The need to revisit my personal credo

I am an explorer. I am one of those people who enjoys the “thoughtful consideration” of new possibilities, insights and potential truths as I try not to be too quick to discount the validity of an idea. This personality trait (in addition to my skepticism) doesn’t earn me a lot of fans in the circles of dogmatic individuals who seek to enforce doctrinal and ideological conformity. In most cases, it makes me a threat. But in my view, questions considered to be "threatening" often serve as invitations to a closer examination of both ourselves and our surroundings.

I have grown convinced that many contemporary scientific and philosophical insights about reality have rendered more traditional ways of thinking both irrelevant and obsolete. Therefore, I am primarily interested in researching and finding new ways to holistically integrate scientific insights and the complexities of reality with the insights of the world’s religious and non-religious traditions and philosophies in order to create a more meaningful, relevant, credible and practical ethic of life. This pursuit has consumed much of my time, energy and attention over the past few years.

But at this point in my life, I feel a growing need to clarify my personal views for both myself and those close to me. Knowing myself, I tend to leave people “in the dark” in regards to how I think about and connect various ideas (especially the more “radical” ones). Ironically, I work in the communications field but I find that I often under-communicate with those close to me and get frustrated when these same individuals don’t understand me. I haven’t been the clearest communicator with those whom I have personal relationships- especially when the topic is a “high-stake” issue like belief. But by neglecting to organize my thoughts I have found that it is possible to hold an intellectual position so long that you can forget the core reasons as to why you accepted and adopted such a viewpoint in the first place. It’s not that I have totally forgotten how I arrived at certain viewpoints, but if I were asked to explain “where I come down” at a moment’s notice, my reply would likely come out more nebulous than clear.

In such instances, I think it’s beneficial to regularly reexamine one’s views so that one can better articulate them when it is necessary. This is not easy. Admittedly, I have developed both mental and psychological fatigue in the process of assembling the “puzzle pieces” of my research. It seems that as soon as I add new a component, I forget an older one. The complexity of the task continues to overwhelm me as I have been going about it in a very disorganized and “scatter-brained” way.

Therefore, I have recently decided to organize my efforts so that I can be more effective and efficient. First, I will begin organizing my findings and reflections into compartmentalized folders. In these folders I will save pertinent materials (quotes, passages, statistics, findings, etc.) for quick reference. Second, I will then break my project down into smaller, more manageable bites where I will write several in-depth pieces exploring the systematic framing of my personal theological/philosophical/ethical outlook. I know organization is an elementary idea for some folks, but it is a revolutionary concept for me.

In the coming weeks, I will explore my personal philosophies about prayer, God, Jesus, the Bible, divine revelation, salvation, sin, supernaturalism, miracles, suffering, and evil. I will do so with the understanding that, in traditional Christianity, many of these issues are interconnected to the point that a shift of belief in one part will affect all other components. I also plan to touch on topics such as human nature, genetic diversity, evolution, human sexuality, justice and creativity. I will also do this with the understanding that my views will likely continue to develop over time.

Now I must clarify that in no way do I think I am exploring any uncharted territory here. For the past several centuries, many gifted philosophers, scientists and expert theologians have dedicated their lives to writing thick volumes about many of the topics I am interested in exploring. Rather, I am doing this to fulfill a personal need for clarity and understanding inspired by truth-seekers like Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. who were able to convert years of intense scholarship into lives of unselfish service. I hope such an in-depth period of self-examination and exploration of "the dark side of the moon" might result in the sharpening of my focus and the strengthening of my convictions.

It is also my hope that this process will serve as a sort of “time capsule” that can capture and articulate where my thoughts are at the present moment. All of this should result in the formation of a revised credo- a statement of beliefs, convictions and guiding principles. The result will by no means be exhaustive, but it is my hope that this process will draw me closer to some firm and well-reasoned conclusions on a variety of complicated matters. I hope this process will help me to see whether or not I really have firm ground on which my ideas stand.

I will try to visit at least one topic each week. The first topic I plan to visit is the issue of prayer. We'll see how it goes.