Belief and Truth

Jan’s maternal grandfather’s name was Devander, and accordingly was called Papa Dee.  He was a tall, lanky country farmer whose posture was pencil straight.  His weathered fair-skinned face had a ready smile.  My time with him was short because he died within two years of our marriage.  However, I have several memories of him.  I asked him if he remembered seeing his first airplane.  He told me about it.  I was amazed by his amazement.

Papa Dee had a belief which baffled me; he believed the NASA moon landing was a full-on hoax.  He believed it was all staged in Hollywood on a movie set.  He took that belief with him into eternity.

Papa Dee’s belief was sincere, but it was not based on truth.  It was based on what he saw on television and his understanding of nature and his skepticism of human nature.  His opinion was reasoned from his observations.  To be sure, he was unshakable in his belief.  He was sincere in his beliefs, but he was sincerely wrong.

We each shape our beliefs by reasoning through our current knowledge and accumulated history (Proverbs 21:2). That is precisely what Adam and Eve did, they reasoned their desires were right.  They believed “the knowledge of good and evil” would be a good thing to have.  They may not have said, “I want to do it on my own.” But they, at best said, “Creator, we can help you make us happy.”

Racism, nationalism, gender bias, and all the other things pigeonholing individuals are the result of people reasoning from their own understanding.   I could be wrong, but I think all the things which keep humanity stirred up in a bubbling cauldron of antagonism are birthed in human depravity which is reasoning from our own understanding.  It seems few of us are intent on discovering and adjusting to truth.  We take the data we have selected and process it to conform to our beliefs.  Then we want our beliefs to be acknowledged by all other people as the truth.

Human behavior always comes from what we believe.  It is very difficult, maybe impossible, to act inconsistently with what we believe.  The problem with beliefs is they are seldom based in truth, all truth, every truth.

When the Bible says God is one, it means, among other things, God never acts inconsistently with His nature.  God does not “reason,” He knows.  Humans are quite proud of their reasoning power.  Anyone who does not think like us is less than us and should not be trusted.  Thus, a lot of people in our culture diminish their Creator in their efforts to keep their beliefs intact.

Truth, however, does not change.  It has no preferences.  It is absolute in its consistency.  What is truth today is no different than truth yesterday, nor will it be altered in a thousand tomorrows. If it changes or fluctuates any, it ceases to be truth.  Truth does not accommodate human reasoning.  A human’s reasoning will never alter truth.  It is essential to hear the words of Jesus here, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Any honest search for truth will ultimately bring a finite person to the infinite person of Jesus, who is the Creator’s Christ.

If the Truth does not set well with a human, it is normal for the human to discount or reshape the absoluteness of Truth with “reasoning.”  We seem to say, “This is what I believe, so I am right.”

There is a lot to think about here.  This calls for a serious examination of our beliefs.  Do my beliefs match up with the Truth?  Or do I shape truth to match my beliefs?

By the way, I never really saw with my own eyes anything about the moon landing.  Papa Dee could be right.  But I don’t think so.

There is a connection between faith and belief.    The purpose of our belief system is to remove the ambiguity of life, to eliminate doubt and to provide stability.  Faith is acting on what you are not entirely convinced of; ambiguity remains in life.  There is a measure of uncertainty, but it does not hinder action.  Beliefs are birthed in the processing of the information we have acquired.  Faith is birthed in the source of information, in my case, it is God’s revelation of Himself in the Bible.   I do not have faith in what I know about God.  I have faith in the God who revealed Himself to me.

Beliefs can be easily adapted to support and protect my contentment and enhance my pleasure.  When Truth drives my faith, it adjusts my beliefs to be consistent with what I have faith in.  Thus, when I change my beliefs my behavior will change to be harmonious with what I believe to be Truth.  Such a life will be very disruptive to my desired contentment and desired pleasure.  I don’t like that at all!  I resist it which is the main difference between faith and beliefs.

I think we have two possibilities of developing our belief system;

Having faith in what we believe.  Reason driven beliefs create the best behavior a person can produce. 

Believing those truths in which we have faith.  Faith driven beliefs create the best behavior truth can produce.

Photo: Dead tree lit at night by Louise Martin Ball Fields which is across the street in Greenbrier, Tennessee. The tree has since been removed.