Do You See?

I've been contemplating today that there is a core of faith that all peoples, no matter what their religion, share.

And before you start reading too much into that statement, let me say, unequivocably, that no, I'm not being universalist here. This is something deeper — much deeper than a mere watered-down gospel would ever allow.

What I'm talking about are those passages in the Bible that claim an inherent understanding of God at the very core of all things — that the very rocks would testify if they could, presumably because they are unecumbered by "reason" and are not distracted by doubts. Rocks don't know doubt. They know only the truth.

So if the rocks have this basic truth in their nature, we can assume that so too would man, clouded as that truth is by doubt. And it would explain so much as to why all religions and philosophy are so obsessed with the balance between good and evil — the infinite and the finite.

Yin and Yang, ego and id, man and superman — both ancient and modern minds have sought to bring balance to the chaos. We try desperately to bring meaning to life.

But it seemed to me today that there is more to the story of this never-ending struggle of man's. What if all this is not just the petulant and desperate cries of the weak seeking justification by creating meaning in a "God" or philosophical understanding? What if, instead, we are simply expressing the basest nature of our souls? What if our desire to cry out to something greater than ourselves is such a fundamental part of us, that we can't help but seek, even if in the seeking we are led astray?

You have to admit that it does seem odd that so many people groups, from such diverse tribal ancestry, should all be obsessed with the concept of balance between opposites. It's really uncanny when you think about it. You have to wonder what's behind it all. And you also have to wonder why no one has been able to swing the equation too far to one side for very long, without the opposite side bringing things back into balance again.

I guess that why the story of Jesus is so powerful and so confusing at the same time. Confusing, because it seems on the surface to be just another human attempt to balance the equation. Yet powerful, because it's the only story that not only balances the equation, but also offers a compelling story of something transcending it.

In an odd way it makes so much sense. If our nature is to search for that balance and understanding, it seems to me that the perfect approach to helping man get the point is to give him a battle between good and evil to attract his attention.

But it doesn't stop there, though. Because in this story, in order to set it apart from the human creations that went before it and have been spun since it, the victor in God's story transcends our the human need for balance and comes out as something unbeholden to that balance. Jesus takes away our need to answer to a justly balanced universe, pays the price set on all sin, then defeats even the powerful evil foe by remain unshackled by the death demanded as a price. It's simply unheard of! It completely confounds the logic of a balanced world that we try so hard to establish in our lives.

Some would call the similarities among religions to be a reason for doubting the veracity of any single religion. But it's seeming to me today that maybe the similarities are simply a framework in which to emphasize the differences between answers provided by man and those crafted by a Creator.

Definitely worth thinking about.