The leap of faith or Soren Kierkegaard's "leap to faith." What is it
exactly? I'll tell you what it means to me. I consider myself an
intelligent person. No one could ever prove to me that God exists,
therefore I concluded that He does not exist. The truth is that you
can't prove or disprove the intangible, the supernatural. It is by
definition beyond our senses to perceive and outside of nature. So the
intellectuals and philosophers reject the possibility of the existence
of an omnipotent/omniscient/omnipresent/omni-whatever-you-can-think-of
entity/being/concept. When you reject the possibility of such an entity
you must fill the gap with something else that explains all the unknowns
of nature. Science, psychology, philosophy; all these things make the
attempt. In all the areas where these disciplines fall short phenomena
can be written off as, 'as yet unexplainable by science' while taking
the assumption that all things will be revealed through the course of
normal observation and expansion of human knowledge. Unanswered
questions get answered and ultimately lead to more questions and so on
and so forth. This is a natural and important process. I love science.
I am an engineer and love solving technical problems. Science is cold,
systematic, logical, and mathematic. Faith requires no such development
of knowledge. The leap of faith means that yesterday you didn't have
any (faith) and today you do. The leap can be dramatic, breathtaking,
and life-changing.
What makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck when you hear
great music? Where does that tingle come from? Chemicals in your brain
stimulating neural responses caused by vibrations in your eardrums no
doubt. Yes, but how does your favorite song recall memories of a lost
loved one? How does a peculiar combination of musical notes stimulate
the neural response creating such vivid images behind your eyeballs? I
don't know? Are there any neurologists out there? The point is that
there comes a point where science fails. Throughout history, without
knowing any better, people explained things they did not understand by
attributing them to supernatural causes. Some argue that this situation
has not changed and is the only reason to believe in God. It is true
that human knowledge has greatly advanced such that rather than chalking
up the unexplainable to supernatural causes the initial inclination is
to look to some scientific explanation even when it is beyond our own
understanding. New discoveries are made all the time, which as I said
lead to more questions. I believe these discoveries provide more
insight into the mechanisms of God, and that in a way they bring us
closer to Him. The more we learn the more we discover that the world is
a complex and interrelated system of systems which is at times very
robust and others incredibly fragile, but always beautiful. The
advancement of science does not diminish the sovereignty of God.
exactly? I'll tell you what it means to me. I consider myself an
intelligent person. No one could ever prove to me that God exists,
therefore I concluded that He does not exist. The truth is that you
can't prove or disprove the intangible, the supernatural. It is by
definition beyond our senses to perceive and outside of nature. So the
intellectuals and philosophers reject the possibility of the existence
of an omnipotent/omniscient/omnipresent/omni-whatever-you-can-think-of
entity/being/concept. When you reject the possibility of such an entity
you must fill the gap with something else that explains all the unknowns
of nature. Science, psychology, philosophy; all these things make the
attempt. In all the areas where these disciplines fall short phenomena
can be written off as, 'as yet unexplainable by science' while taking
the assumption that all things will be revealed through the course of
normal observation and expansion of human knowledge. Unanswered
questions get answered and ultimately lead to more questions and so on
and so forth. This is a natural and important process. I love science.
I am an engineer and love solving technical problems. Science is cold,
systematic, logical, and mathematic. Faith requires no such development
of knowledge. The leap of faith means that yesterday you didn't have
any (faith) and today you do. The leap can be dramatic, breathtaking,
and life-changing.
What makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck when you hear
great music? Where does that tingle come from? Chemicals in your brain
stimulating neural responses caused by vibrations in your eardrums no
doubt. Yes, but how does your favorite song recall memories of a lost
loved one? How does a peculiar combination of musical notes stimulate
the neural response creating such vivid images behind your eyeballs? I
don't know? Are there any neurologists out there? The point is that
there comes a point where science fails. Throughout history, without
knowing any better, people explained things they did not understand by
attributing them to supernatural causes. Some argue that this situation
has not changed and is the only reason to believe in God. It is true
that human knowledge has greatly advanced such that rather than chalking
up the unexplainable to supernatural causes the initial inclination is
to look to some scientific explanation even when it is beyond our own
understanding. New discoveries are made all the time, which as I said
lead to more questions. I believe these discoveries provide more
insight into the mechanisms of God, and that in a way they bring us
closer to Him. The more we learn the more we discover that the world is
a complex and interrelated system of systems which is at times very
robust and others incredibly fragile, but always beautiful. The
advancement of science does not diminish the sovereignty of God.
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