Unquantifiable Faith

When I was in my mid-teens I had a friend that I hung out with that was several years older than me. He was an aspiring youth pastor and we seemed to compliment each other’s personalities. At times he could be very impulsive and extremely carefree and I was very conservative and extremely serious. He would introduce me as his “analytical friend.” I always laughed because I thought it amusing. We were friends for years, but as time and relationships sometimes changes things, we grew apart and started living very different lives.

Being an analytical person has served me well in the secular arena. In high school and college I experienced very little difficulty in learning whatever I was required to learn and I was always an honor student. In my career field I have blossomed and excelled. My official career title even includes the word “analyst” in it. As an analyst, I am expected to evaluate data and propose ways to improve my organization's efficiency. I advise our leadership, at all levels, on how to make our organization more viable through reduced costs and increased revenues. Since I am a dual analyst, I am also responsible for researching, planning, coordinating and recommending software and hardware system choices to meet our organization’s technology requirements.

Just as being an analytical person has served me well in the secular arena, it has been a hindrance to me in the spiritual. You see, I want everything to be testable and quantifiable. In my mind, the only things that can be unequivocally accepted as true are those things that can be “proven” through scientific methodologies. The concept of taking things based on “faith” is extremely challenging. Why? Because taking things based on faith frequently requires me to lay aside those mechanisms that I have been endowed with that help me “analyze” testable and quantifiable data, and just accept what somebody else wrote and/or said. That is disconcerting to somebody like me. Especially considering that I have learned not to “trust” or “believe” so many people over the years. 

So just what is the biggest issue? I find myself having to trust people that I haven’t met, or ever will get to meet in this lifetime, that when they wrote the Bible they were truly being led by God (Holy Spirit) to do so and that they didn’t make any mistakes. Thus, I can't use scientific methodology to prove or disprove every page of the Bible or the existence of God. So what does that leave me with? FAITH.

Faith is a strong belief in God, or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof. Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it. Some things we all experience in life can't be explained through the use of scientific methodologies, but we still know they exist. Take the intangible and abstract entity that we know as "love".

The physiological manifestations of love are somewhat quantifiable. Chemical reactions in the brain formulates the basic gamut of love. The non-chemical portion of love is not so easily quantified. The feelings, thoughts, memories, experiences, wants, hopes, wishes, dreams, and expectations one associates with the word “love” are all unique and independent. No matter how much one may argue love is simply a chemical reaction occurring in the brain, there is a definite variability in every person’s view on the definition of love.

A long time ago I decided that I was going to choose to trust the accuracy of the Bible and the existence of God, even if I could not prove them utilizing scientific methodologies. That is where faith comes in. I know my thoughts on this are not going to sway purist "analytical" people who are unwilling to accept anything on "faith", but it may help explain why an intelligent person may choose to believe in things that he or she cannot physically see, hear, smell, taste or touch.