1. False perceptions of God. The image that comes to mind when we hear the word “God” is important. Do you picture someone who never takes you seriously and laughs at everything you say? Someone criticizing your every move? A faceless, unknowable being, too distant to care?
You would be surprised at how much of those images can be based on the authority figures in our own lives. For instance, a teenage girl that grew up with a mom that said "I love you" while never allowing her to make her own decisions might imagine God to be controlling.
Another source of these false perceptions can be how God has been presented to us. Even people with good and loving role models can hear such unpleasant things about God that they would rather not believe in Him. Such common images are the angry old man shaking his big finger at you, forbidding everything fun, or the angry judge counting your sins. Bible passages and stories taken out of their cultural, historic, and contextual background can also have this effect. It is no wonder then that so many people would rather not believe in such a God.
Another source of these false perceptions can be how God has been presented to us. Even people with good and loving role models can hear such unpleasant things about God that they would rather not believe in Him. Such common images are the angry old man shaking his big finger at you, forbidding everything fun, or the angry judge counting your sins. Bible passages and stories taken out of their cultural, historic, and contextual background can also have this effect. It is no wonder then that so many people would rather not believe in such a God.
I am not suggesting that we should all create our own version of God; he has a distinct character that we can get to know. What I am suggesting is that perhaps the misconceptions holding you back from God are just that - misconceptions. I believe that the best way to understand God’s nature is to look at Jesus. He is the greatest revelation of God. He Himself said that whoever sees Him sees the Father (John 14:9). I believe that one of the reasons Jesus came to this earth was so that we could see and understand God as much as our limitations allow. There will always be so many things we cannot understand about Him, but if all we ever do is look at the cross, we will know all that we need to know. I invite you to take a journey and do just that through this song by Godfrey Birtill called When I Look at the Blood. After getting to know Jesus and discovering that He is someone you can fully trust, the question of salvation simply becomes, as Brad Jersak puts it, "Will you surrender yourself to the care of this God?"
2. Negative experiences with Christians. If you had a bad customer experience at any given company, you would probably never go there again. Your opinion of the company as a whole would have been tainted. Whether the employee you met had been hired the day before or since the beginning, it wouldn’t matter; he was a representative of the company, your direct interaction with it, and he failed.
The CEO of the Christians is strange in that he doesn't fire his "employees" when they screw up. He gives them another chance over and over again to grow and get better. He meets with them one-on-one and coaches them. He helps them fully grasp the vision of the company and their role in it. Even when the employees often do more harm than good and ruin His reputation, their growth and perfection is more important to Him.
I am truly sorry if you have ever been hurt, judged or neglected by Christians. There is no excuse for it. But one truth that is often forgotten about Christians is that they are humans. As Jefferson Bethke put it in his spoken word poem, the church is "not a museum for good people, it's a hospital for the broken." Some Christians, out of genuine concern for those around them, try to scare people into repentance. Others use the Bible as a thumping tool in order to mask their own feelings of inadequacy. Still, others who I don’t consider Christians, neither care about Christ nor what he says: the Bible or speaking in God’s name happens to be the strongest tool at their disposal to get their plans ahead. In this whirlpool of people, it can seem like a daunting task to detect the true followers of Christ, but I have discovered that a true Christian is more often than not coming from a good place and, despite all their faults and failed attempts to do the right thing, you will see the love and care of Jesus looking out from their eyes.
Being a Christian implies that as your relationship with Jesus grows, you become more and more like Him and the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23 (love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control) becomes more and more apparent in you. But it is a journey and some are farther along on it than others. I only know of one human that truthfully represented God and I suggest looking at him, while the rest of us Christians stumble along: Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
3. Not wanting to give up certain things. I once asked one of my friends of many years why he was an atheist. I was surprised at how honestly he answered: "Because if I believe in God, I can't live the way I want to." So many people, even some Christians, think that Christianity is about all the things you have to "give up." In C.S. Lewis’s satirical masterpiece The Screwtape Letters (1941), an older and more experienced demon is writing to his apprentice:
But why are accomplishments and praise so important in the first place? I talk more about this in my article Humility, but I think it's because in our world, our worth is measured by them. We feel so much more important when people think we are brave, admire our work of art, praise us for our leadership skills or extremely kind heart. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of those things; the problem arises when we think that they are our lifeline and, without them, we are nothing.
