Something Other Than God

Jennifer Fulwiler was raised in what she describes as a “happy atheist home.” From an early age, her father taught her “to seek truth and question assumptions”. He went so far as to say that she should not believe anything she hears without questioning it first, even if it came from him. So she made it her goal in life to always pursue the truth.

Unfortunately, she believed that pursuing the truth meant abandoning any idea that God exists. And, although she was raised to question assumptions, some unquestioned prejudices reinforced her atheism.

First of all, she thought all believers were ignorant hypocrites. She reasoned that only an uneducated and unenlightened person could believe the stories in the Bible. Also, she would run into Christians whom she thought judged her and treated her disrespectfully for her atheistic beliefs. All this lead her to the conclusion that she would not find any truth in religion.

Secondly, like many atheists, she believed that truth only comes from science. If it cannot be measured or observed than it cannot be real. This lead her to dismiss any idea that human beings had souls or that there was any life after physical death. To her mind, we were only animals who randomly evolved. The only thing that made a human person different from a pig was that we had the ability to reason.

Her unquestioned assumptions and prejudices about religion began to be challenged, however, through a few experiences.

The first was when she met the man she would eventually marry. There was no question that he was intelligent because he had been educated in some of the country’s finest universities.  And, yet, he believed in God and was a Christian. No matter how she tried to convince him that God did not exist, he remained firm in his belief. Through her relationship with him, she came to understand that intelligent people could also be people of faith.

The second experience was the birth of her son. Holding him in her arms for the first time, it occurred to her that the intense love she felt for him was real even though it couldn’t be put under a microscope. She also realized that her baby was more than a randomly evolved life form. He was more than just an animal with the ability to one day walk upright and think. Through the birth of her son, she came to understand that there were other ways to discover truth besides the scientific method.

All these experiences were just the beginning of her journey to truly question her assumptions and seek truth. Eventually, it lead her to the Catholic Church.

She writes about her experience in her book, Something Other Than God: How I Passionately Sought Truth And Accidentally Found It. The title comes from the following quote by C.S. Lewis, “All that we call human history...[is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.” She searched for truth and happiness but it remained elusive until she found it in God.

In today’s gospel, many of Jesus’ disciples reject and abandon Him. His teaching was just too disturbing. Obviously hurt, Jesus turns to the apostles and asks, “Do you also want to leave?” Speaking for them all, Simon Peter replies, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

Simon Peter found the truth in the person of Jesus Christ. Like the other disciples, he may have been baffled and bewildered by Jesus’ words. Yet, he could not leave Him. There was nowhere else to go. Like Jennifer Fulwiler, Saint Peter realized that the truth is found not in a bunch of ideas but in a person - the person of Jesus Christ, the Holy One of God.

We are painfully aware that, like the disciples in today’s gospel, there are many people who abandon the faith and the Church. Sometimes it’s because the Church’s teachings are too much for them to bear. Unfortunately, they often leave because they see Christians acting like hypocrites. They begin to look for happiness and fulfillment in “something other than God”.

It is true that many Church teachings run counter to popular opinion and the values of our modern culture. However, it is the mission of the Church not to accommodate herself to the fads of the day but to hand down the teaching of Jesus who has the “words of everlasting life”. Everything the Church teaches, in particular when it comes to morality, stands up to reason. If people are really interested in discovering the truth and questioning assumptions, then they should look into the teaching of the Church rather than dismissing it. I guarantee they will find compelling arguments. Even if they still do not accept the Church’s teaching, they will be hard pressed to claim that they are not reasonable.

It is also true that many people in the Church are judgmental hypocrites who fall short of living the Christian life with integrity. That has been true throughout our history beginning with Judas. However, it is also true that there have been many good and holy people of faith. If people are truly questioning assumptions and seeking truth then they should  judge the Church by her great saints. No one ever judges a sport by the athletes who played it poorly. Rather we judge the greatness of soccer, basketball and hockey by its Hall of Fame players. Just the same, the Church should be judged not on the basis of the people who failed to live by her teachings but by those who put it into practice and, thus, changed the world.

The truth is out there for those who wish to seek it. It can be found in Jesus Christ, the Holy One of God who alone has the words of everlasting life. Seeking truth, happiness and fulfillment in something other than God is a fool’s errand. Time and time again it has lead only to failure and despair. At this Mass, Truth and Love offer themselves to us in the Eucharist. Unlike the disciples who turned away and abandoned Jesus, let us run to Him. Then we will know the Truth in all its fullness and be able to share Him with others.