The Rabbit Room

“where belief comes from when it doesn’t have an agenda”

I saw this interview a few months ago. (Come to think of it I’ve probably read every interview with Paul that’s out there.) I also saw a different interview (wish I could place it now) where he said he believed in God but wasn’t religious, or something to that effect. The interviewer asked “What’s the difference?” He then gave some answer about not wanting to be tied to one religion or the other, wanting essentially to believe what he felt like without having anyone “tell him what to do.”

And yet the very essence of Christianity is surrender. Jesus calls us to believe in one way, one truth and one life, and give him full lordship. As long as Simon wants to keep his own soul, he cannot have eternal life.

Now I do think it’s interesting that he’s writing these things and asking these questions, but I can’t help wondering if it’s really going to lead anywhere for him. Much of what he says sounds rather eastern—the bit about not being bothered by not having answers for example, very eastern. In fact I saw a Richard Feynman interview that sounded strikingly similar. The problem is that it SHOULD bother people like that not to know. He’s casually dipping into all this, playing with it, when he should be plunging headlong into this quest.

Simon, of course, is famous for being understated and low-key, which is actually one of his major strengths as an artist. So the idea of him plunging into anything might seem amusing. But he’s capable of deep feeling, and his instincts are telling him that there’s something out there that’s beyond him. Here at the end of his life he can’t afford to waste a moment.

I would love to have been a fly on the wall listening to his conversation with Stott. I don’t know which “illogical” concerns he brought up, but I do know a lot about apologetics and skeptical attacks on Christianity so I could probably make some guesses. It may be that he asked some questions for which it’s impossible to give a full, complete, satisfying answer. However, I also don’t agree with the idea that we have to check our brains at the door when we become Christians. It’s possible to find God through many different avenues. Some are given revelation, others believe in child-like innocence, and others come to him by piecing together the clues that He has left us in science, history and archaeology. But all lead to the same answer. The question is, who is willing to follow the argument as far as it leads? Many people are not.

Didn’t Dylan actually convert to Christianity at one point? I know he kind of “moved on” later, but he did seem quite serious about it for a while there.

I wonder what he would say about this quote from C.S.Lewis

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. … Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.”[5]

Dan, awesome Lewis quote, which really encapsulates what I wanted to say.

Russ, I love how Lewis gets to the point. There is a sense of urgency here.
Lewis was a man who cared about truth. I think feelings and “whatever works for me” has replaced truth in our culture.

Seeking and searching is good but I think we have lost the a sense of urgency. As far as the importance of truth still being important I think this verse still rings true.

John 14:6

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

I hope Paul sees the truth sooner than later.

I like the idea that his spirituality is not intentional. Like breathing, shouldn’t it be natural?

If we were unfallen beings, then “natural” spirituality would be enough.

Before being saved I was a HUGE Simon & Garfunkel fan. When I got saved (and I know this may sound silly) I hoped Paul Simon would get saved. I thought, “Wow, would I like to see his talent used for God.”

In the PBS interview above he talks about being a speck of dust here for an instant. I like that. I feel that way. While we are eternal children of God, with the opportunity to see God do amazing things through us, in the course of earth’s history we are tiny.

I still hope Paul Simon will be able one day to quote C.S. Lewis’ remark from above and agree with it, but I’m glad to see he’s moving in that direction. When I accepted Jesus as Lord it did not happen like a flash of lightening. I was struck by something unexpected in my life and for some weeks tried to understand it by reading and studying. The conclusion I came to was that Jesus was Lord. When I truly decided, “This I believe,” my life changed radically, but there was a period where I was searching for the truth.

Paul Simon’s journey is much longer than mine. It’s troubling that he has not had that “This I believe” moment where he would naturally agree with C.S. Lewis but I still hope he will.