Belief

Knowing, being certain, absolutely convinced that what you believe is worthy of your confidence, that it will remain true no matter what. One of the struggles of the modern age is belief, finding that which is trustworthy upon which you can stake your life decisions with the certainty that what you believe will have the results expected. So how do you know?

Philosophy tries to arrive at beliefs proponents would like to be true and some are quite creative in building systems upon which to rest these hopes. While some become existential in formulating a system founded in experience, observation or postulations of the mind about the way life ought to be, others are minimalist in going away from what can be known. Of course, all have the difficulty of contradiction. Atheists believe there is no god while agnostics believe that ultimate reality, truth or any higher is unknowable. “a” is the common prefix of both beliefs and simply means ‘without’ theos or gnosis, god or knowledge. The problem in this expression is in knowing that which is defined as without knowability.

True ‘without-ers’ acknowledge the unknowability of their positions but have enough confidence in theirs understanding of truth and reality to live beyond and believe in themselves. We also have many of the belief systems of the East which believe in ancestors or previous manifestations and incarnations, levels of understanding and worthiness that come to purer souls who have achieved higher planes of transcendency so as to understand and live at levels which become deified.

The Apostle Paul was late-in-life when he wrote to a younger pastor who he continued to mentor even though Paul himself was imprisoned and nearing his execution. Paul had been highly educated in the ways of Judaism, the Law and Prophet, and was an early leader of persecution against the ways of Christ-followers. He was also a Roman citizen from Asia Minor with an impressive use of the Greek language and able to communicate across multiple cultures. When he writes to Timothy, it is with all this background underlying his belief in Jesus. He did not come to his belief about Christ philosophically although he did have the knowledge to have an existential relationship with God but hundreds of years of pharisaical traditions had blinded his education to the true nature and intent of God. It was in the midst of seeking to destroy Christianity that he had a more existential confrontation wherein Jesus literally stopped him in his tracks and blinded him to what he could see with his eyes and opened his heart and soul to the truth about Jesus. Following the initial face-to-face with the resurrected Christ, Paul had years of re-learning what he believed such that dozens of years later he was writing to Timothy,