My Faith in God

By Tom Fairbank

Note: My faith is based on experience, not arm chair pondering.  I try to avoid getting caught up in semantics.  Therefore, I will use the term ‘God’ or ‘the Divine’ to refer what I typically call ‘Daddy’ or ‘Father’.  Other names include ‘Holy Sprit’, ‘The Source’, ‘Creator’ and ‘Mother’, as well as many others.

            For as long as I can remember, I believed in God.  My family, friends, church and mainstream society all seemed to agree.  However, by the time I was in High School  various peers of mine started to doubt God’s existence, and I gave the topic more thought.  I came to endorse various arguments in support of God’s existence including the inherit order found within our universe, the necessity of a world based on causality to have an initial cause (aka God), the existence of love, or the ‘why not’ argument.
            While these different approaches vary in terms of validity, I now base my faith upon science.  Now by this I do not mean the currently accepted theories that scientists endorse.  I mean science at its most fundamental level, the Scientific Method.
            The reason science deserves any respect at all is due to its use of experiment, which can test theories and be repeated for others to observe.  Now there are two main differences if one is using this method for an aspect of spirituality.  This is because our experience with God is based partially on our behavior so there can be no neutral third party observer.  Therefore, both precise repetition of an ‘experiment’ and the ability to demonstrate the experiment to others are impossible.  With these differences in mind, I can understand why some may disagree with my use of the term ‘Scientific Method’ in the realm of the divine.  Therefore, I shall refer to this approach as the ‘Adapted Scientific Method’. 
            I believe in God because of personal experience with the Divine.  During periods of silence, I have felt God’s presence all around me.  I have felt immense love, peace and joy so great I had to attribute it to a source outside of myself.  I have found wisdom in silent prayer, as I listen to God speak to me about what really matters in life, (love, patience, peace, one’s relationship with God, one’s state of being) or as I have questions answered by the Divine.
            Yet my experience is not confined to silence.  I have found God in the beauty of a windy day, or in answers to prayer.  I had my prayers answered repeatedly, and God has led me to have so many wonderful experiences.  Times of meeting people who brought me joy, or wisdom, or a challenge to my faith. 
            I would encourage any who wish to develop a deeper relationship with God to do so.  There are nearly an infinite number of ways.  Fasting, nature, silence, service, music, a quiet walk or reading spiritual books can allow one to forget the distractions of life and focus on that of God found in all.  Yet above all else I would ask that when we spend time in awareness of the Divine, that we do not allow our intellect to dominate.  Our minds are beautiful, and so our are bodies, but we are more than mind and body.  To have a strong relationship with God, or with anything, requires us not to over analyze.  Instead, we must simply be present with that which we wish to know.