Signs

Is life more than mere coincidences?

This classic, clichéd philosophical question was the subject of the movie Signs, which I saw recently with some of my friends. While it's advertised as a scary movie (which it is), its main purpose is to explore the role of faith in life. Is it just a coincidence if you miss a plane that crashes, or is a sign of a higher power? Is life a series of choices and consequences, or is there a greater plan controlling each individual's life?

Something different I've found at school is that most of my friends there don't really ponder these questions with any degree of seriousness. Rather, they seem to have already come to definite conclusions, and those conclusions skew toward the skeptical. I've never met so many atheists before in my life.

It's a stark contrast to my experience at home. In all my years of Catholic school, the most unusual person I came across went to a nondenominational church. That's not to say that all of my friends were church-going Catholics. Actually, many of my friends in high school were Protestants -- it was kind of ironic, considering the setting. But the point is that all of my friends had some sort of faith in their lives.

After the movie was over, Emily and I went to a restaurant to get some dessert and discuss the film. While I tried to get through my huge chocolate chip cookie hot fudge sundae and teased Emily about yet again ordering something she didn't like because she didn't like it, we went over the highs and lows of the movie. Emily said she liked the movie -- except for the part when the main character says he hates God.

It was startling to hear that after so many months among people who'd probably think the whole film was a crock. I could imagine some friends from school pronouncing the climax corny or a cop-out. And here the complaint was that the film didn't show enough faith.

I responded that it was only human nature for the character to say something like that after he'd been so crushed by the traumatic death of his wife and was suddenly faced with the possibility of another heart-rending tragedy. I pointed out that his lingering bitterness clouded his judgment and that sadness caused him to say something horrible like that. But Emily would not be convinced; saying something like that crossed a line in her mind. The character couldn't be redeemed in good faith after saying that.

I have my beliefs, and they don't conform to any of my friends'. Maybe I'm a fence-straddler, but I prefer to think of myself as understanding. While I don't personally embrace all creeds, I accept the positive value of all of them. I think religious expression is a function of culture, but the basic faith is the same. In other words, it's universal.

Religion's not such a bad thing. I've learned the faith-based and science-based arguments for this statement. But I also understand that some people would prefer to live without it. In other words, I understand how people may choose to interpret the signs as "signs." I believe in free will myself -- here's where perhaps it seems like I want it all. But it's true -- I don't believe in the grand plan. At least not on an individual scale. It makes sense if there's a creator then there was the plan to begin, the plan to let live, and eventually there may come the plan to just do away with it all. Even the end may simply be built into universe in the laws of nature which govern it. In my view, everything happens through individual choices.

I don't claim to be everything. I claim only to be flexible. I am a Catholic, and I accept what makes sense to me in my religion, but I don't let doctrine intrude on what I believe. I make my own decisions.

Sometimes I feel like I am on the dividing line. I can see both perspectives on faith. Or rather, religion -- religion is a more specific kind of faith. Everyone who lives has faith in something, be it spiritual or secular, but not everyone has a religion.

But what I learn from observing both sets of friends is how important their beliefs are to them. No matter what belief it is they treasure, they treasure it, holding it strongly to heart. As do all people in matters of faith.