The redeeming quality of humility is, once again, perfectly described by C.S. Lewis (1941) in The Screwtape Letters:
5. Desire for Independence. Not wanting to depend on any higher authority can have so many reasons. Some may have been abused and controlled by authority figures in their life. Maybe they have been let down and do not want to rely on anyone but themselves. Or maybe they don't want to be accountable to anyone for the things they do.
I remember for a long time I struggled with the concept of God being an authority in my life. I saw Him as my friend and He didn't mind that, but he also wanted me to discover what authority and obedience meant in His world. You see, He is not an authority figure that will take advantage or control. He is not someone that will promise to do something and not do it, or forget to provide for our needs. He taught me a whole different kind of authority, one I wanted to depend on.
No matter how "grown up" we get, there will always be things that we don't know, can't do, and need help with. As my trust towards God grew, I knew that if He told me to do or not to do something, I could trust him and listen to Him. Completely trusting someone means that I am willing to do whatever they say even if I don't understand it, because I know that they would never say anything that would harm me. It also means that I don’t worry about what I will eat, drink or wear, because He has promised to take care of me (Matthew 6:25-34). The only way I have found to live in peace and freedom is to trust God with all the things that are out of my control - and the things that are.
6. Anger towards God. When we look at the world around us, we see wars, genocides, hurricanes, abuse, theft, jealousy, lies, poverty, injustice, and so much absence of good. In one way or another, we all have been victims of it. The question that arises is, "If God exists and if He is good, why doesn't He stop these things?" The simplest answer is that humanity chose to live independently of God. God did give humanity all the rules that, if followed, would prevent every bad thing that exists in this world. Like a loving parent, he will tell us not to touch the hot stove, but he will not tie us up to make sure we don't. But He is also not the type of parent that will leave us alone when we have burned ourselves or have been burned by someone else.
Terrible things happen and it is completely okay to cry out to God, "Where were you?" I don't have all the answers, but I know this: He was there. He was right there. Do you know who else asked that question to God? Jesus. On the cross. When he was being ridiculed and spat on and had been beaten and abused so much that he no longer looked human (Isaiah 52:14), he cried out to God, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"
One thing that even many Christians don't realize is the direct connection between those words and Psalm 22, written by Kind David 1000 years before Jesus was born. Somehow, David prophetically wrote all that Jesus would experience on the cross without realizing it. Though the psalm starts with the words "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" if you continue to verse 24, you will see that it says, "For He has not despised or detested the torment of the afflicted. He has not hidden His face from him, but has attended to his cry for help." So often, our suffering and sense of abandonment can block our view of God, but it doesn't mean that He is not there, holding our hand through it all, experiencing everything with us. “In all their suffering he also suffered, and he personally rescued them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years” (Isaiah 63:9).
God can also make bad circumstances work for our good. There is a novel called The Shack (2007) that dives deep into this topic of suffering and one of the quotes that comes to mind is something Papa God says: "Just because I work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies doesn't mean I orchestrate the tragedies. Don't ever assume that my using something means I caused it or that I need it to accomplish my purposes. That will only lead you to false notions about me." None of the evil things that exist in the world originate in God. Nonetheless, when we trust Him, He can make it so that it serves for our benefit in the long run.
A lady I know once said that, one day, when we see all of history laid out before our eyes from start to finish, we will see the goodness of God through and through. That once we understood everything there was to know, we wouldn't change a thing. It takes a lot of trust in God's goodness to be able to think this way, but once you get there, the view is amazing.
7. Guilt. I had a classmate that always spoke sarcastically about God and the church. I always wondered what kind of hurt lay underneath all that. I eventually worked up the courage to start a conversation with him. One day he admitted that he always feels God calling him to Himself, but that he can't bring himself to go to Him because of all the bad things he is doing. Among the things I had imagined that he was feeling underneath the surface, guilt was not it.
