The Agnosticism of Faith

True faith is not absolute certainty. I know that many Christians would have you believe that this is true, but how could it be? If you know something absolutely, why would you have to "believe" it. It is nonsense.

But that's not all. True faith never leads to absolute certainty, and never will. That's right, we will never know that God exists with absolute certainty. There are a number of reasons for this.

First, Scripture is clear that in eternity, faith persists. St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 says, "But now these three abide, faith, hope, and love..." That means that we will never be able to approach God outside of faith.

You might wonder why this is the case. The issue has to do with the nature of God. According to Orthodox thought, God, in his essence, is unknowable. He can only be known through his energies. In other words, although we can have an experience of God, we can never completely comprehend Him. If we could, then He would not be God.

This actually leads to the idea in Orthodox thought that there is a level of agnosticism involved in our faith. This is certainly not an absolute agnosticism, since God's energies do reveal to us certain things about God's nature. However, Orthodoxy even makes sure that these things are apophatically qualified (which means they are simultaneously affirmed and negated).

Here are some interesting quotes about what I am talking about.

From The Sayings of the Desert Fathers:

One day some of the brethren went to see Abba Antony, and among them was Abba Joseph. Wishing to test them, the old man mentioned a text from Scripture, and starting with the youngest he asked them what it meant. Each explained it as best he could. But to each one he said, "You have not yet found the answer." Last of all, he said to Abba Joseph, "And what do you think the text means?" He replied, "I do not know." Then Abba Antony said, "Truly, Abba Joseph has found the way, for he said: I do not know"

Robert Anton Wilson has stated that "Belief is the death of intelligence." I think what he is trying to say is that whenever we think we have things all figured out, we are making a mistake. We are restricting ourselves to a reality of our own making that refuses to take into consideration everything that exists.

The Church Fathers understood this. They knew that to assume they understood God or all of reality was actually a form of intellectual idolatry. Another problem is that we tend to think of our realtion to God in eternity as static. The Church Fathers understood that exploring the nature of God, and all that he is about, is an endless quest. It is not the death of intelligence, but the fulfillment of it. In this sense, having faith is somewhat different from simply adopting a Belief System. A Belief System is a closed loop. Orthodoxy is an open system. It never concludes that God is within our grasp. Faith then becomes the driver for the open system, and is always necessary to take us deeper into the mystery. The intellect cannot do that. It is too limited. It wants to resolve the paradoxes and settle down. It wants to plant its weary carcass on the side of the road. It doesn't want to keep reaching out for something more.

One of the biggest problems with western Christianity is that they tend to want to express themselves in terms of absolute certainty. According to much of this thought, God gave us the Bible, and the Bible gives us thorough knowledge about God, and there is no longer a mystery. In other words, they think they have the corner on God.

No wonder someone like Robert Anton Wilson would rebel against such notions. Anyone who has experienced anything of the mystery that is reality will be put back when someone comes along and says they have the corner on God. They use proofs and "evidence" that frankly can fail under certain forms of scrutiny, and they have reduced God to a formula.

Even the doctrine of the Trinity, which by its very nature is an expression of God's incomprehensible nature, simply becomes a datum of fact supported by Scriptures. The modern Evangelical hardly knows "why" they believe in a Trinity, apart from the fact that they believe it is taught in the Bible. But the Trinity says it all. Actually, apophatically, it says everything about what God is not.

It says:

1. God is not a simple monistic unity like in pantheism.
2. God is not merely a person.
3. God is not impersonal.
4. God is not a static entity, but even exists somehow in relation to itself.
5. God is not comprehensible.


What this leads the seeking soul to is what is called the Cloud of Unknowing. We get to the place where God is a vast mystery. God cannot even be said to be a being in the sense that other beings exist. Even saying God exists becomes a problem because of the definition of "exists".

St. Dionysius the Areopagite said:

Leave the senses and the working of the intellect, and all that the senses and the intellect can perceive, and all that is not and all that is; and through unknowing reach out, so far as this is possible, towards oneness with him who is beyond all being and knowledge. In this way, through an uncompromising, absolute and pure detachment from yourself and from all things, transcending all things and released from all, you will be led upwards towards that radiance of the divine darkness which is beyond all being.

Entering the darkness that surpasses understanding, we shall find ourselves brought, not just to brevity of speech, but to perfect silence and unknowing.

Emptied of all knowledge, man is joined in the highest part of himself, not with any created thing, nor with himself, nor with another, but with the One who is altogether unknowable; and in knowing nothing, he knows in a manner that surpasses understanding.

"...We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God." 1 Corinthians 8:1b-3

"The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him." Habbakuk 2:20