Mind

“…no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Co 2:9

What our mind has conceived is from what our mind has gathered from study and observation of the physical world through our senses and, as far as the knowledge of the metaphysical is concerned, we can only speculate and conceptualize. We may get some right, but there is no way of knowing until the truth is revealed.

“When we are dead, we are absolutely dead,” one atheist stated with the uttermost certainty in a debate. Obviously he was looking at reality purely from an empirical point of view and the conclusion he had drawn seemed to be perfectly rational to him. “Believing in atheism is intellectually very satisfying,” he remarked. This scholar was indeed quite brave, for he declared that he wouldn’t mind going there if there was a hell. “I will be perfectly happy there, for there I won’t be bothered by any preachers.”

If only we could truly come to terms with the notion that there is absolutely nothing beyond the physical world! If so, we would never ask the “to be, or not to be” question, and venture into the abysmal unknown without the slightest fear. I wonder whether the aforementioned debater will have any dread before he departs from time and enters into eternity. I would be a little bit concerned if I were him, for no matter how firm our belief in empiricism is, we seem to hear from time to time a faint timeless echo, penetrating the barrier of time and entering into the inner chamber of our hearts.

I don’t know which of the following is easier to achieve: to convince ourselves that there is nothing but pure material in this world or that there is something that exists beyond the physical. Why do we even hasten our steps and whistle ever so loudly when we find ourselves walking alone in the dark, trying so hard to assure ourselves that the story of goblins and ghosts are mere old wives’ tales?

We are most likely wrong when we try to conceive what isn’t really conceivable, but to deny its existence merely because of its inconceivability is arrogance and foolishness. In one sense the agnostics deserve more of our respect than the atheists, because they at least have the intellectual courage to confess their ignorance concerning the supernatural.

The fact that we may get it wrong shouldn’t keep us from speculating about the unknown. We may miss more than we hit, but it produces so much joy when we contemplate about what the Lord has prepared for those of us who put our trust in him. Since there is nothing beyond the horizon of this world for the atheists, their imagination must end at he end of the earth, but that’s exactly the place where our imagination begins, and with the guidance of the Scriptures, our spiritual fantasy may even turn into reality.