The following points were first written in May of 2015 for a group of dear friends with whom I was working through some questions related to the Christian faith of my childhood and early adult years. Beginning in my early-mid 30s, for the first time in my life I began to seriously question the veracity and authority of the Bible. These points are an output of that process of questioning. (DL, Sept. 6, 2021)

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What follows is an attempt to frame the starting point from whence I begin an examination of the Scriptures. These points should be taken as a provisional and ad hoc distillation of thoughts I’ve been a long-time forming. I am happy to see them challenged or accepted as suits the reader.

Ultimate Meaning is Hidden

1. The natural universe is composed of matter, space, and time configured in an unknown number of dimensions and possible parallel universes, all of which are irrelevant for our purposes, as they all exist as part of the Natural, Material Realm.
   
2. The natural universe displays the marks of Creative Intelligence in its component parts, in particular Life.
   
3. A Creative Intelligence responsible for the natural universe must of necessity exist beyond matter, space, and time beyond all dimensions—composed of no matter, needing no brain, filling all space and no space, having no beginning nor ending.
   
4. Human perception is bound within the confines of the observable, natural universe. Humans are not capable of piercing the veil of matter, space, and time to see out to What Lies Beyond. We humans exist completely as beings bound by our realm. We cannot even begin to articulate for ourselves what not only a Being, but a realm beyond our own would be like. Why should He and This be all there is? What causes operate on the First Cause? It doesn’t take but a moment down that path before the brain short circuits.
   
5. Ultimate meaning—the true meaning that humans crave that provides the final reason for existence and for human pain—must originate beyond the veil of space, time, and matter and is therefore beyond human ken.
   
6. If ultimate meaning is to be definitely known to humans, it must be revealed from outside the veil. God must reach into the natural universe and show it to humans. The only alternatives are that definite meaning is fully unknowable or that meaning is understood only partially and indistinctly in an inductive, trial-and-error sort of way—like the laws of nature.

In the Midst of Pain, Humans Crave Meaning

Meaningful pain is better than meaningless pleasure.

7. Human existence is strongly characterized by Great Pain. Death. Broken relationships. Shattered hopes. Dreams that will never come true. Shame. Cruelty suffered. Failure. Physical anguish. Privation. Isolation. Alienation. Pain is the continuous backdrop for all other human experience.
   
8. Human pain is punctuated by moments of non-pain or reduced pain. These moments take many forms. But these moments do not last, and they lose force with repetition. Pain often increases with repetition. The inverse is true of joy.
   
9. Humans crave meaning; they have a deep psychological need for it. To satisfy that craving, humans are inveterate meaning creators. They create meaning on both the small scale (injecting significance into coincidental events in their daily lives and into the physical phenomena of the natural world) and on the large scale (building and embracing philosophical and religious structures of meaning).
   
10. For humans, a primary psychological purpose for creating meaning is to facilitate coping with pain. The creation of meaning is a form of inner pain management.

Human Interior Experience is a Highly Suspect Guide to Truth

11. All human experience is interior experience; that is to say humans experience their humanness not in their hands and feet, but in their hearts and mind.
    
12. For humans, perception determines reality. The human mind and heart are locked within a body and fed by organs of perception—both sensory and emotional. What the mind and heart perceive is what determines reality for an individual. That is, whether something is true or not, if a human perceives it to be true, they will act and feel accordingly.
    
13. A corollary to the previous point is that human belief determines human action and emotion. What a person really believes to be true (whether they can articulate it or not and regardless of whether the beliefs are true or not) will determine what they do and bear great influence on how they feel. If a young man truly believes blowing himself up will gain him seventy-two virgins he is not unlikely to blow himself up if he craves the virgins enough. Likewise, if a person truly believes a compassionate Savior loves them, intends their pain for good, and will heal all their hurts in the end, they are much more likely to be able to accept their pain with patience than a person who does not believe that.
    
14. There is no corollary between fervency of belief and actual truth. Humans are capable of fully believing all sorts of lie —while also feeling all the feelings and confidently doing all the actions that accompany the belief.
    
15. The interior experience of belief (what it feels like to believe something, the perspective and confidence the belief gives—the feeling of having meaning) is similar for all humans, regardless of what it is they believe. For the conservative Christian, a good demonstration of this principle is Chaim Potok’s novels The Chosen and The Promise. These novels are a vivid portrayal of the life of faith of conservative Jews in 20th-century New York.
    
16. Human interior experience—thoughts and emotions—are trainable in much the same way the body is. Repetition of certain mental actions, practicing certain modes of thought, volitionally putting into practice certain responses to stimuli, breeds habit of thinking and feeling that can become deeply ingrained over time. This is especially so in the context of belief and hope. Just as it is easier to consistently exercise physically when one has a clear vision of and confidence in the eventual result, so it is with mental and emotional exercise. Within the context of belief, the results of this repetitive exercise may not be recognized as a natural phenomenon, but a supernatural one, as when someone says, “I find that the more I confess wrong thoughts even as they enter my mind, the closer I stay to Him.” The emotional feeling of closeness with God in this instance may theoretically be based on a real closeness with the Divine. It may also simply be the result of consistent mental conditioning.
    
17. The framework for human interior experience is very strongly influenced by youthful experience. The locations, smells, music, traditions, dreams, and beliefs of youth very often stick with an individual long into life and old age—retaining a special place in the heart of the person by virtue of no other fact than that they were implanted early. Youthful favorites often become lifelong favorites. The reason for this is rooted in the cycle of human development. The young absorb readily; the old do not. It is this phenomenon that results in easily recognizable generational groupings in tastes of all kinds, including cultural artifacts and social mores. For the purposes of this discussion, the important point is that propositions may “feel right” simply because they’ve been a frame for interior experience since earliest days. This feeling of “rightness” has a high correlation with emotional satisfaction; it has no correlation with actual truth.
    
18. Humans are communal creatures, and human interior experience is infectious. Smiles beget smiles. Tears beget tears. In a heart predisposed to faith, the fervent (and especially genuinely emotional) proclamation of faith by another tends to heighten one’s own feelings of faith. This tendency is entirely natural and emotional; it has no correlation with the actual truth or falseness of the profession.