I spent some time today, surfing the Web, taking the rare opportunity to peruse the New York Times on-line when I came across an article about Scott Atran and his scientific interest in understanding why people choose to believe in God.   This article gave mention to a man named Richard Dawkins who is a prominent atheist, seemingly focused on denigrating and reducing to mere foolishness the existence of God.  He does so in a rigorous scientific manner and I admit, after reading his arguments and reflecting on his writing style, I have no desire to argue with him regarding the existence of God; surely, I would lose in such a debate.

 

I wonder first how I would feel in a close encounter with Prof. Dawkins.  Would my heart cringe at his coldness or would I feel warmth under the surface of friendliness and scientific rigor?  Would I make eye contact and shrink at emptiness or would I delight in a heart full of purpose?  And even then, no matter what my heart could see, how could I express my reaction?  Words would simply fail me.  

 

In the many arguments for or against the existence of God, it seems that we (the believers) can make no progress if we argue from the intellect.  Yet, the heart, the gateway to the soul and the Holy Spirit, has no real language of its own that lends itself to our preferred modes of communication (written text, verbal debate).  Artists do a magnificent job of conveying the existence of God in many a work that is so much more than can be described with the words of intellect.  The heart also has a way of proliferating its language in the richness of relationship:  a hug, a warm look, a helping hand, an expression of love, a commitment of a lifetime.  The heart speaks through a sunrise, in the gentleness of motherhood, along the lines of dance, around the simplicity of kind acts ... yet, for words, it must go through the intellect for expression.  Sometimes, the good writer can use these clumsy words to orchestrate the language and the story of the heart.  But, constrained only to words, to argument without story, the heart quickly fades and becomes ineffective.

 

So, I admit Prof. Dawkins, that my mind will fail to match your argument.  Yet, my heart has a delightful story of a loving, powerful, and wise God to tell you.  How shall I speak?  How can I tell you this wonderful story?  Can you help us construct a New Language over which we can connect and settle our differences?