I tried my best at the time to explain grace and forgiveness to him. I should’ve also told him that there is no state in which God would ever reject him. None. Not only does he forgive us, but he understands the roots of all the bad things we are doing and wants to heal them. As someone who has struggled with guilt for half my life, I know how guilt can paralyze you, isolate you, make you believe that if people knew, they would be horrified and reject you. It reminds me of a passage from a song by Casting Crowns called Loving My Jesus:
Shame was never God's idea. As Brad Jersak points out, shame started in the Garden of Eden. "When Adam and Eve stumbled, the very first thing they felt was shame...and out of that shame came a God they had to hide from. When had He ever given them the idea that they needed to hide from God? The only thing you might be able to see in it is that He had given them a warning. The warning doesn't create a toxic image of God; it tells them that God loves them, that He's a good Father, that He cares about their well-being." He's the type of parent that wants you to run to Him when you disobey and hurt yourself. He wants you to go to Him so that He can help you take care of the consequences.
8. Belief that what you believe is irrelevant. A marking feature of our modern world is the idea that each person has to determine for themselves what is true and it is everyone else's job to accept it. Naturally, the conclusion is that, in the great scheme of things, it doesn't really matter what you believe in - or if you don't believe in anything at all, as long as it makes you feel good. I was once talking to a friend of mine about the power of prayer when she said, "If it helps you inspire yourself, sure, pray." I believe that this worldview has two driving-forces: the desire for tolerance and peace, and the lack of belief in absolute truth. I would like to respond to both.
2. Negative experiences with Christians. If you had a bad customer experience at any given company, you would probably never go there again. Your opinion of the company as a whole would have been tainted. Whether the employee you met had been hired the day before or since the beginning, it wouldn’t matter; he was a representative of the company, your direct interaction with it, and he failed.
The CEO of the Christians is strange in that he doesn't fire his "employees" when they screw up. He gives them another chance over and over again to grow and get better. He meets with them one-on-one and coaches them. He helps them fully grasp the vision of the company and their role in it. Even when the employees often do more harm than good and ruin His reputation, their growth and perfection is more important to Him.
I am truly sorry if you have ever been hurt, judged or neglected by Christians. There is no excuse for it. But one truth that is often forgotten about Christians is that they are humans. As Jefferson Bethke put it in his spoken word poem, the church is "not a museum for good people, it's a hospital for the broken." Some Christians, out of genuine concern for those around them, try to scare people into repentance. Others use the Bible as a thumping tool in order to mask their own feelings of inadequacy. Still, others who I don’t consider Christians, neither care about Christ nor what he says: the Bible or speaking in God’s name happens to be the strongest tool at their disposal to get their plans ahead. In this whirlpool of people, it can seem like a daunting task to detect the true followers of Christ, but I have discovered that a true Christian is more often than not coming from a good place and, despite all their faults and failed attempts to do the right thing, you will see the love and care of Jesus looking out from their eyes.
Being a Christian implies that as your relationship with Jesus grows, you become more and more like Him and the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23 (love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control) becomes more and more apparent in you. But it is a journey and some are farther along on it than others. I only know of one human that truthfully represented God and I suggest looking at him, while the rest of us Christians stumble along: Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
3. Not wanting to give up certain things. I once asked one of my friends of many years why he was an atheist. I was surprised at how honestly he answered: "Because if I believe in God, I can't live the way I want to." So many people, even some Christians, think that Christianity is about all the things you have to "give up." In C.S. Lewis’s satirical masterpiece The Screwtape Letters (1941), an older and more experienced demon is writing to his apprentice:
"You are much more likely to make your man a sound drunkard by pressing drink on him as an anodyne when he is dull and weary than by encouraging him to use it as a means of merriment among his friends when he is happy and expansive. Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy, normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy's ground. I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden." (p. 49)
Anything that God asks us to give up over the course of our life is not because it's too good and pleasurable, but because it's not. It's only a replica of the real thing, pretending to be as good. When the Apostle Paul says don’t get drunk on wine (note - he doesn't say don't enjoy the occasional drink with your friends with a nice meal; he says don't get drunk - very different things), he replaces it with something else: getting "drunk" on the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). That's because whatever comfort, freedom, or joy being drunk on wine promises to give is fake. But what the Holy Spirit offers is so much deeper, lasting, and genuine. A song that expresses for me that joy that overflows from the inside is one by Godfrey Birtill called The Wine is Alive.
