I love this image, because I think it illustrates what so many people today do believe: that we can't believe anything - not really. We are hyper-aware of the limitations of our perception, most of us because we have more than once believed in a lie and later found out how foolish we were.
For a Christian, though, belief is more than just mental acceptance of a principle. Belief guides action (or it should). Now in some cases, it doesn't have to. For example, in my life, it really doesn't matter whether or I believe Earth is flat or round. It doesn't affect what I do or how I interact with others.
But a belief like "all humans have value to God" does - or should - affect the way I live. If every person has value to God, how should that affect the way I treat them? The way I think of them? Is it right of me to say nasty things about someone who cut me off in traffic? or about a political candidate? or, well, anyone, for that matter?Even in fiction, we are encouraged to see the value of human life as relative. I mean, everybody knows you can't shoot James Bond and expect to get away with it, right? Good guys struggle through challenges and get the girl. Bad guys laugh at the suffering of others, give expository monologues, and perish in interesting ways.
Sometimes I think the stories we tell affect the way we view our lives. Or, maybe, it's the other way around; we tell stories in terms of "good guys" and "bad guys" because we already have a tendency to see things in terms of "us" and "them." Either way, I don't think that's God's perspective on the matter.
As Walter Donovan says to Indy (just after shooting
We need to ask ourselves the same thing. And we need to follow that question with another: do our actions prove that we believe what we say we believe?
Images thanks to http://www.luxor.com/entertainment/entertainment_believe.aspx and http://jpsgranville100favefilms.blogspot.com/2008/05/indiana-jones-and-last-crusade-1989.html
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