VICAR'S LETTER
17
Sundon Road
Streatley
June, 2008
Dear
All
As I write, the new START course, which offers its members a chance to reflect upon their own journey to God, is just past its half-way mark. In its third session, the members looked at the gap between God and ourselves created by doubts. In particular they looked at the doubts that arise when you try to square some of the things that happen in the world with the existence of a loving God. Their reflections seem worthy of wider circulation and so this month I propose to turn this letter into a kind of minutes of the meeting.
The first task the group set themselves was to narrow the gap. They did this from both sides. They looked first at what it is that leads them to believe there is a loving God. They spoke of the testimony of Jesus, of the testimony of people of faith all down the generations, of their own personal experiences, of the intimations of God's presence that come to us through contemplating the beauties of nature or through the media of music, art, and literature. They then looked very carefully at the things in this world around us that seem to cast doubt on the existence of such a God, pruning out those that could actually be laid at the door of human negligence or the mistaken or perverse use of free will, and then at those things whose cause was so little understood that it was impossible to understand where responsibility lay.
This exercise narrowed the gap, but it did not eliminate it. There remained a number of phenomena whose existence it seemed impossible to reconcile with the existence of a loving God. How could such a God allow a child to die of disease?
Having acknowledged the existence of this seemingly unbridgeable gap, the group then moved on to consider how we can best respond to it. They looked at three possible solutions. In the first faith overrides doubt. The apparent disparities in the world must be forced into conformity with faith. This they rejected. It can lead to the silliness of claims such as, 'God put fossils in the rocks to fool us.' More dangerously, it can also lead to dogmatism and fanaticism. In the second approach doubt overrides faith. Doubt (often labelled 'science') is allowed to eliminate faith. This too was rejected as to adopt it would mean turning one's back on all the evidence and experience that had generated and shaped faith. The third way is to humbly recognise that we don't yet know all the answers; that what we are all engaged in is a common search for truth; and that to this search all lines of human enquiry - science, religion, the arts, philosophy - have a contribution to make. On this approach doubt becomes not a negative thing but a positive thing driving us on to search for that point at which the truths of all these lines of enquiry finally meet. It was this approach that commended itself most strongly to the group.
The START course was originally intended for beginners in the faith. In fact it has drawn members from a much wider constituency, and has been all the richer for it. To the Regeneration Group, whose baby it was, and to Ros Wood and Gill Critten who have led the groups, and to the group members themselves, go grateful thanks for something that has given to all who took part in it, a real opportunity to think through and reflect upon the basis and the practice of our faith.
All best wishes,
Roger.