absurdism and faith (in whatever)

Some "random thoughts" that my buddy Mike Mauzy wanted to "get out of [his] head" and that I want to get out into cyberspace. Enjoy!

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I ran across a new word to describe faith the other day that I had not heard before. My wife's second cousin listed her faith as “absurdism” on Facebook. So I did some research (Google, it took about 1 minute). In absurdist philosophy, the Absurd arises out of the fundamental disharmony between man's search for meaning and the apparent meaninglessness of the universe. As beings looking for meaning in a meaningless world.

Knowing this girl a little bit, I assume that she probably has not researched the depth of this belief. But man it sure sounds cool. This really makes Dallas Willard’s point about “flying upside down” [in The Divine Conspiracy]. To call faith in God "absurd" is absurd-- just like calling atheism "absurd". It discounts the argument so that you can do whatever you want and never face the task of trying to find out why you believe what you espouse to believe.

Recently however, I have begun to realize the impact of free will and pre-destination on the Christian faith. In the case of this young teenage girl, I doubt that she has given this a lot of thought, but the originators of this philosophy evidently have.

Anyway, I have often said that there are two sides to every argument in the Christian faith. For example, my brother said that “everything happens for a specific reason.” As I began to quiz him a little bit, we both began to understand the far reaching implications of this statement. Then yesterday, I was in a conversation with an employee and we were discussing “prevenient grace”-- that is, the grace that can only fully be recognized in hindsight; the direction that God has led us on to get to a certain point in our lives.

We were talking about how God participates in our lives. Does He decide what we will do and where we will live? Does He decide who we will marry? Does He decide that by the end of a book study, 17 guys out of 23 will decide not to complete it and the 6 that remain were specially selected for that study? You know...all those types of questions.

No real answers are forthcoming-- and in fact, no explanations have really held water, because I can see blowing holes in the argument either way. The only person who actively participated in both sides of the debate without conflict that I have ever heard from was the Apostle Paul (other than Jesus of course). However, Paul did not explain it by reconciling it. However, he never stopped evangelizing while at the same time telling his listeners that they were predestined to follow God.

What is really cool about this age-old debate is that no answer is going to fully satisfy me, but I am in very good company. As Bob Russell put it, “there are smarter people than me who believe and don’t believe. There are also smarter people than me who believe but differently than I believe.” At the same time, this debate strengthens my faith. As opposed to someone who flippantly says “I am an absurdist” in order to avoid the effort it takes to find out why-- or “I am a Christian” without any sound reason for saying that-- going deeper and uncovering questions that I can’t answer (which leads to more questions that are difficult to reconcile) has not sent me packing. It also has not sent me to sincere doubt, but to more sincere faith.

When the answer is “only God knows” or “God’s ways are bigger than our ways,” this seems to be a cop-out. But in fact, it is not-- at least, not fully. If they're earnest, those who arrive at disbelief by heading down the same path have a similar leap of faith. They doubt their disbelief in the same way that we doubt our belief.

I really appreciated the honesty in the Larry Crabb book [Inside Out] about the time that Crabb’s dad left the hospital room after someone close to him was dying and Larry said something to his dad like “well at least they are going to a better place” to which his dad replied, “yeah, if it's all true.” To me, that is the type of faith that God is leading us to. Not blind faith, but faith that forces us to the tough questions, knowing that pat answers are not going to satisfy. Maybe there's no answer this side of Heaven. I also appreciate the courage of Southeast Christian Church for introducing this philosophy in the DC curriculum.

Finally, having these types of questions and sincerely thinking about the implications does not put those who think this way in an elite class of Christianity. Those who never question their faith-- yet are faithful just the same-- are fortunate, and in some ways better off than those of us who seek to understand more clearly. That said, those who don’t actively question their faith are, at some point, avoiding the implications of their faith and missing out on a blessing of faith in Christ....