I see 3 choices to make concerning beliefs. 1) There is a god and it is the God of the Judeo Christian faiths 2) There is a god but is is not the God of the Judeo Christian faiths 3) There is no god. Relating to number one, if there is a god, and it is the Holy Trinity, then obviously being a Christian is the way to go. This Christian God appears to have gone to a lot of effort to communicate with mankind through the Bible and the traditions of His Church. Relating to number 2, if there is a god,but it is not the Trinity, then really it is anyone's guess which religion to follow. At least you took a shot at a religion even if you chose the wrong one. You can't win if you don't play. And lastly, if there is no god, then who really cares because there was no ultimate point to life anyway. You end up dead under the ground regardless of what you believed in.
Now, in order to humor the Atheist, lets look at this logically without distinguishing The Trinity from other gods. To set God aside as His own category is a sign of faith which the atheist may not want to acknowledge. So, if we break this down to believing in a higher power versus being an atheist it is still illogical to be an atheist. It is like watching a race between two horses. One horse, the atheist bet, will receive no prize if it wins. The other horse, faith, cashes out with prize money if it wins. Why you would bet on the horse that has no reward even if it wins? It is illogical. Even a child would know to bet on the horse which has a chance of prize money (even if you don't think it has as good of a chance of winning). If the horse of faith looses you have nothing, the same as if you had bet on the atheist horse. Once again, it just seems illogical to not believe in anything.
But caring about going to Heaven is very infantile in one's faith. It is the very beginning and hopefully quickly grown out of. Being a Christian because you want to go to Heaven is like doing your chores so that your parents will let you go out with your friends. As faith grows you should obey God because you love Him, He is your Father, not because you are seeking a reward.
Living a life of faith is it's own reward anyways. If Jesus was not God, then He was still the wisest and most insightful man to have ever lived. I have been living as a Christian for many years now, making decisions based on my faith. I can easily say that I chose my husband, my life's work, planned my family, and arrange my daily routine around my faith. And if I get to the end of my life and there is nothing past today, if we are just animals, then I will still be happy with the choices I made because of my silly pointless faith. There is nothing to loose by believing that an all powerful God loves you so much that He willingly died for you. There is nothing to loose by believing that all people are loved by God and should be treated as you yourself would wish to be treated. There is nothing to loose by treating your children as the greatest gift anyone could receive.
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We are all born wanting to believe in something. Look at children who are so willing to believe in Santa, fairies, mermaids.... we are all born hoping that there is something bigger than us. As Christians we believe that this is the hole God puts in our heart, a longing that can only be filled by Him. And I don't think that this hole goes away for Atheists but some pain in their life stops them from finding the answer to their longing. And when you can find that pain and let God take it away, you will see clearly that being Atheist does not make any sense. I don't regret a day of my life. I live everyday with a purpose that is so much bigger than myself or my happiness. If every Church was burned to the ground and every Bible destroyed, if ISIS beheaded me and all my family, still no one could take my faith away. And I would be joyful to have not lived my life believing in nothing.
This Friday, Good Friday, we will celebrate that Jesus died on the cross so that we may all go to Heaven despite our sinfulness. Jesus died for Atheists the same as Christians. And I pray for all the Atheists, especially those in my family, that you will replace your belief in nothing with a belief that God loves you more than you can understand. I welcome comments from any Atheist who can give me a reason why their beliefs are logical.
Hi Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteSo I'll bite. To quickly summarize your points:
1. We are all going to die, so why not believe that there will be something after death
2. Living your Christian beliefs makes your life better and makes you happier
3. We all want to be a part of something bigger and that part of something bigger is the Christian God.
For the first point you use a metaphor of race horses, that in the end one horse wins a prize and one horse loses. The question I have though is how do those horses get to the finish line? For too much of human history and too many people alive today betting on the horse that wins means you have to live under someone else's rules (mostly straight white older men in America) and aren't allowed to follow your own conscience. As long as you follow these rules set by someone else you don't have to examine your own actions and beliefs and how your life affects the world around you because in the end the earthly world doesn't matter only the after life does. You can find examples of this for pretty much any religion. Finally, on top of all that you can't just let the other horse run their race as they see fit, you either have to convert them to your way of seeing things or send them to the glue factory early. Its for these reasons that I choose a third way, of not betting on a single horse at all but just trying to live a life that when I die, no matter what happens after death, that I can look back and be happy that I've lived my life to the fullest.
