Chicken or the Egg (cont.)

Yesterday I posted about the importance of recognizing the role of belief in our knowledge, rather than assuming that knowledge is the source of belief. For a recap you can read that article here.

Today I would like to make an observation that builds upon yesterday’s article. It has to do with having a Crisis of Faith. A crisis of faith is a term that is often used to describe someone who has had to reconsider their faith in God due to extra ordinary or extra reflective circumstances.

Yes, there are probably genuine crisis of faith, but what we are usually talking about are not crisis of faith at all. Usually people are having a Crisis of Absolutes. Since for centuries we (as a Western society) have assumed that knowledge comes prior to belief—not just any knowledge but an absolute kind, a universal, a priori, knowledge—when what we understand to be true about God and the world comes into question so does the faith that is built upon that knowledge.

For example, if someone has knowledge of God to be a loving God but their life is turning up to be a mess full of broken and spiteful relationships—God’s love is nowhere apparent—then they may end up having a crisis of faith. They may doubt whether or not they should trust in a God who is so obviously absent. Now, to be clear, I am not saying that someone should not have a crisis of faith in this situation. I am suggesting that what we primarily have is a crisis of knowledge.

God may still actually be loving, but maybe God is not loving in the way that someone knew that God was loving. It turns out that who they knew God to be is convoluted—not absolute. Maybe someone’s knowledge of God’s love is more like our knowledge of Santa Clause figures. God is in this sense a cosmic gift giver. It is very possible that God is actually love. However, in this simple analogy, that does not necessarily include a knowledge of love as one who answers every petition or eliminates every evil.

Because it has been assumed that our belief is based upon knowledge and overlooked that our knowledge comes from belief then we falter in our faith whenever our knowledge is called into question. We may benefit from recognizing the role of belief in our knowledge so that we do not have as many crisis of faith due to crisis of absolutes.

Our belief and our knowledge about God, the universe, others, and our self are very fluid. They are constantly in dialogue with one another. As our belief changes so does our knowledge. As our knowledge changes so does our belief. This is not a crisis. This is the nature of our existence—the existence of people with limited perspectives rather than absolute perspectives.

So, next time you or someone you know is having a crisis of faith—though I recognize such times can be genuinely serious—calm down. Ask (like M. Night Shyamalan movies do) what assumptions about reality have come under fire. These are likely things that someone has chosen to believe, but has regarded as absolute. This is ok. This is normal. This is what we must do as humans. Our knowledge and belief are in continuous formation. Consequently this makes trusting in God all the more, well, trusting.


For the next Chicken or the Egg post click here.