A Ramble About Evidence

Today I just felt drained. I finally got hired for part time work with an event security company here in Orange County. It's not much, but it's at least a paying job. So, the past couple of days I have been preoccupied with getting to an interview (not realizing that the bus didn't go far enough down the street I needed it to and having to walk the extra mile or two), putting together clothes for a uniform, and attending an orientation yesterday morning. This morning it felt like all I could do to just pray for the two services our church holds on Sundays.

I spent most of today just browsing Facebook, checking the news online, and watching some clips from Youtube. One of the pictures on Facebook caught my eye. It was of a series of chat messages between a friend of a friend and an atheist whom this friend of a friend had never met before. She had posted it for those friends and friends of friends who might find it interesting. I fell into the latter category and read through it.

This person wrote, in reference to religion:

Not exactly, I'm just saying its a flawed system all together and I for a long time felt horrible because I didn't believe in a religion and I tried very hard but I realized that this is who I am and what a believe, beyond that the logistics of religion are ridiculous and illogical, and everyone always says you don't need logic and things but it's important. And I'm not saying that I know exactly what's going t happen when I die if there is a god (which I don't believe there is) and if it's the Christian God I will gladly and easily go to hell because I don't want to be in a heaven that won't accept people for who they are or for what they believe no matter the type of person they are

Everyday because I'm atheist people tell me I'm going to somewhere I don't even believe in, and I would like to think that if there was a heaven I would get into it because I'm a nice person with good morals but apparently not

This what I believe and I get people making assumptions everyday about how I live my life and honestly I don't deserve what I get

(reprinted from a photo posted on Facebook, author unknown)

If nothing else, this is a good, honest explanation of where this person is at. If we were to get technical, I wouldn't classify this person as an atheist, but as an agnostic. They were willing to give the existence of God or a god a shot, and couldn't find verifiable evidence to back it up in their experience. It sounds like the person may still be open to the possibility of God with the right evidence. In my opinion, I don't think the failure is necessarily with the person who wrote this as much as it lies with the “evangelists” who represented the Christian faith and the existence of God to this person.

For me, the idea the God might not exist is ridiculous. It is more ridiculous than if someone were to tell me my wife didn't actually exist but she was a figment of my imagination (hey, you watch Matrix enough and it can start to play philosophical games with your head about the nature of reality). I've had an experiential relationship with Him now for many, many years and have seen His movements, answers to prayer that cross the miracle border and then some, and sensed and been aware of His presence in ways so deeply intimate and unmistakable that His existence just isn't a question for me. I know Him in the same way that I know my wife, or my kids, or the friend from college that I've known for twenty years (although I hear from Him a lot more than the friend from college). I know Him well enough now to know something of generally why He does what He does, and why He's likely to not do something. I can't usually predict what He's going to do. There're too many factors involved in His decision making for me to handle. He still surprises me all the time, and I'm never going to fully understand Him (that is physically impossible), but we do have that kind of a relationship.

The author of the chat text doesn't. For whatever reason, he or she doesn't have the kind of experience or evidence of God that I and many others do. Just telling this kind of a person to “believe and then you'll see” doesn't fly with him or her. It's a useless, and potentially harmful cliché which, as in this person's case, when it doesn't work in their opinion causes them to distance themselves even further.

This kind of person needs to see the evidence of God. With Jesus, His apostles, and many of the Saints throughout history part of this evidence took the form of demonstrations of power, miraculous healings, even resurrection from the dead. This became undeniable evidence of the truth of what they said. Of course, even this kind of evidence was challenged by those who found it threatening their positions (see Pharisees and the Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit). To this day, even many Christians challenge the veracity of miracles performed by the Saints of the Church because such miracles threaten their interpretation of Holy Scripture and Gospel truth. Here's a question, how can we point to the evidence God supports us with to prove our claims, when we refuse to accept it ourselves?

The other kind of evidence that Jesus, the Apostles, and the Saints of old demonstrated was the evidence of their lives. They weren't just good people. The sacrificed themselves and their desires to obey, move closer to and be with the God who loved them and whom they loved. They did this being motivated and empowered by His uncreated energies which also, coincidentally, powered the more visually flashy evidence of His presence. People saw that there wasn't just something a little bit different about them. They saw they they were from a whole 'nother world and were eager to get back to it. They saw that they refused to be assimilated into this world, this world hated them for it, and the feeling was mutual. They saw the unreasonable compassion, lovingkindness, and self-sacrifice which bordered on insanity to the point that these people were singing praises to God as they were crucified, burned alive, torn apart by lions and skinned alive.

The person who wrote that chat text hasn't seen any of this from those who claim to be witnesses who have evidence of the presence of God and the truth of their religious faith. This isn't his or her fault. He or she shouldn't be expected to want to “become a Christian” based on the strength of someone's condemnation of their assumed lifestyle, especially if the person “witnessing” isn't acting or living any differently than he or she is.

Why would any sane person want to belong to a church or religious group that doesn't have the evidence to back up their claims? Why should we expect them to “just believe” when we don't even pretend to act like we believe, let alone actually believe and act on it? This is not the failure of the honest atheist or agnostic. This is a failure of the dishonest “Christian.”

I do not know if I will ever run into the person who wrote this text, but I want to thank them for their honesty. I hope, I truly hope, that if I ever do meet them that I will not have to say one word for them to understand the presence of God around and within me. If I do have to say anything, then I had better keep my mouth closed anyway. If God doesn't support my claim to faith without my saying anything, then He and I need to have a serious talk, and I have a lot of explaining to do.