Whether or not you believe in a Creator, just for a moment imagine that you do. At the risk of comparing humans to computers, I want to point out (and I'm sure you will agree) that the person who knows a computer best and how it's meant to be used is the person designing it. We - the customers - may choose to not read the manual or ignore its instructions, but it doesn't change the inherent structure of the computer, nor does it change the fact that we will be damaging the computer by misusing it. In the same way, I believe that God is our Creator. He designed us, he knows how we work, and he knows the consequence of every thing we do that we're not supposed to. In the same way that he created our bodies, he also created sex and every other good thing, and provided us with a manual to guide us in using it correctly and to its full benefit (for instance, that sex can only be enjoyed in its full quality within marriage). As in the case of the computer, we can ignore the manual, deny the consequences, and numb ourselves to the point of thinking there's no harm after all. But we can never change how we were designed nor the fact that by ignoring the manual, we are slowly going down a slope.
4. Pride. When Isaac Newton discovered the law of gravity, he marveled at the God who had created it. C.S. Lewis, after finding so much success as a writer, said that writing had felt more like taking a dictation. It is so much harder to rightfully take credit for things when there is someone who made it all possible in the first place. He created the universe and then gave us the brain and thirst for knowledge to explore it. He gave us the gift of writing and a mind that could conjure up ideas to write. I can understand why it is so tempting, then, to deny the existence of a God and be seen as god instead.But why are accomplishments and praise so important in the first place? I talk more about this in my article Humility, but I think it's because in our world, our worth is measured by them. We feel so much more important when people think we are brave, admire our work of art, praise us for our leadership skills or extremely kind heart. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of those things; the problem arises when we think that they are our lifeline and, without them, we are nothing.
The redeeming quality of humility is, once again, perfectly described by C.S. Lewis (1941) in The Screwtape Letters:
"[God] wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another. [God] wants him, in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favour that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbour's talents - or in a sunrise, an elephant, or a waterfall." (p. 73)Our accomplishments are a shaky foundation to build on and measure our worth by. The firmest foundation I have discovered is God’s unconditional love, because there is nothing I can do to lose it or change it.
5. Desire for Independence. Not wanting to depend on any higher authority can have so many reasons. Some may have been abused and controlled by authority figures in their life. Maybe they have been let down and do not want to rely on anyone but themselves. Or maybe they don't want to be accountable to anyone for the things they do.
I remember for a long time I struggled with the concept of God being an authority in my life. I saw Him as my friend and He didn't mind that, but he also wanted me to discover what authority and obedience meant in His world. You see, He is not an authority figure that will take advantage or control. He is not someone that will promise to do something and not do it, or forget to provide for our needs. He taught me a whole different kind of authority, one I wanted to depend on.
No matter how "grown up" we get, there will always be things that we don't know, can't do, and need help with. As my trust towards God grew, I knew that if He told me to do or not to do something, I could trust him and listen to Him. Completely trusting someone means that I am willing to do whatever they say even if I don't understand it, because I know that they would never say anything that would harm me. It also means that I don’t worry about what I will eat, drink or wear, because He has promised to take care of me (Matthew 6:25-34). The only way I have found to live in peace and freedom is to trust God with all the things that are out of my control - and the things that are.
6. Anger towards God. When we look at the world around us, we see wars, genocides, hurricanes, abuse, theft, jealousy, lies, poverty, injustice, and so much absence of good. In one way or another, we all have been victims of it. The question that arises is, "If God exists and if He is good, why doesn't He stop these things?" The simplest answer is that humanity chose to live independently of God. God did give humanity all the rules that, if followed, would prevent every bad thing that exists in this world. Like a loving parent, he will tell us not to touch the hot stove, but he will not tie us up to make sure we don't. But He is also not the type of parent that will leave us alone when we have burned ourselves or have been burned by someone else.
