Seeing Things as They Really Are

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One of my regular prayers is, “Lord, help me to see things as they really are.”

“What?” some non-believers may say. “How can you say you want to see things as they are and believe in God?”

Good question, but one that each of us has to answer for ourselves. And it’s not easy to honestly answer the question without acknowledging the degree to which we are all influenced by our culture, our upbringing, our personality traits, and all the other influences which are part of how we see the world.

An illustration on Google Images shows a sign with the inscription, “We don’t see things as they are; we see things as we are.” And there’s some truth here.

Our culture, though traditionally religious, is undergoing significant changes regarding the existence of God and identification with a religion. More younger people, at least in the “western” world, are rejecting or simply ignoring the faith of their parents and grandparents, and non-believers are more often publicly attacking religion.

Only the Perception

Does that affect the question of whether God exists? In my opinion, it affects only the perception, not the reality.

What about our upbringing? I’m the youngest of five children. We were raised Catholic and all of my siblings continued to practice their faith – attending Mass at least weekly - through old age.

Two of us became priests, one until his death in 2008. I was a priest for six  years. I never ceased to struggle to maintain my faith, including times of serious faith crises.

Does my upbringing affect God’s existence or non-existence? Only in my perception of the question, and I acknowledge that I bring all my biases and presumptions to it.

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As for personality traits, there may be some traits that make us more willing to believe, or more willing to reject or remain indifferent, to questions about God but I haven’t seen any definitive studies on the subject.

So in my view, the question of God’s existence – and God’s involvement with reality – is still as daunting as it was 50, 1,000 or 4,000 years ago. And contrary to what many seem to believe, questioning God’s existence is nothing new.

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God,’” says Psalm 14, written about 500 years before Christ.

Societies, the way people are brought up, and personalities have come and gone and still the question of God’s existence and involvement in human life are a matter of faith. And it still is true: We see reality through that lens, or not. So why believe?

First, faith is said to be a gift. But that idea is hard for most of us to align with the idea of a loving God who considers all people his/her children. Does God give the gift to some and not others? We simply don’t know.

Intellectual Dishonesty?

That leaves us with questions about the benefits of belief. Some see belief as an exercise in intellectual dishonesty. I see the failure to consider God’s existence in that way. I also have trouble with the alternative to God, which leaves us as denizens of a cold, impersonal, uncaring universe, whose purpose is meaningless. Belief makes life meaningful.

I also fail to see any contradiction between belief and science. The theory of evolution has made it easier, not harder, for me to believe. In fact, I believe humans have evolved, and are evolving, spiritually and religiously as well as physically. Science, which has revealed the true awesomeness of the micro and macro worlds, helps me appreciate the awesomeness of their creator. 

So back to the prayer mentioned at the beginning of this blog. As difficult as it may be to see things as they are because of the baggage we bring to perception, excluding the spiritual from our lives only makes it harder. You can’t see things as they really are if you exclude God.