The title probably sounds offensive if you haven’t read Part 1, and you probably won’t understand any background of this post unless you’ve read Part 2. Just sayin’…
I spent much of Part 2 explaining my belief that most skeptics (most humans, for that matter) aren’t establishing their religious philosophy on purely intellectual grounds. Let me clarify that a bit, since it can be hard to understand exactly what I mean. I’m not saying that atheists, agnostics, etc. don’t employ reason as their primary medium to arrive at their belief. Before I was a Christ-follower, I also reasoned my way to agnosticism. Before someone can experience any kind of conviction about a belief they hold, I think the belief needs to make sense of the things they’ve observed and experienced in life, and this can be a very rational process. It was for me, at least.
What I am saying, however, is that humans are basically incapable of engaging this process in an emotional vacuum and without emotional provocation. And I think that the emotional context of this reasoning has extraordinary explanatory power regarding where the individual’s line of reasoning eventually arrives. In most discussions on faith I observe, I find disproportionate amounts of attention paid to the line of reasoning rather than its emotional context. And I want to see that change, because when it does, I think we’ll experience far more authentic and productive conversations about personal faith.
As I wrote these convictions down, I couldn’t shake this nagging question within me: If skeptics generally aren’t arriving at a philosophy through careful argumentation, why have I tried so hard to talk them out of it using that method? I think that over time, it has been a mixture of the following reasons:
1. I love my friends and want them to find faith.
2. I don’t understand the emotional context of my own personal faith.
3. I’m insecure in my faith, and thus need to convince myself that it’s true.
4. I just need to feel smart because I’m insecure about that too.
I hope I’m not the only one who’s experienced those things. But I can be a pretty insecure guy at times, and I desperately need to know (at least in the moment) where my faith comes from, that it’s true, and that I’ve got something to offer in a conversation in order to proclaim the Gospel fearlessly, as I should (Ephesians 6:19). I’m convinced that when I am grounded in these truths, I’m actually no longer enslaved to being personally offended when someone thinks my beliefs are ridiculous. Instead, I am free to ask into their story, know their life, and actually demonstrate true love and interest. I am free to respond with a silent defense and a loud love, just as Jesus did to his accusers (Isaiah 53:7, Matthew 26:67-68, Matthew 27:12-14).
Evaluate your methods. Do you feel the need to defend yourself? You might be missing grace. Are you trying to justify your faith on intellectual grounds? You may be misunderstanding the very nature of your relationship with God. I mean, no one in their right mind would ever justify their love for their spouse on evidences and proofs about that person, right? It would demean the romance and mystery of the relationship. I think we demean the intensely intimate and mysterious nature of our relationship with God when we try to establish our own faith on a foundation of reason alone. So if you’re going to have a constructive spiritual discussion with someone who’s basing their beliefs on something deeper than deductive reasoning, do yourself the favor and acknowledge that you are too.
That being said, I’m all for apologetics. Skeptics have legitimate intellectual hurdles to faith, and you can help them overcome those by humbly walking them through incorrect assumptions they might hold or presenting historical evidences regarding the faith. I’ve found that my own story is usually the best historical evidence for the faith I can give. It’s definitely the easiest to remember. I think the best that a great intellectual apologetic can do is eliminate all of someone’s intellectual hurdles, i.e. create space for consideration of a Christian worldview; I have never seen it produce faith. I have only seen love produce faith. It is the best apologetic I know.
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