Well, I’m probably about to offend almost all of my friends
with this post. I have friends who are
strong fundamental Christians and I have friends who consider anything related
to religion or spirituality as going back to the dark ages and only useful for
Monty Python skits. I think I’m about to
offend all…but, hey, here it goes…
Let’s talk about the crazy things that Christians
believe. I’m talking about Christians
who would call themselves “Evangelical” and would generally fit into the
category of “Fundamentalists”. If you
like to apply stereotypes, here are some characteristics that come quickly to
mind. Christians in this category are
likely to support at least some limits to the broad category of “gay
rights”. They are likely to be, at the
very least, uncomfortable with the concept of evolution and, in most cases,
opposed to at least some of its tenets. They
probably oppose abortion. I could go on,
but this should suffice to define the group.
I think that if the average person were to be asked “What
are the five craziest things that Evangelical Christians believe?”, the list
would include things like “opposition to evolution”, “rejection of science”, “overly
conservative moral views”, and so on.
But to me, that really misses the whole point. That’s like saying that the craziest thing
that Extraterrestrialists[1]
believe is that aliens are green and have big eyes and skinny arms. Isn’t that completely skipping over the major
issue? The major issue in that case is
this: do aliens exist at all? Discussing the lack of bulkiness in the arms
of aliens (if they have arms!) is total trivia unless the more important
discussion, regarding the existence of aliens at all, has already taken place
and has reached the conclusion that they do exist. Until that first discussion is complete,
discussing those other issues is a waste of time.
The point is, what happened during in the universe prior to
recorded history is way down on the
list of crazy things that Christians believe.
Personally, I would not put it in the top five, and probably not even in
the top twenty. Here are my top five
things (ok, I only list #2 - #5 here – I’ll put the #1 craziest belief in a
separate entry):
#5 – Jesus was born of Mary, who was a virgin. Further, when Jesus grew up he performed the
500+ miracles recorded about him in the Christian Bible, and those were real miracles
in the commonly accepted use of the term “miracle” (i.e. not magical tricks or
convenient coincidences).
#4 – There is life after death, and there is a judgement
after death with eternal consequences.
#3 - Jesus died and rose again after three days to a
real, though unique, body. He was really
dead and didn’t just “swoon”, and he was really alive afterwards, not just an
apparition.
#2 - Jesus claimed to be God and really was God, and
his death provides a payment for the sins of the whole world, directly
impacting the events that might transpire in crazy item #4.
There are libraries full of books on the four topics I have
listed. There are specific theological
words for all of these topics, but I will not bring those up now. The point is, these issues have been debated
and discussed and codified and written about for a couple millennia. But just because they have been around for a
long time doesn’t diminish their importance.
These topics are still the
pertinent issues for discussion. They
are still the foundation for
Christian beliefs. Everything else grows
out of these issues. To pick at outcomes
of some of these beliefs is, in my opinion, pretty much a waste of time. If the foundational issues are false, then
the ideas built on those foundational issues don’t matter and never did. If the foundational issues are true, then the
ideas built on them follow naturally and there’s usually not much discussion
required.
Let me give a simple example before I move on, in hopes that
it will clarify the point. Take the
first aspect of crazy belief #5 – the virgin birth of Christ. Can we agree that a virgin birth of a human
being is surely more of a complete affront to scientific biological principles
than the concept that some things might have been created, not evolved? Seriously – Christians believe that Jesus
stood outside of Lazarus’ tomb and called out to him after he had been dead for
about three days, and Lazarus came up alive, was unwrapped from the grave
cloths, and went back to being a normal, living human being. Now that is crazy, and that’s just one part
of item #5!
The point is, if the four items I listed above are false,
there’s no reason to argue further. In fact, even the Apostle Paul, clearly a
staunch Christian, admitted this and went a bit further, saying that if Jesus
didn’t rise from the dead then Christians “are to be pitied” because their
whole set of beliefs would be based on a big falsehood. However, if the four items I listed above are
true, then their importance to every human being swamps the discussion
regarding anything else. For example, if
there really is some kind of judgement with eternal consequences after you die,
then you better get ready for that quickly and not waste time discussing
anything else!
Why do we argue
about creation vs evolution when there are much bigger issues to tackle? The reason is simple, but does not invalidate
my point. The reason we argue about these
kinds of side issues is because we cannot come to an agreement on the four
issues I outlined above. That split has
happened long ago and has only widened over time. Those discussions have been conducted long
ago, without reaching a conclusion. But
that doesn’t invalidate my point: it is
still pointless to give up discussing those fundamental issues and argue over
side issues. That doesn’t solve anything
and it is essentially arguing trivia and ignoring the real foundations. It’s like trying to build a house on thin air
because you couldn’t figure out how to build a foundation.
To my Christian brothers and sisters I say: stop getting
drawn into arguments about the side issues! Or, worse yet, starting such arguments. It is a waste of time. If you want to argue your beliefs, argue the
beliefs that your patriarchs grappled with, such as the four listed above. There is a good reason that the early Church
Fathers wrote about these things. You can’t accept or reject Christian beliefs
based on issues such as the origin of the universe or abortion or gay
rights. If you are going to accept or
reject Christian beliefs, it should be on the basis of the big issues above
(and maybe a few others).
In light of this, I have no interest in discussing creation
vs. evolution or similar topics. Well,
at least not until the four issues above have been addressed and we have all
come to a conclusion regarding the truth or falseness of these foundational
issues. And…since a few millennia of
discussion hasn’t resulted in a globally accepted conclusion, I don’t
anticipate getting past those anytime soon!
OK – there will obviously be many more entries on this
topic…including the #1 craziest thing that Christians believe. Any guesses?
[1] Extraterrestrialists
= those who believe in aliens among us. Yes, I made that word up, but no, I’m
not proud of it.
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