suspicion

Here's the first of my three promised rants. If you have no idea what on earth I'm talking about, please check out my previous post.

Here we go ...

Thought One: “You're more spiritual than you think. You just don't want a boss. You don't want a God who tells you what to do.” Implication: The truth of Christianity is crystal clear, so I implicitly distrust your motivations for questioning.

This train of thought, to me, suggests an innate suspicion of any skeptic's (within Christianity or outside of it) motives. In my experience, it's a fairly common Christian reaction to disbelief or skepticism. It's not that there are things to truly question, the argument goes. It's simply that the questioner doesn't want to have to deal with the idea of "submitting themselves to the truth." There must be an underlying (and most likely internal) reason for the doubts.

I once read a book by a very widely known Christian apologist. One of The Big Names in apoligetics. I read the book with with honest intentions, hoping it might assuage some of my skepticism. That was one of the first moments when I thought, this is all there is? As Christians, this is the best we can do? I felt like crying.

There are multiple issues I had with the book. I'll refrain from cataloging them here in the interest of time and space. But what is most relevant to this topic, was the author's tone. His arrogance. The (very impressively sized) book was chock full of personal examples supposedly from the author's own life. In every one of these examples he would detail encounters he had with so-called professed atheists. In every story, the atheist would talk about the intellectual or theological reasons they couldn't embrace Christianity. And after about five minutes of conversation, the author would magically debunk all their reasons. He would then retrieve a speedy confession from the atheist that their hesitations were really about the fact that they wanted to live however they wanted, and not submit to Christ.

I am not exaggerating. Story after story like this. Page after page interspersed throughout the book. The author even went so far to say that MOST people he encountered couldn't really make any "intellectual objections" to Christianity stick. It was almost always an issue of control over their lives. Amazing! Hallelujah! A lifetime of disbelief, and after a mere twenty minutes with this author THESE NON BELIEVERS HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT! It's really that simple! This is the message he is sending to his readers on how to understand non-believers.

I'm sorry, but what a load of freaking crap. Pure crazy-making.

Obviously there are are a huge myriad of reasons why people do not choose Christianity, some more valid than others. But I would say that if you think Christianity, both in historicity and in modern practice, is clear and completely above reproach, you have some serious cognitive dissonance happening. There is obviously much to question.

I'll put in another way. Do Christians not bother with the Book of Mormon because they are unwilling to give up their morning coffee? Do they not follow the laws of the Koran because they just really like pork chops? Maybe it's just a heart issue? Or a will issue? Or an obedience issue?

Of course not. We know there are of course there about a million reasons ... be it intellectual, cultural, theological, experiential or whatever ... that we choose to either accept or reject those belief systems. It's simply insulting and antagonistic that one would suggest otherwise.

Ugh. Maddening.

End rant (at least until the next one).