If I doubted my faith, it wouldn’t be due to scientific evidence or philosophical reasoning. The most compelling arguments against my faith are the practical ones, the arguments based on things that can be observed rather than those that can be reasoned.
Christianity is a last resort for desperate people. Most high-profile conversions, like Brian Welch from Korn a few years ago, are due to a person reaching the end of his rope. Alcoholics Anonymous uses a belief in God as a starting point for overcoming an addiction. And many who are terminally ill will turn to religion for the few months they have left. People use the idea of God as a psychological crutch because they are weak and they need something to help them cope with the darker side of life.
Christianity is not rational. It is an unnecessary cure for a fabricated disease. Sin can easily be explained in purely natural terms as our survival instinct. Animals are greedy, promiscuous and even murderous, and we don’t call it sin. We don’t really need to be “saved” from anything – we just need to abandon the concept of sin and quit feeling bad about what we do.
The Bible isn’t very distinctive from a literary standpoint. In the Old Testament, the poetry is often dull, the prophecies incoherent, and the narrative awkward. Parts of it are wonderful, but maybe 75% of it is skippable. If God wrote a book, couldn’t he have done a better job?
The Christian view of the world is too narrow. Christians set up camp on a hill overlooking a valley; the intellectual elite—scholars, leaders and artists—are always climbing higher up the mountain, and from that vantage point they can see that there is much more to the world than that valley. To them, the Christian worldview is something to be passed through, not stopped at. In other words: those who are inside the box of religion are afraid to go outside, but those who make it outside never want to go back in.
I am not swayed by persuasive words and complex theories, but these arguments challenge me. There’s no more compelling case than the one that can be shown rather than told.
From the initial observation of it, you are in desperate need of a religious tract.
This is an honest and challenging post; awaiting its right parenthesis. Everyone inside and outside churches should read this. They should meditate on these risky conversations. We should have a faith that is challengeable and is sometimes doubtable instead of believing the lie that our good behaviour will count for faith in the end.
As I work, walk and live in the world I am challenged by unspoken apathy’s, masked self-reliance, and always….tender life-stories that make me wish for specific answers for each individual. However, knowing that specific answers aren’t “The Answer”, I have come around to my life lived, the Holy Spirit working and a whole bunch of watch-and-see-what-happens-next-faith. Thank you for a *part one*, Kevin. I am looking forward to more installments.
Heretic.
Just kidding. Great post man. I know exactly what you mean. To be honest, even if scientific theories that purport to be contrary to Scripture were proven to be incontrovertibly true, I feel like we’d face a brief crisis of faith and then find some way to reconcile the two. Either that or say that science is a lie, which believers have done in the past. Those objections you gave I think hit regular people the hardest.
Really great post man. I hope you don’t mind but I’m going to throw up a link to you over on my blog. If you want to check it out you can find it roundabout here: http://kindakitschy.blogspot.com
It’s a humorous blog and a little irreverent at times, so be thou forewarned.