According to Macbeth, “Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing” [Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, Scene V]. The following “second opinion” affirms the awareness of millions that an inviolable message of meaning is written on the heart.
It may take a lifetime for some to read that message but for most it comes almost as soon as one is born. Much of the difficulty is due to the troublesome search for the “proof” that will convict one to the truth. The “evidence” to support the needed conviction is all too often just the opinion of self-serving authorities – at best a type of guessing, at worst a step into greater darkness.
That evidence may be untrustworthy is well depicted in “Rashomon,” an old Japanese movie in which four eyewitnesses to an event explain it four different ways. It seems that a bandit, roaming the woods, sees a woman there and takes advantage of the fact that she is alone. When the woman’s samurai husband, who had been hunting, returns to her there is a struggle with the bandit that ends in the death of the woman’s husband. The question raised and answered four ways is “how did the samurai die?”
According to the bandit, the samurai lost a duel between them. But the woman said she killed him out of rage because her husband not only refused to defend her but accused her of infidelity. The samurai’s ghost – summoned at an ensuing trial by a medium – said that he committed suicide in order to defend his honor against a wife who gave herself up to passion. But according to a spying wood cutter, the woman quite simply played the two men against each other and her husband lost the contest.
What might the message of this tale be? Is it that truth is “in the eye of the beholder?” Is it that people see what they want to see? Is it that it’s only possible to “know” what the willful and the strong want others to see and know? Is it that truth is a form of currency used to buy and sell narratives: reality be damned? Is it “all of the above,” the absurd claim of postmodernist junkies?
The answer Yes to any such question erases the issue of meaning and certitude from the mind and begs one to step onto the slippery ground of relativism or enter the spin-box of “rationalism” in order to get a grip on reality.
Despite its elusiveness, knowledge of reality is not utterly out of reach. It has been grasped by individuals of deeper wisdom than many today. It would be smart, I’d say, to check the tips of those who’ve “been there, done that” only to find, after all, that meaning and certitude don’t come from facts but from faith.
Of the wealth of tips left us by the wisest among us, one from Pascal is worth our attention. On a paper dated 23 November 1654, stitched into the lining of his coat and found after his death, Blaise Pascal wrote: “God of Abraham, God if Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers nor of the scholars. Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy, Peace.” The famous mathematician, physicist, inventor, and writer who gave us the adding machine and developed the modern theory of probability privately conceded that fullness of knowledge comes from God, not from the mind. Release from uncertainty and attendant anxiety is not from any form of calculation but from alignment with the Almighty.
Minds of the caliber of Pascal (the list is long) have refused to dismiss out of hand any path to knowledge simply because it does not fit a rational formulation. The fact that input data is “unscientific,” and thereby incompatible with the chosen system of knowledge, does not for that reason annul its validity.
Pascal was undoubtedly motivated to embrace Judeo-Christian tenets because the Enlightenment was failing to take the spiritual aspect of life seriously. A solely rational, science-based view of life “rests upon a one-sided evaluation of thought and research as something that exists for its own sake; it fails to see that science can be fruitful only if it preserves an awareness of the partial and serving role it plays in the totality of human life.” [Josef de Vries, Philosophical Dictionary (Brugger and Baker, 1972)]
The Enlightenment’s neglect regarding spiritual matters was noted by the men who established this country. They wisely kept an eye on the Almighty while keeping their feet firmly on the ground. Their faith in the power of God preceded their faith in the power of the intellect to establish a just, free, and viable America. What better way was there to connect to life’s most basic source of guidance than to heed the advice of the giver of life – so well documented in sacred scripture?
That people of exceptional intellect have accepted the call to a life of faith should inspire all who consider themselves smart to “think outside the box” and get to know the significance and importance of God in their lives. [Romans 12:2]
Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License
Jesus Christ is King
Comments are closed.