Hokey religions and ancient weapons

Part of being a returned missionary is the need to relate any topic to some event that happened on the mission. Let’s face it: two years in a miniature lifespan yields a lot of experiences.

Today’s mission experience: It was vogue to watch the Church-produced movies with investigators. The Navajo people especially loved it, perhaps because inside each ten-by-ten hovel they would have at least four hundred DVDs and a widescreen TV. I think I must have watched Finding Faith In Christ at least three dozen times on my mission.

In that movie, a character named Jonah is questioning Thomas (of the “Doubting Thomas” fame) why he believes that Jesus is the Christ. Thomas’s family says that Jonah needs to have faith.

“Faith,” Jonah repeats with a scowl. “It seems that is always the answer.”

And it is, really. We each have our perceptions of reality that hang almost entirely on faith, whether or not we choose to acknowledge it. Even the most staunch atheist has to admit that what he regards as truth in actually based on faith.

What do I mean by that? Well, to use an extreme example to illustrate a point, let me cite the fake world created by computers in The Matrix. (Nobody saw that, right? It’s R-rated.) For those who don’t know, in those movies, the world is false, simply an illusion created by computers keeping humanity in thrall.

I’m not suggesting that the world is a digital farce to keep us blinded to the truth. No, I’m simply pointing out that those who choose to deny the existence of God on the grounds that His existence can’t be proven ignore the fact that they themselves cannot prove their own paradigm of reality is absolute.

Have I lost you yet?

How can we know that anything is real? How can anyone prove that what they believe is true, religious or otherwise?

Everyone is going to be backed up against a wall of faith sooner or later, as President Packer once said.

Faith — it seems that is always the answer.

It’s all based on faith. The Church’s stand on Proposition 8 is based on faith — faith in what God intends marriage to be. That issue, of course, is complicated, and there are many points of view and many valid arguments for both sides. What do you think is right?

Nothing is absolutely certain without a grain of faith, without choosing something to believe in and planting that seed. I don’t care what you believe in — it’s a belief, nothing more.

There is only one source of absolute, unquestionable truth, and that is the Being whom we worship. For those who believe in Him, our faith is the path that will take us to him and confirm the beliefs we hold through faith.

It’s ironic, for those who would discredit the existence of God, that God is only way any belief, religious or otherwise, can finally be validated. It all comes down to …

Yeah. You guessed it.

Faith.