by Sharnise Streaty

Created on: December 03, 2008

The error of assuming that a person's belief is only head knowledge is ignorance. Knowledge is thinking that smoking cigarettes is good for your health because that's what everyone teaches as was thought in the 1950s, for instance. Was that true? Now we know through research and time that smoking cigarettes can lead to lung and heart disease, throat and mouth cancers, and an untimely death. Thus, the knowledge changed from one end of the spectrum to the other.

But knowledge is not the same as belief. Knowledge rules the realm of the mind, belief rules the realm of the heart. We change our minds everyday, but the heart is steady. Why does a man loves a woman that he knows would never make the cover of Vogue no matter how dolled up she was, can't cook well, doesn't clean like his mother, and is always late whereever she goes? Because it's not what she does or how she appears on the outside that ultimately matters to him. If they've been married for 20 years, then there are a lot of things he knows about her. What if he only focused on 20 years of every bad thing she ever did? He would probably come to the logical conclusion that she was a horrible wife and divorce her. But that's not very fair to her, is it? After all, if we looked back over the past 20 years of my life (or anyone's for that matter) and only focused on my mistakes, stupidities, and down right wrong actions and thoughts, I'd be a terrible, horrible person too. So why would the man stay with the woman for 20 years? What would make him continue their relationship for the next 20 years? His knowledge of her? No. Mere knowledge is not enough to make 40 years of matrimony. It is his belief, his heart, his faith in her and all the wonderful things she does. He believes in her. She believes in him. They believe in their relationship and that belief causes them to work together to become better for themselves and their community.

What does marriage have to do with Zeitgeist and Christians? Everything. What people who are anti-religious fail realize is that a true Christian (I'm not talking about pew warmers or church climbers) does not merely know in their heads, they believe in their hearts. Just like telling a dedicated man that his wife can't cook as a way to get him to leave her won't work, neither will telling a Christian that there is fault in their church make them turn from God.

Before I go further, let me clarify what I will mean by a Christian and the church. A Christian is a person who believes

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