Finding Stability
|
While on vacation with my wife in Corpus Cristi, TX, I got lost. Trying to turn around I got off the highway and attempted to follow a frontage road, then it turned into a neighborhood. So I continued in the general direction, hoping to run into the highway again. A while later, we ran into a highway just as Gloria was getting even more worried about our circumstances. She wanted me to turn around along time ago, while I insisted on simply taking the frontage road. Upon seeing this highway, there was much relief. We found an entrance ramp, jumped onto the direction we wanted to go, then the sinking feeling hit us, this isn't the same highway. "Where are we?" Gloria half loudly asked. The feeling hit my stomach hard and I hoped to see anything that resembled what we had previously seen. Gloria reached back for the map as I rattled off street signs hoping to find the intersection near where we were. It took a bit of effort, but we located ourselves on the map and plotted a route back to where we wanted to be. It took admitting that I got us lost to get to where we wanted to go. We might still be in Corpus Cristi, had we not pulled out the map, found where we were, and located where we wanted to be. Exploring spirituality and the vast amount of religions is sometimes a necessary step in solidifying a choice. However, stability in a religious decision must be found. One can not take a journey by merely looking at the map for years. A decision must be made on which path to travel. Further, taking steps down the chosen path will usually, not always, solidify the chosen path. It becomes necessary at some point to make the choice, based on some criteria, what path to choose. What is the criteria? In the book, Reason and Religious Belief, there is a quick list of good questions to ask when examining a belief system. Briefly, these questions ensure the system is logical, historically sound, if it offers a solution to a problem-does it actually solve the problem, asks if it accounts for and explains broad human experience, and finally, does it satisfy some moral and aesthetic intuitions.* It is necessary and good to ask questions and explore. However, at some point, the decision of a spiritual journey's direction must be decided. ________*Michael Peterson, et. al., Reason and Religious Belief (New York: Oxford, 1991), 231. Next Moving Forward |
