How do I know it's real?

“I won’t believe it’s real unless I can see it with my eyes and touch it with my hands.” And yet, you have this deeper sense that there’s something more than just the physical.

Maybe that’s where you find yourself on this journey of the soul. You want to believe there is a spiritual dimension to life. Perhaps you’re even contemplating the existence of God and wondering if faith could be for you, even though it’s always felt impossible for you to access.

But can you know for sure whether or not something is really true? You tell yourself that following the facts is more certain than following your feelings. After all, you’re a very logical and rational person.

I saw myself that way, too. Until a friend once challenged me and said, “Think about three or four major decisions you’ve made in your life, like who to marry, what career to pursue, and where to live. Would you say those choices were sparked initially by logic, or by emotions?” I wanted to believe these decisions were completely rational, but as I reflected, I realised they each were set into motion by what I can only describe as a gut feeling. The logic followed later.

What about you? I wonder how you would answer my friend as you consider the catalyst behind the choices you’ve made.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying we should throw logic out the window. And let’s not scrap science either. The scientific method - initially fueled by people who believed the universe was designed by Someone in an orderly and rational way that made it knowable - has taken centre stage for the past couple hundred years. And all of our observing, hypothesising, measuring, and repeating has enabled us to understand so much more about how the world works. But I wonder if we’ve placed science on too high a pedestal when there are additional ways of knowing what’s true.

Not all things that are real can be measured and repeated in the classroom or laboratory.

Recorded history based on eyewitness accounts and personal testimony has much to tell us about the what, why, and how of the past and present. Philosophy has its place in the knowledge market, and personal experience does too.

That’s good news. Because science has its limits. It can tell us what humans are made of, but it can’t answer why we’re here. It can describe the forces that flung physical matter into space, but not how the original particle appeared in the first place. As far as I know, nobody was there to record it, and we cannot repeat it. That means, by definition, our true origins are still a matter of faith.

So if ‘science’ can’t prove the existence of the spiritual realm or the presence of the soul, can you still believe? Yes, but I think you will have to find it down a different path. It doesn’t go against science. It’s just… un-scientific. (Stay with me here for a second. That word simply means ‘not having to do with the field of science!’)

I can inform you that water is made up of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. I can explain that you will float when you plunge into water if your body displaces a greater weight of water than its own weight. I can also tell you that billions of people have tried this and not only survived, but enjoyed it!

But you really won’t know for sure if it’s true, and you’ll never experience the exhilaration of swimming in the sea, unless you jump in.

So I want to encourage you to take a step. Not a leap at this point. Would you try dipping your toe in? Most of us start by hoping this can all be true - that there is a spiritual realm, that we have a soul, that there is a God who is greater and good - with a healthy amount of scepticism. So what about trusting your ‘gut’? True, it’s not always reliable on its own, but it can point us in a direction.

How about following a few little clues? The sense that there must be something more. The desire to connect with someone bigger. The hope that finding peace and purpose is possible. The longing for the world to be good and people to be kind despite being told we’re here because the strongest survived. I believe that embracing your core identity as a physical and spiritual being will help you make sense out of the world around you and the longings inside you. And, by the way, I think it will stand up to science, too.

But don’t take my word for it. Now it’s over to you. Only you can decide whether or not you will jump on in.