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To return to Francis Bacon, he once opined, “They are
ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but
sea.”
Believers would offer advice to Atheists and Agnostics alike that God exists,
whether seen or not, whether desired or not, whether considered proven or not.
Argument to the contrary is just a distraction from a reality which will unfold
as undeniable truth on a future day of joy for some, deep regret and horror for
others.
A great many people need not await the Day of Judgement
to entertain such a conclusion, for all people faced with insurmountable trials
find themselves drawn to belief, for when faced with desperate circumstances,
Who else do people instinctively call upon other than God? Although few make
good on the promises of fidelity made at such moments of desperate appeal, the
evidence of the oath remains long after the promises to God are cast aside to
lie neglected in the gutters of the memory.
Can anybody help the insincere? Very likely not. The
concept of recognizing God and living in satisfaction of His commandments only
when, and for as long as, it suits one’s purpose, demonstrates an unwillingness
to submit on God’s terms. Take, for example, St. Augustine’s pathetic prayer,
“Da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo. (Give me chastity
and continency—but not yet!)” Here’s the
prayer of a ‘Saint?’ who on one hand was praying to God, and on the
other hand wasn’t ready to leave the houses of prostitution, to the compromise
of his sexual incontinency. Compare this with the exemplary lives of the
disciples of Jesus, who are reported to have deserted infinitely more honorable
pursuits when called to follow Christ Jesus. These men left their worldly
priorities, such as their livelihood of fishing and their obligation of burying
the dead, when the truth came to them, without delay to a time of greater
personal convenience. The religious might be inclined to comment, “Wow! Those
are my kind of guys!” The more important understanding, however, is that those
appear to be God’s ‘kind of guys.’
Of course, that was then and this is now. In the
present age prophets walk on water, heal lepers, and bid mankind to follow only
in the imaginations of those with a view to history. All the same, a lot of
people still seek the truth of God and, once recognized, will follow
immediately, regardless of the sacrifice required. But first, they must know
the truth with certainty.
So what’s the problem? Simply this: information has
never been so readily available, and yet (on the surface at least) never so
confusing and religiously obstructive. Most people have been raised with the
intellectual tools to root out and identify the inconsistencies and fallacies
of the religions predominant within their exposure. Sincere seekers log a
certain depth of experience in discrediting various faiths, a few of which are
truly twitty cults, but the majority of which are sects claiming to be based
upon some version of the Old or New Testaments, but in fact diverging from the
balanced and fundamental teachings found therein. After a while, one sect
begins to look very much like the others, many times with only shallow
doctrinal differences, and almost always with the same questionable
foundation. Most such sects have evolved to a modern conglomerate of truths,
half-truths (or in other words, half-lies) and solid unadulterated deception.
The problem is, mixing truth with falsehood is like mixing beauty with ugliness
-- it doesn’t work. Any one particular religion is either entirely truthful or
to some degree impure. And since God doesn’t error -- not even once -- if
people can’t trust one element of that which is presented as revelation, how
can they know which teachings can be trusted? Furthermore, many of the
religious have difficulty conceiving that God would leave humankind to hang the
hereafter on an impure understanding of Him.
The problem screams in the doctrine-stuffed ears of man
that a person cannot mix truth with falsehood and continue to consider the
blend to originate from God any more than a person can mix loveliness and
ugliness and continue to win beauty pageants. Place a single, hairy,
multilobulated mole (not a beauty mark, but a true ugly mark)
smack dab in the middle of any picture of facial perfection and what does a
person get? Pure, unadulterated ‘Angelic’ beauty? On the contrary, the end
result is the all too human reality of beauty marred.
Place the tiniest of falsehoods in a religion, which is
reported to be from a perfect and flawless God, and what is the result? A lot
of sincere people walking, for one. But for those who wish to hang on to the
canon of a flawed belief system, apologists assume the role of religious
cosmetic surgeons. These apologists may succeed in smoothing the uneven
surface of scripture by way of doctrinal dermabrasion, but anybody with depth
of insight recognizes that the foundational genetics remain faulty.
Consequently, while some see straight through the lame attempts at excusing the
absurd, many follow anyway.
Amongst those who do choose to embrace a faith, many
arrive at their choice by throwing up their hands in frustration and chosing
whatever religion suits best or, at the very minimum, offends least. Some file
a telepathic communiqué with God to the effect that they are doing the best
they can, others rest comfortably on insecure conclusions. Many become
Agnostic with regard to all doctrinal faiths, pursuing an internal, personal
faith for lack of exposure to a doctrinal belief which is pure and consistently
Godly.
Refusal to compromise belief in a perfect and infallible
God for a ‘settle for’ religion possessing shaky foundation and demonstrable
doctrinal weaknesses is understandable – respectable even. After generations
of distracting family traditions, centuries of confounding cultural misdirection,
and a lifetime of prejudiced propaganda, many Westerners have become
spiritually immobilized. On one hand the concept of a pristine, pure religion
devoid of adulteration, corruption and, in short, the grimy and fallible hand
of religion-engineering man is much sought after, but elusive to Western
consciousness. On the other hand, many see too clearly the inconsistencies of
any present day religion founded on that with which the West is most
familiar—namely the Jewish and Christian Bibles. Some may remain trapped
within the narrow confine defined by the horn-tips of this dilemma. Others
look deeply into Biblical scriptures and recognize that as the Old Testament
predicted the coming of John the Baptist, Christ Jesus and one remaining
prophet, so did Christ Jesus predict a prophet to follow himself—one who would
bring a message of truth to make all things clear.
Seventh Day Adventists, Mormons, and a variety of other
Christian sects claim to fulfill this prophecy with the founder of their flavor
of belief. Many others are skeptical and still searching. It is for the
latter that this book has been written.
Copyright © 2007 Laurence
B. Brown; used by permission.
The above excerpt
is taken from Dr. Brown’s forthcoming book, MisGod’ed, which is expected
to be published along with its sequel, God’ed. Both books can be viewed
on Dr. Brown’s website, www.Leveltruth.com.
Dr. Brown can be contacted at BrownL38@yahoo.com
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