Faith: In My Head or My Heart?

I took the day off from blogging yesterday. I had a lot going on in my head and my heart and couldn't really figure out what to write. My brother posted links to some hilarious trailers on his blog that made my wife and I laugh out loud (I believe I can fly...). One of the trailers was hosted from a website that had a link to a couple of articles. The articles pertained to an argument about the character of God in the Bible. Excuse me while I try to be intellectual.

In his article "Walk Away", Daniel L. Pock lays out an argument against the "divine inspiration of the Bible" (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 105-108) and how it is "a great subject for getting people all worked up." I'll say. Although over-simplistic, his argument is thought provoking and his writing style down-to-earth and humorous. It boils down to this. Pock's argument is that the Story of the Garden of Eden and Original Sin in the Bible (Genesis 2-3) shows that God set us up for failure to make us feel dependent upon him. This kind of "volatility and injustice" could only come from humans, not the divine, so how could the Bible be divinely inspired? I think it is good to ask these kind of questions to get the mind going and stir up the heart. My pastor once wigged me out for several days when he asked the questions, "What would have happened if Mary had said 'No'?" and "What if Mary wasn't the first woman God asked to bear his Son?"

Apparently this article hit people's faith at the core. One reader wrote,

"In the last couple of days since I read this site, it is hard for me to be glad that Jesus is my Savior, because now it seems like He's saving me from something He started in the first place!"

Wow!

In response a gentleman wrote a very lengthy rebuttal. Although I applaud his efforts, and I will probably read more of his articles, it was extremely frustrating to read because of its length and the style of the writer. The rebuttal focuses on the arguments (basically that the character of God is NOT cruel and volatile in the Bible) rather than addressing the question of divine inspiration. This is probably good debate form. If you disprove the other person's proofs you show the faults of his conclusions. The problem is that in some ways he supports Pock's argument.

"The data is way too scarce (e.g. we have only two remarks by the serpent!) and there is too much missing information." Exactly! It is like the argument that the Universe had to be created, because something so vast and ordered could not just exist. Don't we believe that God just exists.

I am not a philosopher and not even a schooled theologian. I am just a man who wants to love the Lord with all my heart, soul and mind. Sometimes these parts of me fight each other. Sometimes the mind tells me my heart is crazy or the heart will tell me that my mind is thoughtless. The soul, however, tells me to have faith, because it longs to be home with God.

"Faith is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. To be sure, revealed truths can seem obscure to human reason and experience, but "the certainty that the divine light gives is greater than that which the light of natural reason gives." "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 157)