Which brings us to your second point, that living your Christian beliefs makes your life more full and better. Which I think is great. In the end we're both trying to live the best lives we can and I have no problem if your Christian beliefs make you happier. They are not my beliefs and don't work for me but as long as we can focus more on what brings us together and our common goals we should get along just fine!
For your final point, that we all want to believe in something bigger and that is the Christian God I agree with half that statement. I do believe that humans need to see themselves as part of something bigger to be happy and live full lives. Not only my own life bears this out but psychological and sociological studies have also attested to this. I don't believe it has to be the Christian God though. Or any deity or religion for that matter. What gets me out of bed in the morning and feeling like I'm a part of something larger is my desire to make the world a better place for my fellow humans currently living and those who will come after me. I don't need to believe or not believe in any religion for that.
So to sum things up, I believe that the best way to live a full, happy life is to strive to make the world a better place both presently and for those that come after me and that betting on any specific version of what happens after we die makes it too easy to be distracted from living.
Hope you've enjoyed this!
Chris
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAlthough your comment does not give a logical reason to BE atheist, but rather a criticism of my reasons not to be atheist, I will still respond and welcome my brother Christoper to this lively exercise in logic! So first, you completely skipped over my first argument...but I blame that to the adorable picture of Lucy which may have caused you to overlook the text. Secondly,I have learned my lesson from you and my friend Steve that the image of a horse race is far too whimsical and easily misconstrued to be used in any sort of logic exercise! I will avoid horse race imagery from here after. But since you gave no promptings with your statement I will reply to some of the things you said. First, I was frankly appalled at your statement that the rules we follow in society we made mostly by "straight, white, older men in America". Are you referring to the founding fathers? . If you are referring to Christianity then you are way off base. First, Christian culture was established mostly by a Middle Eastern man, not white, named Jesus Christ. Yes, as culture developed it was highly influence by Christians. You can thank Christianity for many advancements in science, the university system, modern agriculture, many advancements that lead to the industrial revolution, the preservation of ancient texts and the view of the equal dignity of all men and women of all races. Christianity was not developed by "straight, white men in America". Christianity has always welcomed the influence of wise and holy women and many of the doctors of the Church are women. Also, I find it to be an overreaching assumption that holy leaders in the church could not have been homosexual. All priests and holy men and women of the church are required to live chaste lives so there is no way for you or I to know if they had homosexual desires or not, because they did not act on them. I firmly believe that homosexuals have just as much opportunity to be holy as heterosexuals. Perhaps the feelings of homosexuality are even meant to be a clear sign that the vocation of marriage should not be pursued rather than an excuse to stop believing in God. It was clear by several of your statements that you view theists as non-thinkers who only care about their religion and themselves but I am sure that this is to give you comfort in your decision not to believe and am not going to take that personally. Now, in the interest of length I will jump to the end of your comment in which you state, "What gets me out of bed in the morning and feeling like I'm a part of something larger is my desire to make the world a better place for my fellow humans currently living and those who will come after me." Now for anyone who doesn't know you this would sound like a bunch of baloney. How many people get out of bed every morning just wanting to make the world a better place, but, for you my brother, I believe it. You have always exuded a brightness and gentleness which only compounds my pain over your loss of God. I believe He had plans for your life that were much bigger than anyone else I know. And I believe you when you say that you seek each day to make the world a better place. But then there are the rest of us, those who need help to be good people. Maybe people who need God are weaker than you but that does not make God not exist just because we need Him.
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