Making a Case for Faith

One of the most famous atheists in the last century was Bertrand Russell. When he was ninety years old, he had a famous encounter with a woman at a party. The woman said to him, "Mr. Russell, you are not only the world's most famous atheist, you are maybe the world's oldest atheist. You will die soon. What will you do if, after you die, it turns out that God exists? What will you do if you come face-to-face with this God that you've defiled your whole life long?" Bertrand Russell responded to her that he would point his finger at God and say. "You, Sir, gave us insufficient evidence."

I kind of get what he is saying. There are times when I personally feel like I would like more evidence. However, God seems to present Himself to us in such a way that people who want to dismiss God will be able to dismiss Him. He seems to leave space for them. People who do not want there to be a God will find a way to believe that there is no God.

Another atheist philosopher named Norwood Russell Hanson said this, "I'm not a stubborn guy. I would become a theist, a believer, under some conditions. I'm open-minded." Then he lays out the conditions under which he would believe:

Suppose next Tuesday, just after breakfast, all of us in this one world are knocked to our knees by a percussion and ear-shattering thunderclap. The sky is ablaze with an eerie silvery light, and just then, as all the people of this world look up, the heavens open, the clouds part, revealing an unbelievably radiant and immense Zeus-like figure, towering over the features of his Michelangeloid face. Then he points down at me and explains for every man, woman and child to hear: "I've had quite enough of your too clever logic chopping word-watching in matters of theology. Be ashamed, Norwood Russell Hanson. I do most certainly exist."

Those are Hanson's conditions for becoming a believer in God. Think about that for a moment. If this were to happen, there would be a big shock. But as time passed, as the shock wore off, as the moment faded, how do you think Hanson would respond to that moment? I believe, that over time, Hanson would find a way to dismiss it as a hallucination, or a strange dream, or the results of a vivid imagination, because people have been able to dismiss encounters with God for a long time.

The people of Israel would encounter God over and over again, and then they would just forget and wander away! Part of what this gets to is a deep issue - God's goal for the human race is not just to get people to be forced to admit that He exists. Forcing people to admit that God exists does not really solve the core problem for the human race. Even if they admit that God exists, there is still the problem of the heart!

As we wind-up this series titled Faith Has Its Reasons, I pray that amidst the intellectual inquiry our hearts have moved closer to God. If one were to boil life down to its bare essential...what is of most importance...I believe one would find a heart longing for acceptance, meaning and hope for the future. All are found in God Almighty, and in that I rejoice!

On the Victory Side,

Dave