Wednesday 11 July 2012

What do I believe?

Trying to answer this question is hopelessly ambitious and as unlikely to be precise or comprehensive as trying to exhaustively describe someone. Nonetheless, I'd like to take a first stab at it and probably return to it as the Year of Faith kicks off and progresses. The following then would be a couple of the highlights:
  1. I believe in doing to others what I would have them do to me. (Mathew 7:12)
  2. I believe there is a God who is Love (1 John 4:8).
  3. I believe God so loved the world that he gave his only Son to us (John 3:16).
  4. The beliefs of the Nicene Creed are mine.
  5. I believe the truth will set us free (John 8:32).
  6. I believe that beauty stands equal alongside goodness and truth and that they all are how God shows himself to us.
  7. I believe there is goodness and truth to be found in all religions (Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 843) and that they all “reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men” (Nostra Aetate 2).
  8. I believe that agnostics and atheists are my brothers and sisters.
  9. I believe in defending the right of others to say things I disapprove of. (Voltaire)
  10. I believe there are motives worth dying for but none worth killing for. (See: “The way we came to know love was that he laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” (1 John 3:16))
  11. I believe in being strict to myself and lenient to others. (John Paul II)
  12. I believe that “faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth” (Fides et Ratio) and that the scientific method not only holds utility but also opens our eyes to God's creation.
Twelve being a good number to stop at, I'd say that's it for now :).

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