A lead actor in the film “Second Hand Lions” states in a portion of his “What Every Boy Needs to Know About Being A Man” speech: Sometimes the things which may or may not be true are the things that a man needs to believe in the most: that everyone is basically good, that good always wins over evil, and that love, true love, never dies.

Religion is the set of guidelines for the practical application of one’s spirituality, or faith. Faith is what ascribes meaning to knowledge. Therefore religion is that act of knowing, understanding it within a context of the meaning of the existence of all things, and acting upon it. If these actions are profitable for the advancement of civilization and the evolution of our species, some might argue that it is good to hold to religious belief regardless of our ability to prove its objective truth.

It is true that to believe in such things causes people to be better citizens. But it is also true that the Apostle Paul states that if Christ did not rise from the dead, then we [Christians] are to be pitied above all else. Doesn’t belief assume that the one who believes it is convinced that it is absolutely true? Even those who state that you cannot ever know if there is a God, believe that this statement is true.

Humans are not objective; they are helplessly subjective beings, so to some extent it can be stated that faith is self-actualizing; that to believe something causes it to be true in the life of a believer pragmatically speaking. And here is the crux: If one is to justify belief pragmatically, then one is condemned to a pragmatic religion.

However, personal, subjective inquiry into the nature of God and the purpose of humanity demands to know who we are, not just how we interact. Isn’t there something terribly wrong with holding to a belief only because it causes you to be a better person? Doesn’t our quest for purpose and meaning in life depend on our identity? If this is the case, wouldn’t the idea that we are deceiving ourselves for the sake of a better life fly in the face of what we are seeking to do: validate ourselves?

The truth is that who we are is a fallen, sinful, human race. This accounts for our desire to be better, to act better, to be fulfilled, because obviously we are hugely lacking if we have all these desires! But in Christ, we are what he is. We can recognize our guilt, our failures, our relational problems, our dysfunctional families, our frustrations, anger, sadness, and grief.

All those things are realities, and the truth which transcends it all is no less real: we are the body of Christ. The point of this statement is not so much to make us better people, but to make us a people to begin with! We were not a people, community, or good, we only were trying to pretend and make ourselves feel like we had some meaning on our own. But Jesus, the real Jesus who lived on this earth and really died and really rose again made us a people for him. He has washed us with his own goodness, perfection. He gives it to us, and that is our true identity. That is the only thing worth believing, because it is true; all else is despair.