Scientists strive to be objective; but we all must necessarily operate out of base assumptions. Assuming that there is no God is not objective. It is an assumption. Assuming God is unknowable is also an assumption. Assuming God exists is an assumption.  Everyone has beliefs concerning God, but in the end, our intellect can at best serve to rationalize our position. That said, faith is indeed reasonable, but this fact is hidden from a reason which limits itself only to the measurable, empirically verifiable phenomena in the universe.  Such a reason, to quote Pope Benedict XVI, "drastically curtails the range of our relationship with reality and is incapable of opening itself to the rationality of faith, which requires a metaphysical drive."  Further, even reason which does not limit itself thus cannot, alone, answer the most important questions in life. And academic study alone cannot change our hearts or our character.  Conversely, faith alone cannot reliably negotiate reality, either, as is clear, for example, from those radical forms of fundamentalism which have sought to pursue violence or reject science in the name of religion.  It is through the interplay of faith and reason that God can open the riches of life to us.  An intellect at the service of a heart open to God, a consecrated intellect, is one which can perceive truth that includes but transcends that which we currently call "scientific truth."

Ultimately, then, I believe that our intellect is a servant of our heart. And only Jesus can change the heart and open our eyes to the truth. Naturalism, Yoga, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shamanism, Taoism, New Age, Secular Humanism, . . . you name it, I've tried it. There is wisdom in those teachings, I reject nothing that is good and true in them, and I have learned much from them.  However, I have come to believe that the fullness of truth that leads to eternal life with God and a personal and intimate relationship with Him lies only in Christ.

That is an offensive claim in today's relativistic culture.  But before you are offended by that, note that the statement, "There are no absolute truths," by its own admission, cannot be universally true. Hence, logic dictates that there must be absolute truths. As far as Jesus goes, there are not only good historical and logical reasons to believe that Jesus is who He said He is, but when one comes to know Him personally, one finds that He is faithful.  He truly seeks to give us an abundant and joyful life.  As St. Augustine has famously said, "We are made for You, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee."

Indeed, God Our Provider does not seek to oppress you and me with rules and regulations. Yet, He made you and me, and so knows better than we do what we need to be healthy and fulfilled. This is why He calls the Ten Commandments His "words of life" to us. He gives each of us free moral agency and does not force us to do anything that we do not want to do.  But, as He has pointed out in the Scriptures, sin carries with it unpleasant consequences, among which are unhappiness, hurt, lonliness, death, destruction, and eternal separation from all that is good.  We have all sinned, for none of us consistently lives up to even our own personal ideas of what is good, let alone the holy and perfect way of God.  But even more important to God is not whether we can live our lives flawlessly (we can't), but whether we are willing to submit to Him as the leader of our lives.  That is, all mistakes aside, do you even care what God has to say about how to live your life, or do you reject Him out of hand and do what is right in your own eyes?  Or do you remake Him in your own image so that you can pretend that you have His stamp of approval on your life?

It is in our sinful nature to want to do what is right in our own eyes rather than yield to God. It says in Romans that we are slaves to sin, that we are addicted to sin, and when I look my initial reaction and that of others to the message of Jesus, I find that an apt analogy. When a loved one seeks to save an addict from a self-destructive lifestyle, the addict usually reacts like this: "I'm all right, I choose to behave this way because it makes me happy, how would you know what is best for me, so just leave me alone and let me live my own life." The reaction is often similar to God's message. We must first realize that we are addicted to sin.  We have lost our freedom to say, "no" in so many ways.