Does faith create reality out of myth?

The last issue I will address in response to The Da Vinci Code is the nature of faith. This question is extremely important to our understanding of religion. Is all religion just the creation of myth? Can one religion be judged as wrong by another religious group? How do ‘truth’ and ‘faith’ interrelate to each other?

The following represents Dan Brown’s view of faith,

Sophie, every faith in the world is based on fabrication. That is the definition of faith – acceptance of that which we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove. Every religion describes God through metaphor, allegory, and exaggeration, from the early Egyptians through modern Sunday school. Metaphors are a way to help our minds process the unprocessible. The problems arise when we believe literally in our own metaphors (page 341,342). I believe that the context of the book tries to imply that this definition of faith applies to Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism, but the idea that Mary Magdelene as the holy grail is an issue of history, not religion.

My simple response is that The Da Vinci Code takes a lot of faith to believe. The evidence is shaky so the need for faith is great. I would add that we all choose to believe some things by faith. It takes faith to believe that George Washington was our nation’s first president. You were not there to see it for yourself so you have to believe the historians. It takes faith to drive your car through a green light at 40 miles an hour. How do you know that it does not show green in all four directions? It takes faith to bite into a hamburger since the announcement of Mad Cow disease. Some Americans do not have enough faith in the regulation of our food safety to eat beef at this time. Faith is a part of all of our lives, whether we are religious or not.

The real question of faith is the issue of the object of our faith. There are people today who still believe that the world is flat. They look out over the ocean and it seems flat. They watch the sun rise and set and it really feels like the sun is moving and the earth remains stationary. Faith in a flat earth is foolish, because the evidence shows that the world is round. I write this response to The Da Vinci Code, not because I think that my version of Mary Magdelene feels right to me, but because there are very provable factual errors that lead the readers of The Da Vinci Code to come to wrong conclusions. The issue of truth is critical to the question of faith.

Soren Kierkegaard, the nineteenth century Christian philosopher described faith as a boy who comes to the edge of a ditch, hears the voice of his father calling for him to jump, and without seeing, jumps into the loving arms of his father. I would agree and suggest that all the studies in the world do not produce faith, but diligent study does allow us to make an informed commitment to place our faith in a worthy object.

The call to faith in Jesus is to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, who lived a sinless life, died on a cross, and rose from the dead. We learn about Jesus through the Bible which is a book like no other book in history, which has come to us as an accurate portrayal of who Jesus was and is. This may seem difficult for the skeptic to believe, but consider the options. Those who accept atheistic evolution take a huge leap of faith to believe that our world happened by chance. Evolution without a Creator and a Designer is too hard for me to swallow. It’s like believing a clock was formed by chance, and not created by a designer. Hindus believe all life is equal and they worship a cow that does not have the intelligence of a first grader. Muslims believe in a god who is distant and only calls for submission to his will.

Our world is filled with religions and philosophies. The human race was designed to believe in something beyond ourselves. I am convinced that Jesus is the most rational person to believe in and the Bible is the best guide for life. An argument from my side of the step of faith is that my relationship with Jesus has brought me more love, joy and peace than anything else in my experience. I believe that my relationship with Jesus has helped me live a more productive and meaningful life. The world is filled with people from many cultures who can say that believing in Jesus was the best thing they ever did. Committed followers of Jesus continue to do all sorts of things to make our world a better place.

The Bible defines faith this way, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Heb 11:1). This chapter on faith goes on to describe many people of faith in the Old Testament who believed the promises of God even when they did not see the results of their faith. Faith grows out of knowing God and trusting what he says to us, primarily through the Bible.

The process of coming to faith in Jesus begins with an awareness that we cannot save ourselves. Romans 3:23 says “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, in Jesus Christ our Lord.” God offers all people of the world salvation through the death and resurrection of His Son. This salvation is not automatic, but must be received. Romans 10:9,10 speaks of coming to faith this way, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” ‘Justified’ is to be declared ‘not guilty’ for our sins.

Central to the Christian teaching on salvation is the issue of the cross of Jesus Christ. Paul writes in I Cor. 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” The Da Vinci Code’s view on the cross illustrates how Dan Brown misses the point. Dan Brown writes, “Langdon was always surprised how few Christians who gazed upon ‘the crucifix’ realized their symbol’s violent history was reflected in its very name: ‘cross’ and ‘crucifix’ came from the Latin verb cruciare – to torture.” (page 145) Of course the term ‘cross’ has to do with torture. Jesus died one of the most cruel deaths ever invented by humanity. The Christian symbol of the cross remembers the suffering of Jesus on the cross so that we might know the forgiveness of our sins. To turn that around and make the cross a symbol of Christians torturing others is a twisted way to look at the central teaching of the church – Jesus died in our place so that we may have a relationship with God.

Becoming a person of faith is not dependent on anything good that we can do. Ephesians 2:8,9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” We are not saved by joining the right church, although a good church will encourage our faith to develop. We cannot buy our way to favor with God because God owns everything. The key to Christian faith is that God wants us to be in a love relationship with our Creator. We can talk with Him every day and learn more about His character as we read the Bible.

Allow me to end on a positive note. I thank Dan Brown for raising the most important questions in life that all of us need to answer for ourselves. We need to understand who Jesus was, how the Bible came to be formed, how the church started and the nature of faith. I clearly disagree with the answers suggested by The Da Vinci Code but I trust that the popularity of this best seller will lead many on a search for God and truth.

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Responding to the Da Vinci Code Movie