Additional scribblings …
Did you know that the following people were Christians?
- Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) – The first astronomer who suggested that the earth was not the centre of the universe, Copernicus laid the foundations of modern astronomy.
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) – A physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who supported Copernicus’s theory, he is credited by some as being the father of modern physics.
- Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) – Newton was a mathematician and scientist known for his formulation of the law of gravity, his discovery of the composite nature of light, and his development of calculus. He wrote more on religion than he did on natural science.
- Michael Faraday (1791-1867) - Faraday is known for his many scientific discoveries and innovations, among which were the following: “liquefaction of chlorine, discovery of benzene, development of stainless steel and optical glass, and discovery of the laws of electrolysis and electromagnetic induction. He also made the first electric motor, dynamo, and transformer” (Eichman, 1988, Michael Faraday: Man of God, Man of Science).
- Joseph Lister (1827-1912) – Lister discovered the principle of antiseptic surgery. Before him, cleanliness was not deemed important during surgical procedures, and many patients died of infection.
It is a common misconception that in order for a person to “become a Christian”, he/she has to forsake all rational thought and jump blindly into the realm of the unseen and the illogical. This is not true.
As we can see from the above list, some of the finest minds in history have been Christians. Their faith was no hindrance to the development of their minds, and their intellect was no hindrance to their continued belief in Jesus Christ.
John Stott, in his absolutely brilliant little book Your mind matters (Intervarsity Press, 2006), writes:
One wonders if there is any Christian quality more misunderstood than faith. … H. L. Mencken, the American anti-supernaturalist critic of Christianty, once said that “faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.” But Mencken was wrong. Faith is not credulity. To be credulous is to be gullible, to be entirely uncritical, undiscerning and even unreasonable in one’s beliefs. But it is a great mistake to suppose that faith and reason are incompatible. Faith and sight are set in opposition to each other in Scripture, but not faith and reason. On the contrary, true faith is essentially reasonable because it trusts in the character and the promises of God. A believing Christian is one whose mind reflects and rests on these certitudes”. (p. 49)
In other words, what the bible actually says is that “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). It is true, then, that faith is a belief in things unseen. What is not true, however, is that this belief in things unseen is irrational and illogical. Faith and reason are not in opposition.
William Lane Craig, who is Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California, and who frequently travels around university campuses in America and Europe to speak on and engage in debates on the evidence for Christianity, has written an excellent, thought-provoking, and very accessible piece on “The Evidence for Christianity” that is well worth reading. (I enjoyed it. It was written to be spoken, as this was originally a speech, so it has a nice, easy style, and it’s also very concise, so one doesn’t get lost in the argument.) If you’re someone who has dismissed Christianity because you thought that there just wasn’t enough evidence for it, then I would recommend Craig’s article as a good starting point.
Paul E. Little, who was Associate Professor of Evangelism at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois, has also written something very accessible entitled Beyond Blind Faith. In this piece, he gives a summary of the life of Jesus and rationally sets out reasons for believing in Him. A few commonly-raised objections that people have to the Christian faith are brought up. For example, some people will readily acknowledge that Jesus was a great moral teacher but not that He is the Son of God. Paul Little rationally explains why this position is in fact not tenable. Also, some people object to the very idea of Jesus’s resurrection, and have come up with theories to explain the empty tomb of Jesus after His death and burial. Paul Little systematically takes us through the alternative explanations raised by people over the years, and explains why each is, again, not tenable.
Here are some of my further thoughts on this issue:
(1) Firstly, if we think about it, all of us (non-Christians included) to some extent believe in things we can’t really see. For example, I would imagine that most of us accept that there is such a thing as gravity. Why do we? Because although we can’t actually see “gravity” per se, we can see its effects. We can see what happens when we let go of a pen a metre from the ground – it clatters to the floor in a straight line. In a similar way, although we might not be able in this life to “see” God, we can see His handiwork and the effects of His power – in Creation which is all around us, in prayers of Christian believers that get answered, in people whose behaviours are completely changed by their belief in Jesus, and so on. If nothing else, these should at least make one stop and think, What if it really is true?
(2) Secondly, to follow on from John Stott and William Lane Craig’s point that the Christian faith isn’t just a blind belief in something irrational …
I’m not a lawyer, and possibly you aren’t either, but most of us have watched court cases being played out on screen on TV and in the movies. Often, convictions are secured when lawayers are able to say: We have shown you evidence for A. We have shown you evidence for B. We have shown you evidence for C, D, E, F, G, and H. Now, no one present in this courtroom actually saw X happen, but given that we know for a fact that A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H are true, the only conclusion that we can come to is that X really did happen.
