Believing in Christ is a Straitjacket... Really?

Is the belief in absolute truth the enemy of freedom? Many people say so and see claims of absolute truth mainly motivated by the desire to control people.

However, the objection that all truth is a power play falls prey to the same problem as the objection that all truth is culturally conditioned. If you try to explain away all assertions of truth as one or the other or something else you find yourself in an untenable position. If you say all truth-claims are power plays, then so is your statement. If you say (like Freud) that all truth claims about religion and God are just psychological projections to deal with your guilt and insecurity, then so is your statement. To see through everything is not to see.

Moreover, some people criticise Christianity as it requires particular beliefs in order to be a member of its community. In the new "liberal democracy" common moral beliefs are seemingly not necessary - if everybody respects the privacy and rights of others and works for equal access to education, jobs and political decision-making for all.

However, this is a vast oversimplification as does not pass the test of further scrutiny. This "liberal democracy" is based on an extensive list of assumptions - a preference of individual to community rights, a division between private and public morality, and the sanctity of personal choice. All of these beliefs are foreign to many other cultures. "Liberal democracy" (as is every community) is based on a shared set of very particular beliefs. Western society is based on shared commitments to reason, rights and justice, even though there is no universally recognised definition of any of these. The idea of a totally inclusive community is therefore an illusion. Every human community holds in common some beliefs that necessarily create boundaries, including some people and excluding others from its circle.

Furthermore, any community that did not hold its members accountable for specific beliefs and practices would have no corporate identity and would not really be a community at all. We cannot consider a group exclusive simply because it has standards for its members. Here is a far better set of tests: which community has beliefs that lead its members to treat people in other communities with love and respect - to serve them and meet their needs? Which community's beliefs lead it to demonise and attack those who violate their boundaries rather than treating them with kindness, humility and winsomeness?

We should criticise Christians when they are condemning and ungracious to unbelievers. But we should not criticise churches when they maintain standards for membership in accord with their beliefs. Every community must to the same.

Based on: Keller, T. (2008). The Reason For God. p.35-50

How Could a Good God Allow Suffering?

Many people reject the idea of God because of all the unjust suffering in the world.

This point of view is based on a hidden premise, namely, that if evil appears pointless to me, then it must be pointless. This reveals within supposedly hard-nosed scepticism an enormous faith in one's own cognitive capabilities. It also ignores the character growth and personal development many people experience through their suffering.

Moreover, some people get mad at God. However, if you have a God great and transcendent enough to be mad at because he hasn't stopped evil and suffering in the world, then you have (at the same time) a God great and transcendent enough to have good reasons for allowing it to continue that you can't know. In fact, you cannot have it both ways.

Evil and suffering may be (if anything) evidence for God. Some atheists object the idea of God based on a sense of fair play and justice. People, we believe ought not to suffer, be excluded, die of hunger and oppression. However, the evolutionary mechanism of natural selection depends on death, destruction and violence of the strong against the weak - these things are all perfectly natural. On what basis then does the atheist judge the natural world to be horribly wrong, unfair and unjust? If you are sure that this natural world is unjust and filled with evil, you are assuming the reality of some extra-natural (or supernatural) standard by which to make your judgement.

Based on: Keller, T. (2008). The Reason For God. p.22-34

A very interesting thought...

When a frog becomes a prince instantaneously, we call it a fairy tale.

When a frog becomes a prince over a very very long time, we call it modern evolutionary science.

There can't just be one way! ... Really?

Many people today struggle with the exclusivity of Christianity. It is also widely believed that religion in general is one of the main barriers to world peace. This is true. Religion can threaten peace.

However, within Christianity - robust, orthodox Christianity - there are rich resources that can make its followers agents for peaced on the earth. It provides a firm basis for respecting people of other faiths. E.g. the bibilical doctrine of the universal image of God, leads Christians to expect non-believers will be better than any of their mistaken beliefs could make them. Furthermore, Christian believers are NOT accepted by God because of their moral performance, wisdom or virtue, but because of Christ's work on their behalf.

It is common to say that 'fundamentalism' leads to violence, yet all of us have fundamental, unprovable faith commitments we think are superior of others. Common postmodern examples of such fundamental beliefs are:

• "There can't be just one way."
• "There can't be any absolute truth. Everything is relative."
• "All the ways lead to the same destination."

The real question then is which fundamentals will lead their believers to be the most loving and receptive to those with whom they differ?

We cannot skip lightly over the fact that there have been injustice done by the church in the name of Jesus Christ, yet who can deny that the force of Christians' most funadmental beliefs can be a powerful impetus for peace-making in our troubled world?

Based on: Keller, T. (2008). The Reason For God. p.3-21