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On Faith
In his book "Understanding the Present," Bryan Appleyard states: "Faith! What does faith mean? Clearly it cannot mean being rationally persuaded of something. If we had reason for faith, then it would not be faith at all, it would be logic. Faith can only be unreasonable."
Appleyard's conclusion is logical enough. If the available evidence on which we formulate a decision is conclusive, then it is not a decision made in faith. Rather, it is one made from certitude. The element of doubt is essential to a faith decision. And if such a decision influences the way in which we live our lives, in effect we are saying that this is the way we choose to live, despite the risk that the conclusions on which we base our decisions may be false.
In many places, The Urantia Book stresses the importance of faith: "...salvation is by simple and sincere faith; The right to enter the kingdom is conditioned by faith; By faith recognize the indwelling spirit of God whose acceptance makes you a son of God; There is but one struggle... that is to fight the good fight of faith;... man is educated by fact, ennobled by wisdom, and saved--justified--by religious faith."
The Urantia Book itself confirms Appleyard's conclusion that belief in God, by faith, has to be an unreasonable act. It states, "The existence of God can never be proved by scientific experiment or by the pure reason of logical deduction. God can be realized only in the realms of human experience." (24)
What is this faith decision that we are expected to make? Essentially, it is a free-will decision to do as Jesus did--to always seek to do the Father's will. But if that is to be a faith decision there must be room for doubt, there cannot be certitude. Where must this doubt lie?. There may be clues in the following quote:
"Those who know God have experienced the fact of his presence; such God-knowing mortals hold in their personal experience the only positive proof of the existence of the living God which one human being can offer to another. The existence of God is utterly beyond all possibility of demonstration except for the contact between the God-consciousness of the human mind and the God-presence of the Thought Adjuster that indwells the mortal intellect and is bestowed upon man as the free gift of the Universal Father." (24)
The existence of God cannot be proved. It can only be experienced. But can our experience provide us with personal proof of the existence of God? Psychiatric wards of hospitals often contain deluded but plausible inmates who believe themselves to be kings, queens, presidents, John the Baptist, even Jesus. How can we prove that our experience is real and another's is self-delusion? The fact is we cannot. Hence our belief in God (or the revelatory status of The Urantia Book) must be a faith decision.
Why then should we postulate that our precious book must be taken as an object of belief rather than a subject of faith, hence leaving room for doubt? Sooner or later, any religion or religious group that takes a book to be an object of belief is virtually certain to declare its teachings to be authoritarian and infallible. The Urantia Book tells us that if we do that we lose something: "While the religion of authority may impart a present feeling of settled security, you pay a price for such a transient satisfaction, the price of loss of your spiritual freedom and religious liberty." (1731)
So maybe this is why the revelators tell us that, "Reason is the proof of science, faith the proof of religion, logic the proof of philosophy, but revelation is validated only by human experience." (1139) We can only validate The Urantia Book through our own personal experience! And that can be done only as an act of faith. And, as Appleyard said: "Faith can only be unreasonable."
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