in the form of a note will make sense to whoever reads it. In a way, this takes a lot of faith. This is the
first time in the history of the world that this exact note is being written. It's a new thing. But I trust that
you and jenny will be able to understand it. That's a kind of faith.
But the important point is that it's a reasonable faith. And this is where people go wrong with ideas
about blind faith. I keep looking for the passage where Jesus tells people to exercise blind faith. He never
does. I think people take the blind faith route because it's easy; it requires no intellectual work. And for
some peopleperhaps especially for people whose minds have been numbed by TV-that works. But it isn't
the Christian ideal. It would be hard to paint St. Paul, or Augustine, or Aquinas, or Pascal, or
Kierkegaard, or Dietrich Bonhoeffer as intellectual lightweights.
The sad part is that the whole thing about the Christian club being a popularity hangout is antithetical to
everything Jesus said. It would make no sense to the great majority of Christians around the world. It
would make no sense to Christians in secular parts of this country (such as in Sonoma County, California),
where serious Christians are a small minority. Never does Jesus say that hanging out with him will make a
person popular; in fact, he quite explicitly says the opposite. The Bible Belt gets this exactly wrong.
Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on
its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without
hesitation, that He exists.
Blaise Pascal, mathematician and philosopher (1669)
Instead of being put off, I wonder if a better option for Jenny wouldn't be to commit herself to show the
phonies what the real thing is like. She can tutor kids on the poor side of town as a service to God (and
because it's a good thing to do); she can read philosophy and science as a service to God (and because
it'll make her smarter); she can give away a portion of the money she earns to a good charity as a service
to God (and because people need help); she can ask her teachers tough questions as a service to God (and
because many teachers have no business being in the classroom).
She can tell God that she wants to know if it's reasonable to take him seriously, and if so, then it's partly
his job to make that clear.
And she needs to do her part. God doesn't mind doubt-it often leads to liberation and a faith worth
something. It did for me.
Da mihi, Domine, scire et intelligere, utrum sit prius invocare to an laudare te, et scire to prius sit an
invocare te."Help me, Lord, to discern and to understand whether it is better first to call upon you or to praise
you, or whether it is better first to know you before calling upon you."St. Augustine, church father, Confessions (A.D. 397)I'd like to have jenny as a university student. I know many of my colleagues would as well.Peace,
Preston