Introduction:
In this book I am hoping to share with you my own search for answers to many of the tough questions we all face in our theologies. We need answers to help us express and to defend whatever we believe or choose not to believe, in the face of skeptical challenges. I have always been one to question my beliefs and I have found that logic and reason must be used to sort out truth from beliefs. Passion is fine, but it is unlikely to see the errors in something we have already decided to believe.
Somehow, I feel that God is actually working with me to take a "rocket scientist" approach to understanding many of the issues of life that formerly I thought I had to believe on faith alone. There are so many things that we have believed "blindly", hoping that when we die we will understand. Yet most of us don't wait that long. We drift away because these things really don't seem to make any sense and we look for alternate explanations. If we can instead point out how our faith is an extrapolation of what we can observe and not a blind leap, then it will be possible to retain that faith in the face of much stronger pressures. So, I want to be as logical about this as humanly possible. Logic is fundamental to both science and religion, because it makes sense out of what you believe. If you abandon logic you could be believing lies and never know it.
My starting point is a model that a rocket scientist can relate to when considering the mysteries of our universe. This model is based on what I read in the Bible, because I believe it is a valid source of truth. I'll need to support that contention along the way. Yet, I can see in the Bible a clear and consistent Big Picture scenario, which provides a logical explanation to all of my fundamental tough questions. Formerly, I had many problems with interpreting the Bible, because all those, who I knew took it seriously, were not interpreting it consistently. They seemed to be content, nevertheless, with passionately believing things without enough logical justification, and just ignoring the blatant holes.
In this book I would like to explore the extent to which my own model can explain the mysteries of faith that we grew up with. These mysteries cause us to wonder if it is even possible to understand our world, our God, and our fate after death. But if indeed the situation is so far beyond our comprehension, then are we to blindly accept someone's opinion and trust it with our lives? Wouldn't that lead to thousands of different opinions, where surely most if not all must be wrong? Does it make any difference if we are believing lies and half truths?
I am continuously searching for a clearer understanding of the answers to the tough questions. At this point, I think I'm ready to present to you a "treatise" that gives a summary of my "bottom lines". I've put many theological questions and answers together to show that there is a logical position, which enables the faith we have to be considered reasonable instead of blind. Because I believe that the Bible is a unique source of correct information, I'll follow it as a guide always trying to make sense out of what it says, including some apparent contradictions that others have told me about. If there is a Biblical model that makes sense, then our faith is reasonable and the messages in it will be clear enough to act on.
26 July 2001