A Proposal to the Interpretation of the Bible

As a Roman Catholic much of my education has been in catholic schools often causing questions as to which is the truth; the Bible or science. In classes on scripture and sacraments we learned of Adam and Eve and of Transubstantiation (the turning of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ). Then in classes of science we learned of evolution and chemistry which would claim that the lessons of our religion were impossible. This was very troubling to me, as it was with others, since it seems only one view could be true and therefore the other false. I began to doubt my faith and drift away from God. At a certain point in my life youthful defiance faded away, and I began to look for the answers rather than … I began to read philosophy and history, then sciences that were at a level I could understand, and finally I returned to the Church to find a balance between what I believed I understood. As I am not a priest, a scientist, philosopher, nor historian the answers I formed are not an official view of any sort. They merely help balance faith and reason within my life, and hopefully they strengthen each other. I have come to three conclusions; that the power of God is so far beyond our understanding that science can only show us how the world works but never tell us why, that spirituality with out religion is blind and religion without religion without spirituality is worthless, and that faith gives meaning to the Bible and the Relics not vice versa.

God is often thought of as an old man sitting on a white cloud watching and judging our every move. This image is not false but rather incomplete of the full power and majesty of The Creator. It is reasonable to assume that if God chose to show himself to the world he would appear as human. After all he did walk amongst us as Christ. However the old man on the cloud does little to stimulate our understanding of Him once we pass childhood. The complexity of the universe seems rather out of reach and omnipotence a rare trait of the elderly in an age where the final stage of life makes us completely dependent on others again. Just witnessing the symbiotic relationship between plants and animals, male and female, and what not we realize just how confusing it must be for any to comprehend much less create such a system. We are not gods though we were merely created in his image. What is exactly meant by that, we cannot be sure? I believe it is our capacity for love, justice and compassion that we were created in God's image. Where I run into problems is that I have never seen God nor has anyone ever.

So to fine tune my guess I have used the closest information to evidence found in my personal studies. The Jews have a tradition of the Thirteen Attributes of God that they use as an understanding of how far beyond us his power reaches. The Muslims have laws concerning how to speak of God and banning his portrayal in any form. This is to show that man cannot limit God by assigning Him values or claiming Him as “one of us”, as often happens with the depiction of Christ. Though I don not agree that to try to have an image of God to refer to is a sin it is a sturdy reminder that we are subject to God, not Him to us. Finally though it is not Christian in origin, Plato's The Divided Line, helps visualize how different God is from us. Plato writes that the world is divided between the seen and the unseen, or the temporary and the eternal. In the seeable world are images, and at the top of the unseen and eternal world is the form. Above and outside these worlds is a constant and all powerful force. God is that force, His love for us is the form, and we (mind, body, and soul) are the image of that form. I propose that in the education of Christian children, protestant and catholic alike, that these reminders of the awesome power of God be added at the levels appropriate to their ability to understand.

Many people in these modern and “enlightened” times shudder from being labeled “religious” and instead prefer to be called “spiritual.” I do not see the two as mutually exclusive. Instead I believe that both are needed to live a life that brings us closer to the form of God's love for his creation. Religion in and of itself, meaning generally, is a set of laws one lives by to give their life order and meaning. Whether it's the Kosher Law of Jews or the ancestor veneration of Buddhists these rituals give their practitioners a sense of fulfillment. They believe that by following these rules that they will receive blessings and/or enlightenment. Spirituality is the, as is my understanding, the feeling of positive emotions when dealing with the issues of life. That's the definition that I derived from speaking with those who claim “spirituality” without, or as a replacement, of religion. This is madness since there are many positive emotions that accompany acts that will have negative outcomes. As a Roman Catholic I try, I say try because as a man I am fallible, to follow certain tenants of the faith. While strict I believe that following these rules help me to, in the long run feel “spiritual.”