Hello internet. My name is Fr. Casey Cole, I’m
a Franciscan priest and writer, and today I am responding to questions and comments sent in by
those who do not believe in God. Should be fun. Do you have to be religious to live a good? No, not at all. Christianity believes
in something called natural theology, that truth, beauty, and goodness can
be found all around us in nature, speaking to us and guiding our consciences.
There’s something inherent in our world that tells us that murder is bad and generosity
is good. You don’t need Church for that. How can you trust a book written thousands of
years ago and is filled with contradictions? I think a lot of people’s problems with
the Bible could be solved with a slightly different approach. Rather than viewing it as the
dictated Word of God that fell down from heaven, which it most certainly isn’t, what if we read
it as a collection of what God’s people have said about God over time? Inspired by real events
and guided by a living and true God, so containing truth beyond human reason, but undeniably human
in composition. When we do this we don’t get caught up in fighting over whether it was 12 or
15 of something, red or green, spelled correctly, or perfectly historically accurate, as humans get
these things wrong all the time. What matters, then, is the underlying truth, something found
between the lines or from a bird’s eye view. “My biggest problem with Christianity is the
Christians. Hypocrites that spread hatred.” You’re not going to find a lot of
disagreement from me. Over the years, Christians have been a part of a number
of horrible atrocities, both individually and institutionally, and there are plenty of
everyday Christians today who are just bad people. But surely we can’t believe that the
people who do these things or act this way are really disciples of Jesus, can we?
The problem we see isn’t with Christians, it’s with people claiming to be
Christians that know nothing of Christ. For me, I think it’s much better to
judge us based on what we do when we’re actually following the teachings
of Jesus. What we see are people who found hospitals and schools,
give to the poor, show humility, and welcome strangers. Don’t judge us based on
people who don’t actual follow our teachings. It just seems to me that gods were an
invention of ancient people to explain things they didn’t understand. We know how the
world works now. Why keep this silly belief? While I understand where this questions comes
from, I think it’s a bit condescending to our ancestors. Sure, we’ve made huge
strides in science and technology, but do we really think that we have
continued to progress in every area of knowledge? I’m not so sure our art
is as good as its ever been; our poetry; our family structures, relationship with
the natural world, sense of morality, awe and wonder. There are things that our
forbears knew and understood that, frankly, we’ve lost touch with, and plenty of things in
our world that science and technology will never be able to fully explain. Isn’t it possible that
the people before us knew something we didn’t? How can you believe in God without evidence? For most agnostic people, this is the biggest
hangup with religion. There’s no empirical proof! And that’s correct. But there is more to
truth than what can be seen and measured. Beauty, goodness, love, inspiration. These things can’t
be quantified or proven beyond a doubt, and even if we could pinpoint the neurons and brain
chemistry that help us experience these things, do you really think that would be sufficient to
explain what they mean to us? For me, at least, there is a mystery to the universe, a wonder
beyond words, that proof could never capture. Why doesn’t God reveal himself to everyone? Ah, but there could be at least some proof,
you say. Why couldn’t God pop out of the sky every so often and say something?
Wouldn’t that make everything much easier? Three things. 1. He did. At least
according to the witnesses of scripture, to the stories of people who have had
visions, to the example of Jesus himself, God did just that, and people refused to believe
in miracles. Doubters will find reasons to doubt. 2. When would it stop? Would Jesus have
to be born, die, and rise again in every age to every people for us to believe? It
seems pretty impractical to say the least. and 3. Where would the faith be in that? If God
were someone who could be measured and tested, then we are left with no choice but
to believe. Gravity exists whether we believe it or not. This is not how faith works, and there is something critically important
about having to trust and take a leap of faith. There’s not even any evidence
that Jesus existed let alone God This is technically true. Not only is there
no video, photograph, or DNA evidence of a man named Jesus in the 1st century, there
is no archaeological record Christians can point to as undeniable proof. But then again,
neither is there any such evidence of Genghis Khan. What we have are first hand witness
accounts, stories, and a world clearly turned upside down by his presence, but no proof.
