The Vessel and the Truth: How I Found Meaning in Faith

"Does God exist?"

This question is as old as humanity. People still debate it with great energy. I struggle with this question. I find it to be polarizing and distracting. Instead, I find there is a more helpful question to ask. Instead of existence, the better question is about meaning and behavior. It is about how you choose to live.

As such, my answer is simple.

I choose to live as if God exists.

Some might label this position as agnostic. Agnosticism answers the existence question with a "maybe." I am doing something different. I am declining to answer the existence question altogether. Instead, I am answering a question about practice. Declining to debate existence is not the same as saying "maybe."

This is not a statement of certainty. It is a posture of humility. Humans have limited capacity to understand the universe and the divine. Admitting this limit is honest. Choosing to live as if God exists is still transformative. It means walking with reverence. It means loving selflessly. It means practicing grace. It means holding yourself accountable to a higher standard.

At Easter, when the Passion of Christ is read, I tear up. I do not cry because of a dogmatic belief. I tear up because I choose to live as if Christ lived and died for us. That narrative inspires me to practice goodness and serve others.

Debating belief creates a slippery slope. Focusing on our individual beliefs naturally turns into a comparative judgment of others' beliefs and whether we belong to the same belief tribe. In this way, I see my faith as a way to live, not as a means to judge others.

The question of God

Is it belief or behavior? (or both?)

This is the author's personal perspective.

The Scaffold of Religion

I grew up in the Catholic Christian tradition. I hold great gratitude for that upbringing. My wife and I also raised our children in the Catholic Church. This was an essential part of our family faith scaffold.

My religious training provided a very helpful framework. It taught me how to be a good person and a faithful steward. It gave me a roadmap for managing challenges. It taught me to love others. It showed me how to extend grace and empathy. It showed me that investment in others is an investment in myself.

However, I eventually stepped away from the Catholic Church as an institution. Human organizations can fail. They can betray their core values. The famous clergy abuse scandals clearly demonstrated this reality. But I am not just calling out Catholicism; all religions struggle with their human-ness. Institutional intentions do not always align with human actions. Religion is not the divine truth itself. It is a human vessel intended to deliver and nourish faith. But meaning to do something is not the same as doing it.

The Sports and Faith Connection

Consider the connection between sports, like football, and individual teams.

The game itself is noble and enduring. It teaches young people discipline and goal setting. It teaches teamwork and perseverance. It teaches how to win and lose with dignity. Sports help build community and bring people together.

However, people often confuse the beauty of the game with their devotion to a specific team. For example, we get passionate about college football teams like Alabama, Auburn, or Clemson. Yet teams are managed by flawed humans. They make mistakes. They disappoint their fans. A team’s failure does not diminish the value of the game itself.

Religion works the same way. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism are different religious "teams." While they emerged from different parts of the world, they all share many common faith values. They are all faith delivery systems designed to pass down wisdom and build character.

Ironically, people have fought wars for centuries over "Team Christian" or "Team Islam." This conflict is the ultimate contradiction. A supreme commonality across all major world religions is the command to love one another. This shows how rigid belief and judgment can lead directly to hate and destruction.

Religion can nourish us. However, what ultimately matters is the game underneath. Living faith transforms human hearts and builds strong communities.

A Faith Rooted in Action and Openness

This understanding allows me to value religion as a scaffold. It also allows me to respect diverse traditions. For example, I find wisdom in Buddhism and the teachings of the Dalai Lama. I appreciate their focus on compassion and mindfulness. I also apply principles from Stoic philosophy. Stoicism reminds us to focus on what we can control and practice personal virtue regardless of circumstance. Additionally, I respect secular thinkers like Sam Harris. He is an avid doubter of God. Yet, he encourages us to examine ethics and truth with honesty.

Recognizing value in diverse viewpoints does not weaken my foundation. It enriches my faith. Truth is not the exclusive property of one institution. The game matters far more than any single team on the field.

Living as if God exists requires balancing our motivations. This approach aligns with what Adam Smith called the "Impartial Spectator." We know Smith today as the father of modern economics. Yet his economic theories grew out of a deep moral philosophy. They were shaped by the Enlightenment Era's questioning of religious dogma.

Smith was careful not to define the Impartial Spectator as God. Instead, it is an internal, universal standard for moral self-accountability. It functions much like a conscience. For many, this internal guide reflects a broad, adaptable expression of the divine.

Smith defined self-interest to include both selfish and selfless motivations. Sometimes we must care for ourselves. Other times we must care for others. This is captured in Smith's observation: "Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely." The Impartial Spectator helps us balance these desires. It invites us to view our actions through an objective, empathetic lens. It demands duty and stewardship without expecting a reward. Smith showed how we can honor moral truth and human flourishing, regardless of the flaws within human institutions.

Walking Forward

Stepping away from a religious institution was simply my personal path. Religion serves a vital purpose. It is a time-tested scaffold and a powerful teacher. It nourishes millions of people every day. Staying within a religious community or stepping outside of one are both meaningful choices. What matters is not the vessel you choose, but the living faith inside that sustains you.

I do not claim to have the universe figured out. I do not defend a rigid system of rules. Instead, I choose a path of humility, stewardship, and active grace. Living as if God exists provides a reliable compass. It calls us to look beyond ourselves. It inspires us to build up our communities. It helps us honor the shared human journey with love.