "place" is beyond our perceptions, we conclude that death, which we define as the point when our mortal bodies cease to function, is the ending of everything.  But the promise of eternal life is still fulfilled, but only if we understand that life is not limited to our current existence, but is extended to those other realms beyond here.  But in terms of the aforementioned misery, violence, and death, God doesn't allow them; we do.  

We were gifted with agency, the ability to freely choose.  As such, we are free to travel whatever path seems best for us.  We are also free to believe or not believe.  God has never wanted his believers to be dragged kicking and screaming before the throne, but to come willingly.  Likewise, we have the knowledge and ability to end hate and intolerance; to stop war and conflict, and the accompanying violence.  What we lack is the will to do so.  

Most of us seem to have a streak of selfishness.  Our needs come before others.  Our ideas are superior.  Only we can be in charge.  These are the dark elements which are responsible for most of the human misery.  We allow them to dominate us because that is our choice.  We can instead conform to the better angels of our natures, but only we can make that choice.  

Like Dr. Jones, the human race stands on a precipice.  The way forward is not known, but the choices have never been clearer.  We know what the right things are.  We have the freedom to make those choices.  But we somehow have fallen in love with hating each other. If we are to survive as a race, to fulfill what God intended for us, then we must be prepared to make good decisions, especially when the other choices seem so delectably fun.  

It's never easy to walk a narrow path.  We may perceive it as difficult or impossible.  But it is the path we must walk; not the way of proof.  But the way of faith.