Terrible things happen and it is completely okay to cry out to God, "Where were you?" I don't have all the answers, but I know this: He was there. He was right there. Do you know who else asked that question to God? Jesus. On the cross. When he was being ridiculed and spat on and had been beaten and abused so much that he no longer looked human (Isaiah 52:14), he cried out to God, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"
One thing that even many Christians don't realize is the direct connection between those words and Psalm 22, written by Kind David 1000 years before Jesus was born. Somehow, David prophetically wrote all that Jesus would experience on the cross without realizing it. Though the psalm starts with the words "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" if you continue to verse 24, you will see that it says, "For He has not despised or detested the torment of the afflicted. He has not hidden His face from him, but has attended to his cry for help." So often, our suffering and sense of abandonment can block our view of God, but it doesn't mean that He is not there, holding our hand through it all, experiencing everything with us. “In all their suffering he also suffered, and he personally rescued them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years” (Isaiah 63:9).
God can also make bad circumstances work for our good. There is a novel called The Shack (2007) that dives deep into this topic of suffering and one of the quotes that comes to mind is something Papa God says: "Just because I work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies doesn't mean I orchestrate the tragedies. Don't ever assume that my using something means I caused it or that I need it to accomplish my purposes. That will only lead you to false notions about me." None of the evil things that exist in the world originate in God. Nonetheless, when we trust Him, He can make it so that it serves for our benefit in the long run.
A lady I know once said that, one day, when we see all of history laid out before our eyes from start to finish, we will see the goodness of God through and through. That once we understood everything there was to know, we wouldn't change a thing. It takes a lot of trust in God's goodness to be able to think this way, but once you get there, the view is amazing.
7. Guilt. I had a classmate that always spoke sarcastically about God and the church. I always wondered what kind of hurt lay underneath all that. I eventually worked up the courage to start a conversation with him. One day he admitted that he always feels God calling him to Himself, but that he can't bring himself to go to Him because of all the bad things he is doing. Among the things I had imagined that he was feeling underneath the surface, guilt was not it.
I tried my best at the time to explain grace and forgiveness to him. I should’ve also told him that there is no state in which God would ever reject him. None. Not only does he forgive us, but he understands the roots of all the bad things we are doing and wants to heal them. As someone who has struggled with guilt for half my life, I know how guilt can paralyze you, isolate you, make you believe that if people knew, they would be horrified and reject you. It reminds me of a passage from a song by Casting Crowns called Loving My Jesus:
Sin tries to make you hideJesus told the story of the prodigal son, because he wanted us to understand the Father's heart (Luke 15:11-32). Whether you are the older son or the younger, He will come after you as He did in the story. Take that first tiny, timid step towards Him and He will come running to you. You will feel so safe and loved in his arms that you will know that there is no sin too big for you to overcome together. And then one day, the chorus of that song will be your testimony:
Whispers that same old lie
Keep all your pain inside
'Cause no one will understand
Loving my Jesus,(Seriously, listen to the song.)
Showing my scars,
Telling my story of how mercy
Can meet you where you are.
Shame was never God's idea. As Brad Jersak points out, shame started in the Garden of Eden. "When Adam and Eve stumbled, the very first thing they felt was shame...and out of that shame came a God they had to hide from. When had He ever given them the idea that they needed to hide from God? The only thing you might be able to see in it is that He had given them a warning. The warning doesn't create a toxic image of God; it tells them that God loves them, that He's a good Father, that He cares about their well-being." He's the type of parent that wants you to run to Him when you disobey and hurt yourself. He wants you to go to Him so that He can help you take care of the consequences.
8. Belief that what you believe is irrelevant. A marking feature of our modern world is the idea that each person has to determine for themselves what is true and it is everyone else's job to accept it. Naturally, the conclusion is that, in the great scheme of things, it doesn't really matter what you believe in - or if you don't believe in anything at all, as long as it makes you feel good. I was once talking to a friend of mine about the power of prayer when she said, "If it helps you inspire yourself, sure, pray." I believe that this worldview has two driving-forces: the desire for tolerance and peace, and the lack of belief in absolute truth. I would like to respond to both.
