THE SEARCH

Throughout history, we humans have engaged in the search: for truth through data, for evidence through testimony, and for facts through trusted sources. Before the written word, we used anecdotal evidence as shared stories were corroborated by eyewitnesses and this truth was validated. The truth spread, again in an era before the written word, by word-of-mouth. Balladeers and storytellers spread truth throughout the known world. With the advent of the printing press, the written word allowed these truths to be spread more efficiently. And the search for truth was enhanced by the ability to reach that written word. Several centuries later, with the advent of the computer chip, truth could now be spread globally, instantaneously, and on demand. Those seeking data-based or evidence-based truth could find it much more efficiently.

Yet what of the role of philosophers in this data–driven society? What of the questions that don’t have data based answers?

Why are we here?

Who created us?

Who created our world?

Bishop Robert Barron of the Los Angeles Diocese recently visited Googleplex in order to discuss this matter. Although he, himself, holds his own standards of scientific evidence as a self-admitted cynic and seeker of truth, he also engages each of us to see the search for truth as a comprehensive one including those great time-worn questions. He contends that religion opens the door to include such questions, and to wrestle with answers: “Are skeptics and atheists even asking those questions?”

He challenged the name “search engine,” comparing it to Saint Thomas Aquinas’s search for truth: “What answer would Google’s search engine give, if asked the question ‘what is the purpose of life?’”  Aquinas prompted for a discussion of discernment and philosophical thought. Google’s search engine simply collected every source that has ever asked that question, from Wikipedia to others, and reflected their answers.

Barron reflected that many answers to questions of creation came from monks and other clerics who studied using the searching mind. Their questions were those which our searching mind wants to know. “And if we are not honest that what we want to know includes ‘why are we here,’ ‘is there a God,’ and ‘how was our world created,’ wait until you have children in your life. They will ask you those questions and you will face them yet again!”

As we enter into the question of faith, we may find a wider, broader way of examining these questions. And our own faith will be tested.

In his book “Dear Pope Francis,” children from around the world ask Pope Francis questions like:

 “Pope Francis when I saw you at St. Peter’s Square I felt great joy when you looked at me. What do you feel when you look at the children around you? Thank you for your attention. Hug from Jael, age 10, Portugal.”

The Pope’s answer to Jael:“Dear Jael, you asked me what I feel when I look at children. I do see many children! I smile at them and hug them and throw kisses from the car because my hands are free – even though you draw me with my hands on the wheel! I’m happy when I see children. I always feel great tenderness and affection for them. But it’s more than that. Actually, when I look at a child like you, I feel great hope rising in my heart. Because, for me, seeing a child is in the future. Yes I feel great hope because every child is our hope for the future of humanity.”

In another letter, Pope Francis was asked by Emil, age 9, of the Dominican Republic: 

“Dear Francis, our deceased relatives, can they see us from heaven?”

The Pope’s answer to Emil: “Yes, you can be sure of this. I imagine that you’re thinking about your relatives who are in heaven. They are not far from us, you know? They pray for us, and they lovingly take care of us. This is the important thing. You can imagine your deceased relatives this way: they are smiling down on you from heaven. The way you have drawn them, they are flying around me. But they are flying next to you. They are accompanying you with their love.”

When we say “Out of the mouths of babes…” we underscore the direct and innocent approach to communication taken by such children.  Yet it is the questions of greatest magnitude which are the same from the vantage point of innocence or maturity.  Because they defy the way we engage in the search: Truth through data? Evidence through testimony? Facts through trusted sources? Anecdotal evidence?  For the greatest questions of our lives, none of these search techniques gives a satisfactory answer. 

We are given the gift of faith and believing.  And we are intuitively aware that where knowledge ends, faith begins.  Each of us must look inside ourselves to determine what we will make of that awareness. 

Perhaps that is, for each of us, the most important search of all.