We are like children groping in a vast, dark room discovering and piecing things together the best that we can.
Certain “aha moments” stick with me and are a continual point of reference in my life. Many of them happened, not unsurprisingly, when I was in college – a time when I was searching and open to learning.
For some background, I went to a small liberal arts college where a premium was attached to reading and writing. Philosophical discussions were not uncommon over food and drink. Professors would commonly gather in spirited debate in the one (and only) fast food joint on the campus as the students. I loved the academic atmosphere.
One ongoing debate among students was who was the smartest professor on campus. The debate came to an end one day when one of the favorites (a professor who taught Latin, Greek and Logic) took his own life one night. The scuttlebutt was that he came to the dire conclusion that God does not exist, and he ended his life.
The other professor who was most often championed as “smartest” when was one of the two religion professors on campus. He was enamored with Liberation Theology (the thought that God was maturing and changing with His creation, among other things) and otherwise had an “all roads lead to the top of the same mountain” view on religion.
His counterpart was Jewish. At the same time, one of the more popular professors (among the intelligentsia on campus) was an undeniable guru of Western Civilization. His Western Civilization classes were staples of the curriculum. Though there was plenty of partying and “normal” college life, my college was a cloistered incubator of discovery for anyone eager to learn.
The Western Civ prof (harkening back to college speak) gave a popular series of lectures in the evening (popular, at least, for the people more interested in political parties than dorm parties). These lectures were voluntary, but well attended. His lectures featured the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas and the connection between science and faith.
His lectures were popular, I believe, because they propped up faith for the “smart” college student who grew up believing in God who was suddenly facing the disdain of the academic community. The overwhelmingly predominant worldview on college campuses in those days, and more so now, is anything but a worldview with God as the central figure.
This professor reasoned in these lectures that empirical, scientific evidence, reason and logic leads a person inevitably up to the steps of heaven to the door of faith. (The metaphor is mine.) He was arguing against the notion that faith requires a “leap” – a disconnect from the more “objective” grounding of science, reason, and logic.
I wondered, then, whether he was right. My intuition suggested otherwise, but I didn’t know quite why. I have been thinking about his premise ever since, and I have a better grasp on the reasons why I believe his premise isn’t true than I did in college.
Continue reading “Leaps of Faith” →
Navigating by Faith 