All In - Why Belief in God Requires a Leap of Faith

"All In - Why Belief in God Requires a 'Jump' start' or a 'leap of faith'"

Most people would say, in speaking of religious experiences, that when it comes down to proving the existence of God you either approach the answer by faith or through reason. This is a bit ironic though when you stop and think about it. To approach by faith one is essentially making a jump to belief. I say a jump because faith alone will not get you to a proof of truth. There may be experiences that will lead you in one direction, either closer to or further away from belief in God, but even religious experiences fall short of getting you all the way to proof. So at some point one must either refuse to go any further, turn away from the pursuit, or make a leap of faith and jump to a conclusion. Reason falls short as well. Reason falls short because it merely tells us whether or not a belief in God is "reasonable" to hold. Again reason will lead you in a direction, depending on the argument or train of thought you might be considering, but it fails to prove a conclusion beyond what one might reasonably believe; again it "proves" nothing.

So when you hear a Christian say that they know God or they know God exists the question the rest of the unbelieving world has is, "How do you know". Is it more proper for them to say that they "know" God exists or that they are absolutely convinced that He does? For those standing on the outside looking in the answer would most likely be the latter. For them, while the argument might be convincing and the experience compelling, they realize that not every witness in the trial has been called and not all the evidence has been fully scrutinized. For them there still exists the possibility that some new piece of information could leave the whole house of cards lying scattered on the table. This new piece of information could be anything from a new science that explains or allows us to interpret differently events that previously only had explanation by way of the supernatural to a better more convincing argument against the existence of God.

Each side may make the claim that they "know" something but the reality is that their conclusions are an extrapolation. While they may indeed come to the right conclusion they do not know it in the way that philosophers of religion define knowing. They perceive the truth and reality of their experiences and they have reasonable arguments that gird up and support their conclusions but, we, won't know the answer unless we meet God face to face, which is the hope that Christians hold on to.

Christians and others should not take the conclusion of this essay as a loss though or even as a sign that those who wish to share their experiences or who wish to continue to show that reason provides us with a leg to stand on when we talk about our belief in God. This essay only shows in what I hope is a thoughtful way that scripture is true. We do come to God by faith. Experience and reason may help lead the way but faith is what connects them to our conclusion.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God", Ephesians 2:8

Two illustrations came to mind as I was working through my thoughts on this, a courtroom and a good game of Texas Hold Em'. A jury in a courtroom may be convinced enough to deliver a unanimous verdict and still find themselves to be wrong. This is the danger some fear when deciding whether or not to make the leap. Those who have made the leap however are more like the person who has made it to the last round in a poker tournament and is looking at what he is convinced is the best hand on the table. There are others with good hands and some trying to bluff a bad hand off as a winner but they look at their hand and with conviction have went "all in". They've had similar experiences where a hand like theirs was a sure winner and all the reason tells them that based on what's been played its reasonable to believe they've got a winner, so, they go all in. Yes the river card is yet to hit the table and you really don't know what two cards are laying face down on the other end of the table but by faith and with confidence they put it all in the center of the pot hoping and believing that the risk will be worth it.