Is Christianity Blind Faith?

One advantage of a minor injury

Stuck in Minor Injuries for two hours yesterday turned out to be a blessing. Because I took with me "A Brief History of Thought" by the frenchman Luc Ferry.

If you want a short - and honest - introduction to secular philosophy this is your best bet. And though simple does not always sell, it has turned out to be a best seller (at least in Luc's native France).

Unlike most 'history of philosophy' books this one is written for the man in the pew. Ferry isn't writing to impress high-falutin peers but trying to help Joe Bloggs. It's a rare trait in an author, and refreshing wherever it is found. 

It's worth giving you a summary of his idea before turning to our question...

Philosophy is about Salvation from Death

Perhaps unexpectedly, Ferry tells us that both Religion and Philosophy have the same aim - to save us from death. 

Death is the greatest enemy of mankind he says.

Religion, he contends, overcomes death by promisingeternal life beyond the grave.

Philosophy can't buy into heaven, so works on how to remove the fear of death.

This is what salvation means for the two different camps.

"...the quest for a salvation without God is at the heart of every great philosophical system..." (page 12)

I have personally never come across a more honest admission by a philosopher - that death or fear of death is the real, honest, deep motivation for all human philosophy.

Where paths diverge

It's the next step where Ferry goes wrong.

He argues that Religion (everyone is lumped together) demands blind faith in order to achieve salvation, whereas philosophy relies on "our own resources and our innate faculty of reason." 

Time and again he suggests that philosphers use their reason, but religious people just believe stuff.

And that may be true of religion in general, but not so for Christianity.

Christianity rests of Evidence

I can only think that Luc Ferry has never met a true Christian. 

I can only think that he has derived his whole impression about Christianity from the organised religion we see on the telly. Large ornate buildings, people in fancy dresses,  smoke, bells, incense, that sort of thing. 

He can't have ever met or spoken to a real Christian or come across a real Christian community.

And that made me think, there must be 1000s of people who are ignorant - I use that word kindly - of true Christianity. 

Even clever people like Professor Luc Ferry. 

Because Christianity is evidence-based. 

Take the central claim of Christianity - that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, early Sunday morning. The New Testament goes out of its way to "prove" this happened:

• the tomb was empty
• many people spoke to him and saw him in person for 40 days
• Jesus' disciples were not expecting him to rise (they should have been but they were slow to learn), therefore they had no reason to spread a 'lie'
• in fact the disiples are among the most sceptical, at least initially
  
• the whole church was founded on this miracle - if Jesus' dead body was discovered that would be the end of Christianity
• millions of Christians have been persected, tortured and martyred because they believed this miracle, which proves that Jesus is more than a mere human, he is God. Why die for a lie?
  

The central miracle of the Good News is based 100% on evidence.

Take another example. The Bible repeatedly declares that God created the universe. 

And today we are learning that unaided TIME + CHANCE + NATURAL LAW are wholly insufficient to account for:

• the radical complexity of living things, (for more on this one Google Stephen Meyer).

• the rise of mind from matter, (Google Thomas Nagel, Mind and Cosmos)

• the remarkable fine tuning of the universe, which is required for human life on planet earth (nowhere else in the universe could I sit writing this without a space suit)
  

When the Bible says "God created the cosmos" it does not expect us to believe that asseryion blindly. We expect to find divine Signatures everywhere in craetion - and we do.

When the Bible claims that God has revealed himself in the Person of Jesus Christ, that Jesus is God in human form there is proof: the miracles he performed.

Christianity is no enemy of reason. 

And philosophers are not the sole champions of reason. 

What about supernatural faith then?

The problem with philosophers is not that they use their minds too much, their error is that they trust their minds too much. This is a cardinal difference between the philosopher and the Christian.  

Christians are convinced that since we are creatures we are profoundly limited in our ability to see or work out the whole picture. 

We are also convinced that every human faculty - including our intellects - are twisted and fallen.  

Which means we cannot trust our minds. They are tiny. And they are twisted. 

We could paraphrase a line from Simon and Garfunkel's The Boxer, "Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest," to "a man believes what he wants to believe and disregards the rest." 

Since our minds are both finite and twisted we need revelation from God if we are to understand both the cosmos and ourselves.

We need the Bible.

This "map for life" can be checked up on in many places. Through archaeology, history, personal experience and science. Whenever we're able to 'prove' things in the Bible with this limited external evidence they always turn up true.

So then, when we come across things in the Bible for which there is no direct evidence (such as heaven), we can say: "the map has proved trustworthy where it could be checked up on, it's bound to be trustworthy where it can't."

We use such reasoning in everyday life. 

(I say there is no 'evidence' for heaven, but fascinating studies into near death experiences (NDEs) are convincing many medical people that mind can exist without body and that these experiences seem to indicate unusual qualities of such existence such as timelessness).

What room then for the supernatual gift of faith?

Our minds are so darkened that evidence alone will never convince someone to believe in Jesus Christ. (Though sufficient evidence is there.)

The divine gift of faith is needed to bring common sense to reason, to bring light and restore the mind's broken, sinful and prejudiced reasoning faculties. 

Faith is supernatural. It is one of the gifts - in a whole package of divine gifts - which enables our broken skeptical proud minds to think correctly. 

And allow us, now in true humilty, to accept the truth. 

AI Image: Luc Ferry - by vanceAI