Deity

I was reading Tim Keller's book recently, The Reason for God, and in it he addresses what I think is a major problem in the communication of faith between people who believe in God and people that don't: respect. Because positions on faith are emotive, a common response for both people with faith and without is to laugh at the opposing viewpoint. There is of course a place for humour in any (perhaps not any, but most) discussions, but if the laughter comes from a position of ridicule, then it doesn't really aid effective communication. What is surely more helpful, regardless of what you believe, is a respectful listening of each other's ideas and beliefs. Since reading the book, I've tried to put that into practice a little bit more and have enjoyed coming to the common ground with atheists (I'm a theist by the way) that at least we've made up our mind unlike agnostics, but then I guess if you're unsure, then agnosticism is an honest position to be in although I would suggest that the existence of a God is a pretty important question and one worth pursuing to see if an answer is findable.

My theistic position came from a position of assumption that God existed as a young child (having been taken to church by my parents) to a place where I realised I needed to make my own mind up about it. I came to an independent conclusion that God did indeed exist when I was seven years old. It seems a young age to be making such a decision, 'tis true, but the validity of the decision has stood the test of time unlike my decision to become a tiger vet or my decision to only wear orange clothes. The decision came about after my Year 2 Infant School teacher Miss Pilgrim (a suitably religious name) told our class about Christianity. She explained that the reason Jesus died was to fulfil cosmic justice between God and man; Jesus death was him taking the punishment for the stuff we'd done wrong - our wrong stuff being offensive to God - and because he'd died we could have a relationship with God, and because he had risen again, he had beaten the power of death meaning that we could have eternal life in heaven with God after our bodies had died. Up to this point God had been a kind of mystical force that I had been aware of, but her simple explanation (a lot simpler my recreation of it) made me realise that the reality of God was about having a relationship with him. So, when the bell for break-time rung, I scampered to the toilet, locked myself in a cubicle and prayed, I guess, my first non-parrot prayer. I believe that this moment was a moment when I actually experienced God and it is this experiential nature of my faith that has meant that it has never been shaken off.

That is not to say that it has never been shaken; it has been vigorously battered back and forth by complicated (sometimes impossible to answer) questions and challenging circumstances. At every stage of my life I have had to reexamine my faith - as a teenager; as an immature adult; as a slightly less immature adult - and I have always found it to hold true; it has never been shaken off of me and it still clings close today. The world makes sense to me with a faith in God - difficult questions are important to ask because what is faith if you ignore things that challenge that faith? Challenging circumstances are confusing, but I have found that my faith has helped me to see them in an eternal context; if I could not seen them in that way then they may have defeated me. Intellectual arguments fascinate me, but it is my ongoing experience of God that gives me faith in an interactive deity.