To me, that’s what we have with Christian faith. It is true that we do not have 100% of the evidence for Jesus laid out in front of our eyes for us to see. If we did, it would no longer be faith. BUT, anyone who seriously takes the time to think about whether there is any truth to the Christian belief that God created all of us, that Jesus is the son of God and that He is the only way to heaven will find that there is an abundance of evidence that all converge on and point to that truth. The evidence is compelling and too much to ignore.
I like what Lee Strobel says in his book The Case for a Creator (2004, Zondervan):
I see faith as being a reasonable step in the same direction that the evidence is pointing. In other words, faith goes beyond merely acknowledging that the facts of science and history point toward God. It’s responding to those facts by investing trust in God—a step that’s fully warranted due to the supporting evidence.” (p. 357)
If you are intrigued and would like to read a more in-depth discussion of this, I would recommend that you get a copy of Lee Strobel’s books The Case for Christ, and The Case for a Creator. In The Case for Christ, Strobel, with the help of leading academics in fields such as medicine, history, archaelogy, and philosophy, presents evidence that points towards the the truth of the account of Jesus found in the bible. If you would like a taster, here are two excerpts from the book: Chapter 1: The Eyewitness Evidence: Can the biographies of Jesus be trusted? and Chapter 11: The Medical Evidence (for Jesus’ death and resurrection) (Chapters 11 to 13 of The Case for Christ were published as a smaller book The Case for Easter.) In The Case for a Creator, Strobel interviews leading scientists from Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Cosmology, and shows that scientific evidence points towards the fact that this universe was indeed created by a divine Creator God.
I am an applied linguist, and the longer I am in this field, the more in awe I am at the beautiful impossibility that is language.
I marvel at how quickly the brain must work in order to process incoming messages in real time, at what there must be in each of our minds that allows us to produce not only meaningful and (usually!) coherent sentences that are understood by others, but also humour, irony, and wit.
Someone once said (I forget who – if anyone knows, please tell me) that although the air around us may be a necessity to sustain life, the wind that provides such refreshing relief is surely an extra gift from God. If we use a similar analogy, then the ability to communicate through language may be a necessity, but the rest of it – the ability of the brain to recognise irony, to intentionally bring laughter through language and so on – is surely a blessed bonus.
I marvel at how so many billions of us have come to acquire language. I marvel at how it is possible for us to make language mean exactly what we want it to mean. The more I understand of language, the more I am convinced that however hard we try to explain how language works and how the human mind processes and acquires language, there is at the end of the day a point at which we must stand back and say … And the rest is just a miracle of creation.
To me, the very intricacies of every field in academia, the fact that each field has been around for years and will probably continue to sustain research in it for years to come, is evidence enough of a Creator whose brilliance and power we cannot even begin to fathom.
If you think that perhaps there could be some truth to what Christians believe, but you’re not completely sure, then please take the time now to find out more and think through this.
Don’t fall into the trap of saying, “One day when I have a bit more time, I’ll find out more about this. For now, I’m quite happy to be open-minded and accept that the Christian belief may be true.”
God’s gift of salvation (our way to heaven), made possible through the death and resurrection of His son Jesus Christ, is freely available to every single person on this earth … on the condition that we believe in our hearts that Jesus died for our sins and we are prepared to say “Jesus is the Lord of my life”.
Believing in Jesus does not entail denying our minds or taking unreasonable, irrational steps into the dark. (God made us to be thinking beings after all!) As William Lane Craig has so nicely put it: “while the evidence is not enough to coerce you if your heart is closed, it is enough to ground faith rationally if you are willing to look at it with an open mind and an open heart” (“The Evidence for Christianity”)
So don’t put it off. If you are not ready to make the decision to be a Christian now because you don’t know enough about Jesus, that’s fair enough, but start to find out about Him. Read. Talk to a Christian. Realise that a decision needs to be made. Because one day it may be too late.
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1. Header: (a) Forth Rail Bridge, over the Firth of Forth, Scotland, taken in 1993. It is the longest cantilever bridge in the world for rail transport and was the first bridge in Britain to be built of only steel. (b) Skye Bridge, over Loch Alsh, connecting the mainland in the Scottish Highlands with the Isle of Skye, taken in 2005. (c) Clifton Suspension Bridge, across the Avon Gorge in Bristol, taken in 2009. 2. Photograph of man jumping, by David Niblack. 3. Photograph of apple, from http://www.public-domain-photos.com/. 4. Photograph of person walking towards the light, by David Niblack. 5. Photograph of the Great Hall at Birmingham University was taken in the summer of 2000.
