It is interesting writing this post. I have never found a reason to leave my faith on the grounds of science; meaning I would only leave faith because I was upset and simply could not believe in a God who allows the world to be the way it is.
I would never leave God on terms of science. Proving a theory in science is impossible. Literally, it is against the rules they have, nothing is absolute truth (facts), only scientifically theoretical. There is no such thing as absolute proof (facts), only conclusive evidence that leads us to beliefs. Disproving God would take a miracle even Richard Dawkins has been unable to do in any of his books, articles, essays, lectures and other discussions. Proving God takes the same miracle.
In the end, we leave God because of a strong misunderstanding of theology. We assume things about God that really are not there theologically. We ask those big questions: If God is real, why is there suffering? If God is real, then why do children in Africa die? If God is real, then why is the Universe so big? If God is real, then why would a certain isolated culture not have heard of Him? If God is real, then why did he cause so many wars in the past? If God is real, then why doesn’t He just show up? What about the other religions? What about the sexually abused children inside the church? What about treatment towards Homosexuals? Can you really disprove evolutionary theory by bacterial flagellar?
Christians have done their fair share of butchering these topics. Seriously. We have created so many different harsh responses. From God only helps those who help themselves to “God hates fags.” We seriously have a lot of fact checking to do. We have messed up big.
You see the problem with these entire questions lie in the emotionality behind them. These are all based off emotions; God clearly can’t exist if this is going on or God clearly can’t exist if that happened. I have yet to hear a lecture (and to make it clear, I do listen to quite a few) or read a book where there is actual evidence against ANY sort of intelligent design. I only see arguments level the playing field with logical responses. (Sorry, that means faith is never going to be a good enough answer.)
Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Peter Atkins, Kenneth Miller, Stephen Hawking, all are very strong militant atheists. They fall under the same arguments that God is not provable, and even if God was, there would be a lot of explaining to do. Some of them do not even allow for the thought of the latter.
This leads me into three areas that I want to share with you. I want to share with you where I have been wrong, why I still allow for hurting, and Why I believe in Jesus.
Why we have it wrong in the west
We have missed the point and messed it up big time. We have spent so much time defending God against others, when in reality; God does not need our defending. That sounds weird to say, but in reality, we are trying to defend God, whom we have little to no clue about the in-depth complexity of God. It is like me defending Physics as a Counseling Major. I may understand principals, but the depth of physics, psh, I am lucky I can even spell it. Why waste our energy defending God, when we can allow our lives, our actions and our Love to show the world God. If we want the character of God to be shown to the world, we have to be willing to show it in our own lives. Because God chooses to work through us, we run the dangerous risk of sticking up for God in ways that hinder God more than advance.
What is so dangerous is that we get in our denominational modes and spend time defending rather than advancing. We spend time hating each other and other denominations that we miss a life with God. We spend time deeply in judgment. I mean seriously, we Christians do our fair share of Obama hating, Muslim bashing, liberal mocking, inner city pitying all mixed with a touch of homosexual attacking. Now, don’t get me wrong, it is much better than when I was a kid, but man, we really have to step up our game. Atheists win every time when it comes to moral attacks against the church. And we can’t afford to just say things like “We are sinful people, that’s just what happens.” No. It is not just what happens. When people outside of our faith see what we do wrong, and we reply with, “welp, we are sinful broken people” that makes us cowards and I contend, that we become godless in those moments. Sin does not just happen folks. We went wrong when we point out the sin of the people in the world, defended God, and proclaimed that we know better than everyone else while right outside our mansions, on the doorsteps, people are starving, lonely, abused, thirsty, and in a world we in the west just don’t get. We spend years fighting against atheisms disbelief, trying to disprove all of their theories. No matter how many times I listen to lectures by Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkins, the more I see why they can never believe. We Christians fight against everything they say. Global Warming- Hoax. Evolution- Have fun in hell if you believe that. I mean seriously… Like. Seriously. These theories actually don’t hurt God in any way.
We need to be less against atheism and more against the darkness of this world that robs people of life. Because atheist attack us for that darkness, and instead of fighting the darkness, we fight them, which leaves the people in darkness to fend for themselves.
Why our world is still hurting
I have been having a lot of my friends leave the church. Not because they buy into an argument about the falsehood of God, but because there is too much suffering in the world. That a God who loves would simply not stand for that.
I agree. God will not stand for this. But we do. We do stand for childhood prostitution. We do stand for homophobia. We do stand for suicide. We stand for these things because we don’t really do anything about them. We do so much about individual faith, that we collectively forget that we are one part of many in Christ, not one and just God.
What I want all my friends and all people my age leaving that church- It is not supposed to be like this. Seriously, we are living in messed up times. Girls in all countries are not meant to be sold to feed a family. Soldiers are not meant to return and deeply struggle internally to a point of suicide. People are not meant to die from starvation. But, the problem does not lie with them, it lies with us.
We need passionate people to step forward. People my age lose big picture passion for small picture gain, but they don’t have a society that tells them differently. People my age are ready to step forward, to intervene, to change this world. We are not ok with 27,000,000 slaves. But if we do not stand up against it, we find it permissible. If we do not collectively live to advance the kingdom, and we only live for a far off distant heaven, then we fail. If we don’t start warring against this evil, we lose. The church needs people my age to start a revolution. A revolution that calls for us to move past ordinary and contemporary denominational church to a movement lead by Christ’s life, death and resurrection. I am not just asking for a policy change, or to build a few schools, or to remove Joesph Kony. Those things aid the light, but true commitment to a life fighting against the darkness, a life lived with these people fighting and promoting solutions, those a life time commitments.
We need all of us to live in a way that challenges the wrong in this world. Hurting can’t end if we don’t confront it.
Why I believe in Jesus
History. I hope I am logical, and I hope I can learn from the past. The personhood of Jesus Christ is a reality. You can't trump that. Outside of the Bible, there are sources pointing to the person Jesus. You simply can't deny that. Not only can you not deny the personhood of Christ, you can’t deny certain stories in the Old Testament. I know there are theorists who attempt to prove the Old Testament incorrect through sociological implications and oral traditions miscommunications. I mean, when you have archaeologists capable of proving the existence of certain key Old Testament kings/kingdoms/people you start to see that this has some traction. Denying the existence of these people would not only be a slap in the face to Christians (which really does not matter as much) but a slap in the face of all archaeologists, history students, doctors of history, and other areas that have to utilize history.
You have EVERY reason to be an atheist if it is based off of your emotions. Seriously, if you base it off your emotions and off the actions of the church, you win. But if you base it off the character of God, the historical implications and other items that play into this, being an atheist is hard for me. I can’t just allow all of the science to go without notice. Science plays into my belief. I understand many see the opposite; however my approach is to compliment the historical implications with science. You can’t have one or the other.
I could honestly say I believe in Jesus. I am willing to engage in any conversation, but know full well my challenge will constantly be to engage this world.
With Love,
Casey
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