Leap of Faith

I was reading an article about a Pennsylvania high school teacher who had been supplementing his biology class Evolution lessons with Creationism for the last decade or so. He was ordered by the school board to stop and has agreed to comply. To the side of the article was a message board. The post below caught my eye for some reason.

fromoz 6/11/2005 3:13:42 PM In my mind Evolution will stand more rigorously against scientific enquiry, Creationism and the Bible won't.What sort of a God would deliberately create a World based on a "food chain" where life for one depends on the death and suffering of others? While I can accept such an outcome from Evolution I can't accept such an outcome from any loving God.God would be redundant without sin, so he made people prone to sin and then murdered his own son so those who believe this tale would be "saved"? Give me a break! I'll stick with Evolution; keep your hocus-pocus to yourself.
I can not address this person from Oz because I am not a member of the message board. But his statements got me thinking. Christianity makes no sense to those who do not believe in Jesus, God, and eternal life. Christians must seem crazy to those outside of faith... Living for a life and a Kingdom we can not physically prove exists. Believing a God who created the world and everything in it has time to commune, and listen to the prayers of each insignificant person who calls on his name. Ludicrous. Illogical. Can't be scientifically proven. What a stretch... Or is it?

Are humans by nature logical beings or beings of faith? Honestly as far fetched as Christianity is, there are other things that all humans buy into that seem just as hard to swallow at face value. For instance ...Parenthood. Who in their right mind chooses to be responsible for another helpless human being? Knowing the emotional, physical, not to mention financial toll brought on by reproducing and bringing a baby into this world, it is a wonder that any of us procreate! Parenthood is completely irrational. It is painful. Draining. Hard. There is no promise of success no matter how much you give. Someone once said "Becoming a parent is like choosing to let your heart live outside your self?" Who logically and knowingly would give their heart away with no assurance that it wouldn't be crushed? It makes no sense. Still 2.5 out of every 4 humans on this planet will venture into the irrational world of parenthood and procreation. Crazy!

Then there is love. Now love has to be the most irrational force on earth. Love can not be manufactured in a lab. It is hard to prove scientifically. Love is at times irrational and unpredictable while at times sure and steady. Love enables people to do amazing things and is blamed for many a downfall. Love is a decision and a feeling, It is a noun and a verb. It is healthy and deadly. Love is irrational, unfair, unstable and yet most of us pursue love for the greater part of our lives.

So really, is belief in a God we can not prove with science and can not fully fathom such a stretch? Is there anything in this universe that can be proved without some degree of faith? Faith in a theory? Faith that the universe has always followed the same laws of nature it follows now? Faith in Science and mans ability to reason? Seems to me all beliefs, proven or otherwise are based on a gamble of a faith .

Truly, I can not explain to the person from OZ why the world is based on a food chain. I don't think that was the intention in the Garden of Eden but then Satan and man got together and messed that up. And would God be redundant without sin? Who gets to define redundant? I sometimes wonder if unbelievers have a harder time believing that there is a God or that there is a devil?If you accept the existence of one, on some level you have to accept the existence of the other.

There are many things one could ask this person from OZ... But it I think it would take more than questions and arguments to convince this Oz-ite that there is a loving, all powerful God. He or she would have to see God for his or herself. And the most amazingly irrational thing about that is, God trusts us, his crazy, believing, weak, adopted children, to represent Him to our doubting world! It makes me wonder, who has the greater faith ~ us in God or God in us? I wonder if the guy from Oz would ponder that one for a while? I know I will.