Some people fear that adhering to any one religion would make them intolerant and proud. They argue that it is because of this kind of thinking that religion has started so many wars. I don't necessarily disagree, but I also know that having firm beliefs doesn't have to lead to intolerance. I have friends that are Hindu, athiest, agnostic, and Buddhist. I can completely disagree with their beliefs (as they do with mine) and still love them. I had an athiest friend with whom we decided not to discuss our beliefs anymore to avoid unnecessary tension and we went on being close friends for years, even before he shocked me one day with the revelation that he had become a Christian.
I do believe that loving someone means telling them the truth (or what you believe to be the truth, anyway). If you see someone walking towards a pit, the loving thing would not be to "respect" their belief that they are walking on a straight path, but to warn them of what you can see. If I have ever tried to convince people of my faith, it is because I believe it is for their good, not because I simply wanted to win the debate. I know that a lot of people can overdo or abuse this, but I'm trying to challenge the widespread belief that love equals acceptance. Of course, people who don't believe in an absolute truth would feel no need to "redirect" someone who believes differently than they do, which leads me to my next point.
Someone once asked me, "How can you be so sure that Christianity is true, when there are so many Muslims who are equally convinced that they are right?" I later on asked the founder of Apologia Center what I could have responded to that. He said I could have asked him, "Well, can people have wrong convictions?" Such a simple and though-provoking question.
There can be many arguments made for why Christianity is the truth. For me, the greatest testimony is the stories of people who have encountered God and have a relationship with Him. Some people have even written books about their lives that I would recommend: "The Torn Veil" by Gulshan Esther, a Muslim girl whom Jesus healed from being a cripple, "The Cross and the Switchblade," the story of an obscure country preacher that went to a dangerous area to work with a group of gangsters and all the ways God helped those boys heal, and so many more. There are so many Muslims that convert to Christianity through dreams, visions, miracles. There are so many underground churches in places like China and Iran, where Christians are persecuted, imprisoned, killed as we speak for being Christians, and yet those churches keep growing by the day. I myself was so surprised that despite all the efforts to wipe Christianity out of the picture, it continues to be the fastest growing religion in the world. The question is, would this happen if it really wasn't the truth?
I cannot shortly discuss why I believe that Christianity is the only true religion. Instead, I would like to talk about why, if I am a Christian, I cannot simultaneously believe that other religions are true. The answer is simple: I cannot simultaneously believe two things that contradict each other. If Jesus Himself says that He is God, I cannot believe in a religion that reduces Him to a prophet or a good human being. If Jesus says that He is the only way, truth, and life (John 14:6) and I claim to believe everything He says, I cannot also believe that there are other ways to God. It is not me being intolerant; it is me being logical. In fact, I believe that people who consider themselves tolerant of all belief systems (by which they mean accepting) cannot be tolerant of exclusive religions. Therefore, such universal tolerance is not exactly possible.
Let's imagine for a moment that there is an absolute truth and that it is Christianity. Could it then be irrelevant? C.S. Lewis (1942) once said, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important." If God is real, then everything He says about our identity, origin, and purpose of creation applies to everyone. On the other hand, if it is not true, then it applies to no one. He cannot be partially true or true only for those who choose to believe him. If He is real, then He is real despite people’s choices to believe or disbelieve in Him or to render Him relevant or irrelevant.
9. It is more trendy. I have often found myself thinking about how much easier life would be if I weren't a Christian (not that it ever seemed appealing). I might start watching a TV series and get hooked, only to be faced with the dilemma a few seasons in of wanting to see the rest but wondering how much more mocking comments or portrayels of Christians I can endure. In university, I had professors who would never miss a chance to deliver side-comments about religion being outdated, people who still believe in God being stupid, Christians being intolerant, all the way to professors who literally laughed out loud when we read literature that mentioned God (really, that has happened). It really would have been so much easier to be an athiest and not be affected by these comments, nor to see someone you love constantly made fun of and denied.
I had a Christian friend who entered my university and already started having doubts in the first semester. As you know, I myself started having doubts in my first two years. I have heard of so many people that entered university and come out athiests. I was lucky in that I had strong foundations and a strong Christian support system that kept me going. But if someone doesn't have any firm beliefs in the first place, the easiest choice is simply to go with the flow.
