Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (cited by Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew):
The genuine realist, if he is an unbeliever, will always find strength and ability to disbelieve in the miraculous, and if he is confronted with a miracle as an irrefutable fact he would rather disbelieve his own senses than admit the fact. Even if he admits it, he admits it as a fact of nature till then unrecognized by him. Faith does not, in the realist, spring from the miracle but the miracle from faith.
2 comments:
Ken - great quote. Love your blog.
Thanks! Yancey offers his own excellent take on this a bit later:
"A sign is not the same thing as a proof; a sign is merely a marker for someone who is looking in the right direction." (pg. 178)
Miracles ("signs") are less about proving the supernatural exists, as about pointing us toward it. You can look at a sign all day (e.g. New York 300 mi. ->), but the only way you'll know if it is telling the truth is if you trust it and follow its direction, that is, by walking the path it points out.
That, not believing impossible things, is what faith is all about.
Post a Comment