Is Faith a Myth?

I mentioned last Sunday what C. S. Lewis calls, 'that inconsolable longing', which is the feeling many of us discover when we think of how much better things of this world could be. We imagine that there has to be something better because we realize the imperfections of this world and know, simply know, that things aren't always right here, and that even the things which are right could be so much better. Indeed, they are meant to be better, only that we can't find that improved quality here. We are treated only to brief glimpses and hopeful feelings, mere tastes of a true life which almost aggrieves us. Hence, the inconsolable longing.

We have two options at this point. The first is to believe, as many various medical professionals and psychologists and sociologists and social scientists think, that all of that is an illusion. As we need to think positive for the sake of our very survival, we are inclined to think and want the best. Indeed that we are 'hard wired' that way because our psyches require a belief in something beyond ourselves in order to survive our trials. And to be fair, we may be so constructed. But for the people of whom I speak, it is only the survival instinct which causes us to believe there are greater things beyond this form of existence.

A more concrete example of how such folk think may be found in the famous near death experiences which I'm sure most of us have read about. In them, there almost always seems to be a bright comforting light which draws us towards it, and often enough Christ (or even another religious figure) greets the person at the end of the beam. Well, it seems that a scientist has found that he can recreate that sensation in a laboratory setting and, using electrodes on the brain, give a test subject those same experience artificially. Therefore, many conclude, we have proof that the sensation and all similar feelings are simply part of our physical makeup, and merely delusional even if necessary for our well being.

I don't buy it, and that leads to the second option we have in the matter. We can believe, and Mr. Lewis and the great Christian writers have, that the most reasonable explanation for the longing is not wishful thinking inspired by our minds but the actual conception of the idea that things can be better and are in fact better somewhere else, and that we naturally want to be in that place. The only reasonable expectation of that longing is that it will in fact become consoled. The desires inherent within it will become reality for us one day precisely because they are the actual reality, the really real world of which, here on Earth, we can have nothing but fleeting tastes and quick glances.

To the degree that we may be hard wired in order to recognize them, I am not shocked nor shaken. We are physical as well as spiritual creatures; why ought we be dismayed when we perhaps find that our bodies can be tricked into a sensation intended for a certain transformational moment in our existence? Why should our physical selves not be as prepared to greet the next life as our spiritual souls ought to be as well?

It is Faith which keeps us sane, and faith in the next world which illuminates whatever scenes of the final world which we may see. It is Faith which calls us when we cannot quite fathom that next reality which calls out to us. It is Faith which keeps us on track when it offers us those few and rare tastes of the perfect and the beautiful. To the degree that it is part of our physical nature, let us revel and remain hopeful in it. To the degree that it is ethereal, let us trust only that our selves will not deceive the ultimate reality.