A great read

In 2008 Timothy Keller wrote The Reason for God. It became a best-selling book, addressing reasons to believe in the Christian faith. I recently reread the book and want to share some of the author's points that make it so powerful.

He first tackles major objections to Christianity. Some have stated that there can't be just one true religion. They object to Christianity's claim of exclusivity, saying this religious view leads to wars. Is the answer to outlaw religions? Keller asks us to consider what happened when this was attempted. The result was not more peace and harmony but more oppression -- look at Soviet Russia, Communist China, and other atheistic regimes.

Many people try to water down such exclusive claims by suggesting that all major religions are equally valid and basically teach the same thing. They will use the story of the blind men and the elephant in which several blind men touch different parts of an elephant and give different answers of what an elephant really is. This illustration supposedly shows that all religions of the world each have a grasp of part of the truth of spiritual reality but not the entire picture. But the story is told from the point of view of someone who is not blind. How can the storyteller see in a world of the blind? Major religions do not teach the same thing if you take the time to examine their major beliefs.

Many believe it is arrogant to insist one religion is right. But this view itself is arrogant -- its claim is that the speaker has a better view of things than those of a religious persuasion. Of course, those who object to religious beliefs think they have a superior way to view things. Therefore, their view is also an exclusive claim about the nature of spiritual reality.

There are those who say public discourse should be secular, never religious, because religion-based positions are seen as controversial while secular reasoning is universal. However, it is impossible to leave religious views behind when we do any kind of moral reasoning at all. Religion is a set of beliefs that explain what life is all about and what human beings should spend their time doing. Even the most secular individual has deep commitments about what it means to be human. Secular grounds for moral positions are no less controversial than religious grounds, and a very strong case, Keller says, can be made that all moral positions are at least implicitly religious. When you come into the public square, you cannot leave your convictions about ultimate values behind, no matter what your belief.

Keller agrees that religion can be a threat to world peace, but he says Christianity provides rich resources that can make its followers "agents for peace on earth." How? It provides a firm basis for respecting people of other faiths because Christians believe that all human beings are made in the image of God. He takes the reader back to the Greco-Roman world in which religious views seemed open and tolerant with everyone having his or her own God. However, this was a brutal culture. By contrast, early Christians, who seemed so exclusive with their claims, were remarkably welcoming to those that the culture marginalized -- different races and classes, the poor, women, the sick and dying. As Keller concludes this section, "at the very heart of their view of reality was a man who died for his enemies, praying for their forgiveness."

I would like to continue looking at The Reason for God in future blogs. If you haven't had a chance to pick up a copy of this book, you're missing a carefully reasoned argument that is a joy to read.