Freethinking In Christ

"Few people are worthy to believe in nothing."

- Jean Rostand

Behold, dear reader, the pinnacle of cosmic arrogance. Jean Rostand was a French biologist and philosopher, born in 1894, and died in 1977. I have not read any of Rostand's work outside of this quote, so I cannot judge it in its context, but it is pretty hard to imagine that there are very many possible contexts in which this quote manages to sound any better. As it is, we have here the ultimate representation of human arrogance. To believe - especially as a scientist! - that it is the privileged few who come to the idea that there is nothing in the universe bigger, stronger, smarter, holier than the self is self-worship on an absolutely impressive scale. To believe that anyone who believes in anything larger than themselves is not "worthy" of believing in nothing... That is, quite simply, sad.

According to Rostand, the ultimate goal - the height of man - is to realize that we are alone in the universe. According to Rostand, it is the elite few, the chosen, the especially wise, who will realize that life has no meaning, and that our existence is merely an accident.

I wonder how many atheists really think out the fullest extension of the idea that the universe as we know it - including all life on earth - just "happened." The more I look at it, the more absurd it looks. Now, I make no secret about the fact that I don't believe in a literal 6-day creation of the world. But I do firmly believe that God created everything. I do believe that God created the universe, and therefore everything in it comes, at least by extension if not direct creation, from God.

The thing about it is that if man is an accident, then everything man has ever accomplished is an accident. If there is no higher power or reason providing the sparks of intelligence and creativity in humanity, then everything we've ever come up with is mere happenstance, akin to the infinite number of monkeys on an infinite number of keyboards eventually banging out Hamlet.

If life is the result of a mere chain of collisions of atoms, then Hamlet, for instance, really was nothing but an accident. If humanity is the product of random chance, then Botticelli's The Birth of Venus is just a remarkable coincidence. If mankind is nothing more than the product of a 1-in-1,000,000,000,000,000,000 chance, then that means The Allman Brothers Band At Fillmore East was mere chance, and I personally refuse to believe that "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" doesn't carry at least some hint of the divine.

See, it just makes more sense to me that there would be a Creator. There is too much amazing stuff in Creation for there to not be a Creator.

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use..."

- Galileo Galilei

This is why the terms "freethought" and "freethinker" irk me. The idea is that "freethought" is based entirely on logic, reason, and science, and that religious beliefs are somehow the antithesis of all "freethought."

I personally find that to be an absolutely ludicrous belief.

"Some hold the undemonstrable dogma of the existence of God; some the equally undemonstrable dogma of the existence of the man next door."

- G.K. Chesterton

It absolutely boggles my mind that, at least in the conversations I've had, the atheist rejection of God seems to be inextricably linked to the non-tangibility of God. The argument typically comes as this: "I can't physically experience God through any of my personal senses, so God, therefore, cannot be real."

"Since only what is material is perceptible, knowable, nothing is known of the existence of God."

- Karl Marx

What absolutely blows my mind, however, is that it is typically the same people who reject God based on their lack of tangible experience who will readily embrace the ideas of non-theistic abiogenesis (life appearing from the inanimate primordial soup), or the Super String Theory, or any number of other scientific ideas that are every bit as impossible to prove as the existence or non-existence of God, but there is a rabid, militant defense for these things simply because they have the stamp of approval from SCIENCE! All-knowing, all-powerful, all-trustworthy, infallible SCIENCE!

Let me make this point very clear right now: I'm not saying that science is an inherently anti-God field, nor am I saying that good Christians can't follow scientific thought, nor am I saying that science and religion are incompatible worldviews. What I am saying, however, is that there are atheists out there in the world who will mock me and my belief in something I cannot see or touch, but believe every bit as strongly in something they cannot see or touch, either, and will often times defend that belief with the same zeal and passion that I hold in my defense of the Cross.

The only difference is that their belief prescribes no specific moral conduct.

"Well, I tell you, if I have been wrong in my agnosticism, when I die I'll walk up to God in a manly way and say, Sir, I made an honest mistake."

