Faith, on the evidence
Al Sikes
Confronting the unknown
The Wall Street Journal recently featured a story about the Shroud of Turin that also mentioned other religious artifacts. The writer delved into claims and counterclaims on authenticity. He noted that the extraordinary interest in religious artifacts results from an understandable desire to strengthen faith with concrete evidence.
Dr. Francis Collins, the former head of the National Genome Project, author of The Language of God and a Trinity Forum Senior Fellow, has recently unveiled a web site and foundation called BioLogos. This eagerly awaited web presence will focus on the harmony between faith and reason as viewed through the lens of his work.
Dr. Collins will, I hope, become a persuasive countervailing force. Evangelistic atheists have in recent years tried to hijack science to discredit faith, and overreaching scientific skepticism should be challenged.
Faith inevitably confronts the unknown. But then, we navigate faithfully through the unknown every day. During my career I have worked extensively with early stage businesses and have found that faith in intuition, markets, and economic models is a prerequisite of entrepreneurship.
Last month I brought my challenged attention span with me to an Easter service. As the familiar service unfolded, I could not deflect intrusive thoughts of faith and reason. While my mind fought for focus, my eyes were drawn to a wooden cross suspended over the altar. In the days before Easter Sunday, the life-sized cross, bare and unadorned, had been a stark presence reminding the congregation of Good Friday. Now its symmetrical and rough-hewn visage was transfigured with a white sash and an artful display of lilies.
The sanctuary is enriched with stained-glass windows that filtered the April sun as spring’s renewal pushed its way into my mind. What a profound moment in a world where the profound barely gets a word in. My brief reflection convinced me yet again. I was surrounded by nature’s elegant evidence of harmony with the divine promise—death, but renewal.
Reason and faith converged; divinity was crystalline. The natural cycles of life and the Christian understanding of the divinity of Christ were naturally and rationally reinforcing.
Yet faith is complicated and not unrelated to circumstances. I marvel at those whose faith, in the face of personal tragedy, seems unaffected. The cross is their bridge. What could possibly be more tragic than the establishment’s brutal murder of Jesus Christ? But the crucifixion was an indispensable step in capturing the harmony of the divine creation—death and resurrection.
Exhaustively researched and tightly reasoned books undoubtedly help many on their faith journeys. My own faith draws on many sources. And I know that Dr. Collins’s BioLogos presence will be an important new resource for faith seekers. But this Easter Sunday I had to go no further than a transformed altar and April’s glorious offerings of renewal.
Al Sikes is Chairman of The Trinity Forum and former Chairman of the FCC.
1 Responses (comments are closed) • Features, Public Square, Society, Thu 07 May 2009
Atlanta
on 2009 06 07
Many folks claim that faith is disjoint from knowledge. No! In a great 1920s book,“What IS Faith?”, J. Gresham Machen shot this down. He insisted that knowledge is one essential ingredient of REAL faith! Necessary, too, are conviction and trust. My illustration: Ice fishing on some northern U.S.lake. Folks drive their pickup trucks out on the ice. They have FAITH! Takes KNOWLDEGE of ice, etc. Takes CONVICTION that the ice will hold them. Their faith isn’t complete until they TRUST by driving out, chopping a hole in the ice,.... With Tooth Fairy faith, hoping for the best, groundless leftist optimism, they might try that in July!