Faith By Default

“I wonder what we lose when we turn our backs on faith and our common stories.”  Tim DeRoche, Common Sense The Secular Case for Christianity - by Tim DeRoche (commonsense.news), April 17, 2022

Faith reflections have consumed philosophers, religious leaders, and psychologists for millennia. Uncountable volumes have been written using secular reasoning to justify either conclusion: to believe or not to believe. In the cited essay, Mr. DeRoche describes his faith exploration. He concludes to live as a believer, even while questioning his own belief. Refreshingly honest, he leaves open a great question which I paraphrase as, “What happens when faith is not taught as a life skill?”

About 25 years ago, my elementary-school-aged daughter was doing homework for health class. She was to fill in the blanks of the sentence, “Health is a state of {blank}, {blank}, and {blank} well-being.” She knew the answers were mental, physical, and social. But I had previously taught her that to be healthy and happy she needed to attend to her mind, body, and soul. “Mind” and “body” translated to “mental” and “physical” respectively. But she wondered, did “social” translate to “soul”?

I advised her to write down the expected answers. I explained that social well-being was a characteristic of a healthy soul, but teachers weren’t supposed to teach about your soul. Not everyone believed in them. My explanation troubled me. Was it true that teachers weren’t allowed to teach about the soul? What if a student asked? Was discussion about faith allowed in school?

A well-meaning friend told me he thought that schools shouldn’t address faith. In fact, he challenged whether it was appropriate to raise children with religious faith at all. Wasn’t that just indoctrination? Shouldn’t they make their own choices as adults? I answered that I consider faith to be a life skill, that people were still free to make choices as adults, and that being raised in faith was part of being informed. I know my logic seemed circular to him. But I view this as part of the work of raising good people. We feed our children a healthy diet as best we know, but they can choose their own food as adults.

His question reflects the dominant view now, where faith is deliberately unaddressed in education. In one way he was prescient. People will choose faith in something. We’re wired that way. And there are plenty of default choices. Faith in science. Faith in government. Faith in Google. I observe that secular choices seek certainty of a better world by relying on human empowerment. Cast out those old beliefs and redirect our faith to things we control so there can be peace, social justice, climate cooperation, and all things good.

Recently, another friend called me up laughing. He was in his shop watching a truck driver thoughtlessly follow a mapping ap onto a narrow service street. Now, having dead-headed into an alley that was too narrow to maneuver, the driver couldn’t see to back out onto the main road. Wasn’t it funny the driver had such faith in the mapping ap to drive into such an obvious trap? When bad things happen despite your faith – when mapping aps misdirect, when scientific predictions miss, or when the wrong party wins – a person may feel betrayed. And angry.

Today’s civic discourse is dominated by anger. Anger at the system. Anger at the other side. Anger at nationalists, or Jews, or cis gender white guys, or whomever. There is an ugly arrogance within this anger. It assumes the institutions and conventions we inherited were created by ignorant people motivated by oppression. It presumes we are beyond unknowable truths. If only a team of coders with today’s informed values could re-design things, everything would be better, progressive, and more worthy of faith.

Christian faith acknowledges unknowable truths, thus expects, and accepts, uncertainty. Our stories have conveyed to Christians through generations that we are to trust God through all things. When we are tested, when things don’t make sense, when bad things happen, we are taught to be humble and to turn to God for guidance and renewal. Living in peace through uncertainty is a hallmark of Christian faith.

I acknowledge that Christianity isn’t the only religion that claims this attribute. I am not a philosopher, pastor, or psychologist. I haven’t read all their books, and I certainly couldn’t write them. I don’t think skeptics of religious beliefs and the stories that convey them need justification. People are where they are. But many years ago, my pastor taught the difference between belief and faith. Paraphrasing him: belief is something we aspire to, but as humans we may always doubt; faith is living as if you believe, even while you have those doubts. This teaching validates Mr. DeRoche’s experience, even though his was derived via a secular path.

Christian faith is an endless, truth-seeking journey distinguished by humble submission to God. As children, we heard the stories, and as adults, we retell them. We assume our own fallibility. We do our best to use our blessing of knowledge, even while accepting ambiguity as a condition of the universe.

Secular faith trusts in human primacy to act with verifiable certainty, or at least within the bounds of quantifiable uncertainty. Religious fables have no place relative to current learning. It entails control wherever control can be applied. Ambiguity frustrates this notion, causing anger and resentment.

I wonder if we are now living through “what happens when faith is not taught as a life skill?”

End Note: My 2021 book ‘Proles – a Novel about 2084’, presents a not-exactly-Orwellian future founded on principles of Safety, Equality, and Science. The novel explores how a society that purports to know truth interacts with the remnant that still seeks it. If interested, you can find it at Proles: A novel about 2084: Lorentzen, Joel E.: 9798593702081: Amazon.com: Books.