Before computers and the Internet, the Bible was a document that could only be read and fathomed by the most diligent of students with a lot of time on their hands. With thousands of Bible pages filled with tales that may or may not interlock thematically and chronologically, the Bible was susceptible to interpretation first and foremost by those who had the patience and perseverance to read it in spite of itself.
Now, because of free online versions of the Bible that enable searching for individual words and phrases, an individual with an afternoon to spare can increase his knowledge of all that the biblical mentions about a given subject. Take the word "crown," for example. http://bibleresources.bible.com/...
In one biblical passage said to have been written by a disciple of Jesus by the name of "James", the Bible says that, "Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the CROWN of life that God has promised to those who love him."
Finding the word in the bible may not make the passage immediately comprehensible. But it is relevant both to those who believe in God as well as to those who seek only to test a third party's professed convictions against his actions and words. The consistency of others' actions with their professed faith can be a key to measuring their sincerity, diligence and commitment or adherence to their professed goals and principles.
For example, before I entered the legal profession, it was clear to me that on my own I lacked the determination, insight and native luck that would be needed to succeed academically and professionally. For one thing, I tended to think negatively. Only with the most difficult psychological and spiritual effort could I believe and invest myself in positive endeavors and ideas, such as finishing college and law school. I simply had a hard time believing that any good would come of it. Meanwhile, it was exceptionally easy for me to believe that things would go wrong and that attempts to succeed would not be worth the effort. If you said that on my own I was "spiritually bankrupt", I could not have disagreed with you.
Because of this spiritual bankruptcy, I began to study the Bible. Where I could see no evidence that I would be successful, the Bible said that the evidence of my future success was to be found in the faith that I maintained in the present. That is to say, `when there is no other evidence that an apparently hugely improbable venture will be successful, sometimes it is only faith that motivates humans to persevere.' And sometimes that faith is in a supernatural force, such as God. http://bible.cc/...
Did God help me to obtain a full scholarship, complete law school pass the bar and become an attorney and sometime instructor? Or was it merely my belief in a God that helped me? Sometimes after explaining to my religious clients that their chances of legal success were less than fifty/fifty, and that they might be separated from their families, I removed a bible from my desk draw and read a passage to them that renewed their faith and enabled them to stop crying. Because of the nature of faith, I cannot know whether God helped them, but when their cases were won, their faith in God was reinforced. Their belief in God often helped them to persevere and see their cases through to completion.
A great number of African-Americans who have done anything of value and historical note do not claim to have done so based on their own wisdom and strength. Rather, many accredit a Christian God with having given them the insight, wisdom, power and strength to undertake and accomplish the things that they did. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. who led the non-violent civil disobedience of the Civil Rights Movement and Jesse Jackson, who nearly won the Democratic Presidential nomination, are examples of African-Americans who specifically credited their faith in and guidance from God when discussing their goals and their achievements.
It matters little, ultimately, whether that God exists only in their faith, because the benefits of their faith are plain. Belief in God sometimes encourages people to undertake missions for which there is no evidence of a likelihood of success, and when indeed every human indication is of a likelihood of failure. Belief in a God also encourages some people to undertake missions that by most common measures are likely to mostly offer immediate suffering for themselves and their families, but which, if accomplished offer the opportunity to do tremendous good for others and thereby achieve recognition and greatness, in this life or the hereafter.
Many people have led strikes and protests that went nowhere, apparently achieving discernibly little, and were quickly forgotten. Unless Martin Luther King, Jr. had a special gift of foresight and insight, there was no apparent reason for him to believe that his efforts would not fall into this category of fruitlessness, particularly in light of the incredible determination that many white Americans and much of the Government had to maintain segregation and the subjugated status of African-Americans for the foreseeable future. Yet King labored and certainly in his own mind won a "crown" from God, even as he and many who worked with him were assassinated by men.
When I was a student, and particularly in light of my own spiritual bankruptcy, I know I was inspired by the labor of leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. The Christian promise that my "perseverance under trial" and "standing the test" would eventually bring me a "crown" was something that motivated me when no earthly promise could. And I think I had more trouble than most. As a manic depressive, at least twice each semester I literally became insane and committable, but I struggled onward anyway.
Another example is the years of legal labor that were required to win the Hamdi Guantanamo Bay case that was decided by the US Supreme Court yesterday against the Bush Administration's detention policies. http://www.nytimes.com/... This case represents a monumental challenge to the policies of a sitting Republican President who holds both houses of Congress and who was placed in office by much the same Supreme Court that would now weigh the challenge to his policies. Considering the overall reputation of the Court, the likelihood of any individual lawyer or coalition of lawyers taking such a case to the Supreme Court and winning might have seemed incredibly small.
Did the plaintiff's faith in Allah and the lawyer's faith in a god of some sort play a role in their perseverance? Without knowing the answer to that, I believe they all deserve a crown of some sort for their efforts. Just reading through the highly technical decision requires an unusual amount of determination and perseverance. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/...
As for me, it was my absolute and quite reasonable conviction about my inability to succeed on my own that convinced me that seeking help from a power outside of me could do no harm, and might actually do some good. The promise that my faith, however hard to come by, was evidence of something positive that would occur in the future, motivated me. This promise was effective for me precisely because it came from a realm beyond the reach of my own negative expectations for myself.
This pragmatic and practical process of coming to believe is rather like that of hiring a car mechanic, which is something we do not because we are convinced that s/he can fix our car but rather because we are convinced that we cannot fix it. Even those among us who do not particularly want a mechanic may nonetheless one if we believe we cannot succeed on our own, and if are convinced that we have nothing to lose except our time and our money, which are of no use to us without a vehicle for getting from here to there. This, admittedly, is a reductionist vision of God-based spirituality, based only on the poverty of my own personal experience.
The biblical promise is that one will receive a "crown" from God, but only if (1) "one perseveres under trial", and (2) one "stands the test", and (3) one is among the class of "those who love him". By its terms, this "promise" comes with many preconditions that are difficult to fulfill. What is "love"? What is each individual's "test"? And is the promise of a crown to be taken literally or merely metaphorically?
The Bible does offer considerable attitudinal guidance in terms of how to persevere in the face of such doubts, even if for many adherents like me this guidance is ultimately insufficient: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." http://bibleresources.bible.com/...
There are some very practical reasons to believe in supernatural forces. For example, most normal people simply will not undertake difficult and arduous tasks unless they believe there is a reasonably good likelihood of success. Nonetheless, there are many tasks whose achievement is necessary for the good of humanity but which are unlikely to be accomplished by any individual or group of individuals who undertakes these tasks.
The practical disadvantage of spiritual bankruptcy is well-stated in the Bible: Without faith, it's impossible to please God, i.e. undertake many of the seemingly impossible tasks that are necessary for the progress of humanity. Some have this faith without any conscious reliance whatever on supernatural forces. Others of us do not.