- Henry Louis Mencken

In the discussions I have had with the atheists who were every bit as eager and hopeful to see me denounce religion as I am to see them embrace Christ, one specific point has consistently arisen that I find to be an absolutely absurd - and I mean positively just downright silly - argument against Christianity, and that is the idea that we Christians are inherently flawed in our thinking because we believe in something we cannot see.

What I don't understand is how that's meant to be a convincing argument, since that is, in fact, one of the central points of the Christian faith, straight from the mouth of Jesus.

Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!"

But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."

Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

- John 20:24-29, emphasis added

"If the book the Bible and my brain are both the work of the same Infinite God, whose fault is it that the book and my brain do not agree?"

- Robert Green Ingersoll

Faith is not the absence of reason. Faith is not the suppression of reason. Faith is the step above reason.

My faith in God is not based on what my parents told me. My belief in Jesus is not based on the stories I heard as a child in church. My Christianity is not merely the product of my upbringing. I am thankful that I was raised in a Christian home, that I was raised in a church-going family, that I was taught the Bible from a young age, but that is not what holds me to my faith, trust me. I've had too many late nights all alone in my head, rejecting the idea of a God, loving or vengeful or merely apathetic, to be able to honestly say that the path of my childhood is the only reason I'm a Christian today. I have come to know God in Christ through the Spirit, and my faith is based on my reasoning, and my reasoning is based on my experience. I have lived a life of sin and I have lived a life of righteousness. I have found the life of righteousness to be better.

I cannot touch His scars, but I can - and do - feel and know His presence.

Napoleon Bonaparte, during his exile on St. Helena, was in a discussion with Charles Tristan, Marquis de Montholon, about Christ. He asked the marquis, "Can you tell me who Jesus Christ was?" The count declined to respond, at which point Napoleon answered:

"Well then, I will tell you. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded great empires; but upon what did these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions will die for Him... I think I understand something of human nature; and I tell you, all these were men, and I am a man; none else is like Him: Jesus Christ was more than a man... I have inspired multitudes with such an enthusiastic devotion that they would have died for me... but to do this it was necessary that I should be visibly present with the electric influence of my looks, my words, of my voice. When I saw men and spoke to them, I lightened up the flame of self-devotion in their hearts... Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man toward the unseen, that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space. Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years, Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult to satisfy; He asks for that which a philosopher may often seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to Himself. He demands it unconditionally; and forthwith His demand is granted. Wonderful! In defiance of time and space, the soul of man, with all its powers and faculties, becomes an annexation to the empire of Christ. All who sincerely believe in Him, experience that remarkable, supernatural love toward Him. This phenomenon is unaccountable; it is altogether beyond the scope of man's creative powers. Time, the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish this sacred flame; time can neither exhaust its strength nor put a limit to its range. This is it, which strikes me most; I have often thought of it. This it is which proves to me quite convincingly the Divinity of Jesus Christ."

If the sole basis for the acceptance or rejection of God is to be tangible experience, then I have no choice but to embrace God with all that I am and have, because I have experienced things that have made it clear to me, in ways that I cannot even begin to compare to anything else in this world, that there is a God, that He has a direct interest in my life, and that He is working in me so that I may do His work in the world.

This is just a prologue to something that has been on my mind for a while now. My next few posts - I would say at least the next three - are going to be dealing, in at least some way, with issues of faith, especially in a sense of apologetics. I don't claim to have all the answers. I don't even want to claim to have ANY of the answers. I have my faith, I have my Bible, and I have - most importantly - the Holy Spirit. I want to be better "prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks [me] to give the reason for the hope that [I] have" (I Peter 3:15), and I hope that this can help prepare you, as well.

If there was ever a time when I wanted your input, your feedback, your questions, your comments... Now is the time! This isn't just for me, and this isn't just for you. This is for the Kingdom of God. This is for all of us. This is for the glory of Christ, and for the Hope and Faith we have in Him.

May God bless each one of us as we strive to show this sick, lost, and hurting world His Face by showing His Love. In Christ's Name, Amen.