10. Sincere belief that there isn't enough evidence. I do believe that there are people who, if presented with enough evidence for the existence of God, would believe. But how did we get to the point where the earth in all its wonder and humans with all their complexity are not sufficient proof that someone even more wonderful and complex is behind it all? If we saw a drawing of a tree, we would never assume it came about on its own. And yet, we look at the real thing, which is so much more complex and wonderful, and believe that it came about without an intelligent mind behind it.
It reminds me of a documentary-film called The Atheist Delusion, in which a street evangelist is challenging different atheists about their belief that it is irrational to believe in God. He starts off by handing them a book and asking whether they believe that this book could come about on its own. All of them agree that anyone who thought that would be crazy. He then asks them if we could apply the same logic when it comes to our DNA, "the book of life." He challenges them in such a caring way to think more deeply about this. Almost all of them nod and smile at him, saying that they understood his point.
I would like to leave you with an excerpt from a children's book, because at its core, this truth is something that even a child, or I should say especially a child, can understand. The author of "Charlotte's Web" (1952) was writing in a different context than the one I am using this quote in, but it very simply and accurately illustrates the point I am trying to make. In this scene, after Charlotte the spider has famously begun weaving words in her web, a bewildered lady goes to the town doctor to get his scientific perspective on the matter. When she asks him if he understands how there could be a writing in a spider's web, the doctor replies:
Bethke, J. ( 2012, January 10). Why I hate religion but love Jesus || spoken word [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAhDGYlpqY
It reminds me of a documentary-film called The Atheist Delusion, in which a street evangelist is challenging different atheists about their belief that it is irrational to believe in God. He starts off by handing them a book and asking whether they believe that this book could come about on its own. All of them agree that anyone who thought that would be crazy. He then asks them if we could apply the same logic when it comes to our DNA, "the book of life." He challenges them in such a caring way to think more deeply about this. Almost all of them nod and smile at him, saying that they understood his point.
I would like to leave you with an excerpt from a children's book, because at its core, this truth is something that even a child, or I should say especially a child, can understand. The author of "Charlotte's Web" (1952) was writing in a different context than the one I am using this quote in, but it very simply and accurately illustrates the point I am trying to make. In this scene, after Charlotte the spider has famously begun weaving words in her web, a bewildered lady goes to the town doctor to get his scientific perspective on the matter. When she asks him if he understands how there could be a writing in a spider's web, the doctor replies:
"I don't understand it. But for that matter I don't understand how a spider learned to spin a web in the first place. When the words appeared, everyone said they were a miracle. But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle." (p. 109)
Sources
Bethke, J. ( 2012, January 10). Why I hate religion but love Jesus || spoken word [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAhDGYlpqY
Birtill, G. [Godfrey Birtill]. (2011, October 19). The wine is alive by Godfrey Birtill [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tdzFepZZ2c
Birtill, G. [Godfrey Birtill]. (2020, April 10). When I look at the blood. Godfrey Birtill [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7uKGZPRPp8
Freedom Ministries. (2020, March 5). Brad Jersak - seeing Jesus Christ - healing the trauma and broken image of God within [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK1DQIOk1Tk
Freedom Ministries. (2019, January 16). Interview with Brad Jersak [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2M9BhmD5AQ&t=3s
Jim Savant. (2016, December 16). Loving my Jesus - Casting Crowns [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnJFGtAXxGs
Lewis, C.S. (1942, March 24). God in the dock: essays on theology and ethics. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Lewis, C. S. (1941). The screwtape letters. Uhrichville, Ohio: Barbour and Company, Inc.
Living Waters. (2016, October 22). The atheist delusion movie (2016) HD [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChWiZ3iXWwM
Unbelievable? (2018, August 10). Atheist scientist’s revealing answer to “could ANYTHING convince you God exists?” [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRWIsuEL0Ac
White, E. B. (1952). Charlotte's web. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
Young, W. P. (2007). The shack. Newbury Park, CA: Windblown Media.
