So here is where I'm at today. I am taking a Philosophy class. Some people warned me against taking this class. They said it might challenge my beliefs, or make me challenge my faith. I took it anyway. My teacher is a Doctor of Philosophy and I am pretty sure there are a lot of non-believers in my class. I cannot tell what my teacher believes, which might be good, since it is her job to educate us, not influence us. Props Dr. K. But anyway!
So far, we have discussed the meaning of philosophy. My teacher started by asking us our basic beliefs. Now, the definition of a basic belief is what we build our lives on. It is an innate part of who we are and why we do what we do. The problem was, most of us could not tell her our basic beliefs because they are so much a part of what we do, that we do not even notice them. This is what I got from that:
As Christians, our faith and our relationship with Christ should be so much a part of us, that there is no way to separate our faith and our identity. There should not be a line between us and our faith. We are so much a part of our faith, that it IS WHO WE ARE. We are believers in Christ. Period. There is no us without him. No dividing line between our faith and us.
Philosophers thought that we should be constantly pursuing the Truth. The capital "T" absolute truth. Always pursuing, always learning, never being satisfied with what they already knew. Here is what I already know. God is the Truth. The Bible is the Truth. Therefore, we should be constantly pursuing God. Constantly reading and learning the Bible. We should never be satisfied with how well we know God, and we should always be striving to know him better! Gosh, another GREAT day of Philosophy class. One more history lesson for you...
There was a Greek philosopher named Xenophanes. He was banished from every Greek state that he lived in, and this is why; he DENIED the existence of the Greek gods. Through constantly learning and constantly pursuing the Truth he realized there was no way possible there could be more than one god. He also realized the Greek "gods" went against every quality people believed God held. (omniscient, omnipotent, infinite, perfect, immortal.) To have more than one god would cross off omniscient and omnipotent. How could more than one god be ALL powerful and ALL knowing? Wouldn't they have to share that? Also, greek gods were born. This means, at one point in time, they did not exist. If they did not exist at one point, how could they be immortal? Nope! And perfect? Absolutely not. Greek gods were jealous and revengeful and spiteful. They lusted and cheated and killed. That does not sound perfect to me.
Once again God has revealed himself to me in a new way. He reaffirms my faith and my trust in Him every single time I sit in philosophy class. I could never deny who He is, or what He's done in my life, and I never thought Philosophy class would make that even more obvious!
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