The Faith of the Martian

My first article for The Huffington Post went up this week:
The Faith of the Martian

I have a bad habit of starting essays about movies, and not finishing them until months later — and that's the case here. But the subject matter is something I've been trying to find a way to talk about for a while now. I think we're experiencing a breakdown in how we approach religion, and I think that a lot of it has to do with how we think about faith.

On the one hand, we have people who find it increasingly difficult to simply believe a list of facts. If Christianity is just about believing a set of facts without question, then it's going to be harder and harder for these people to consider themselves Christian, because, like it or not, everyone experiences doubt. I've known people to leave Christianity because they realized they could never fully abolish doubt — and they thought that's exactly what was being expected of them.

On the other hand, we have people who have no trouble believing facts, but think that's the beginning and end of their faith. They end up disconnected from the world, living a life that doesn't resemble Jesus at all.

I hope that we can begin to rethink our faith in light of the biblical story — and in that, find a vision that calls us forward to a better world, and a fuller embodiment of Christianity.

Read the article at the Huffington Post now.