Are you doubting his existence, then, too? We know that Jesus existed because of
multiple attestations in the various writings of scripture, the accounts
of the Roman historian Josephus, and the fact that that literally thousands of
people claimed to be Christians by the middle of the 1st century. For a guy that
didn’t exist? Seems pretty unlikely. Why Christianity over other religions? This is as much a personal question
for me as it is a theological one. Christianity is unique in its theology of
the Trinity and Incarnation. God does not simply watch from afar neither does he procreate
and form half-gods: he became part of creation while maintaining his divinity. There is such
beauty to me in the humble sacrifice, and such hope in the fact that God came to be like us so
that we could become like him. Other religions obviously include divine revelation and a sense
of heaven, but none as intimate as Christianity. How can you believe in a God
who condemns a good person to hell just because they were of the wrong religion? I don’t. Simply put. While I believe that
salvation is through Christ alone and that he established his Church on earth
to be a guide and gateway to heaven, I don’t for a second believe that God is bound
by human conventions. All religions capture some truth of God. I don’t believe they’re
the clearest picture, but there is no doubt that they spark inspiration and plant mystery into
souls, hopefully developing virtue. If a Muslim, Jew, or Buddhist comes face to face with
God upon their death and says, “Yes, this is exactly what I was seeking in
my religion, I just didn’t know what I was missing,” there is not a doubt in me
that God will welcome them into himself. Why does God allow suffering? This is probably the quintessential question,
right? People have asked it for thousands of years with thousands of different responses. Obviously
free will plays a big part in this and if someone chooses bad things that have inevitable
consequences—people are going to get hurt. But I don’t think that really gets at the real
heart of the question because God could still intervene and but doesn’t always. And the reason,
I believe, is because suffering is not always bad or without merit. We willingly suffer at the gym
and go on diets. Women freely go through labor and raise children. Some people love horror movies and
watch tragedies. Why? Because sometimes suffering… purifies us, makes us stronger, gives us
perspective, takes away our fear, brings immense fulfillment in surviving it, and even leads to
something so much greater than we ever knew. The problem with our human lives, sometimes,
is that we are so shortsighted. We can only see the present and only care about our
immediate needs. God can see the whole picture and his ultimate goal is to draw us
out of this world into the next. Sometimes, a touch of suffering here is
exactly what we need for eternity. I just can’t accept an
organization that is homophobic. Homophobia is a sin. To fear or hate something or
someone is not the plan that God has for anyone, and so if a religion is truly homophobic,
systematically seeking to cause harm in another, this is a problem. That said, there is nothing
inherently homophobic about God, Christianity in general or the Catholic Church in particular.
For Catholics, at least, there are two inherent purposes to sexual activity: procreation
and union. Any action that denies either of these possibilities fall short of God’s plan and
reduces sex to merely an act of pleasure. This, for us, is immoral, and we must call people
to something higher, but our true faith neither condemns people nor looks down on
someone for their thoughts or attractions. I feel like Jesus was just
a good guy. His disciples made up the resurrection to keep the word going. Interestingly enough, this was a concept explored
in the Martin Scorsese film The Last Temptation of Christ. In it, Jesus comes down from the cross but
Paul continues to preach the Good News, prompting Jesus to call him a fraud because there can be no
Good News without the cross. It’s an intriguing argument for those who don’t believe, I’m sure,
but I just don’t think Christianity would have had any lasting success without people actually seeing
him risen from the dead. Remember, the Gospels themselves paint the first disciples as pretty
incompetent. I don’t think they had it in them. And finally, I tried praying
but didn’t hear anything. Well, join the club. I say this not to
dismiss your question but to calm you. This is the way God works. The Bible often
notes that God speaks through whispers. The mystics claim that God’s language is
silence. Even some of the most zealous saints admit that they went through periods
of struggle, unsure of God’s presence. For me, this is not proof that God doesn’t exist but
rather a tactic of God to slow us down and draw us closer. We must strain not our ears
but our minds and hearts. It takes practice, dedication, patience, and a lot of faith to hear
God when he speaks… but he does. He may not be as clear as a phone call and you may doubt that
you heard anything at all, but I can assure you that I have felt his burning within my heart,
drawing my mind into unimaginable mystery. For those who have yet to experience this, it
may sound like utter nonsense, and I get it, but if you made it this far into the video there
must be something speaking to you, deep down. Keep at it. Continue to ask your questions, continue
to listen, and I guarantee you, God will speak.
