I am
continuing my blog on things we discussed in our Christian apologetics class
some time ago. The topic was Christianity as an exclusive faith. People today
bristle at the idea that Christians claim Jesus is the only way to God, so we have
been exploring this issue. In the past two blogs I mentioned every faith is
exclusive, not just Christianity. In fact, it is disrespectful to all religions
to say they teach the same thing as all the others do. The story of the blind
men and the elephant does not prove pluralism when it comes to religions (that
all religions are ways to God) because it assumes the narrator has special
insight not granted to all the people of the world. In addition we discussed
the fact that there are only three families of religion (Eastern, secularist,
and Jewish/Christian/Islam), so it's not an impossible task to try to
distinguish between the major religious beliefs. In this blog I want to cover a
couple of more things that we discussed.
We decided
that many people prefer there not to be a God for many reasons. For example,
Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, one said: "I had motive
for not wanting the world to have a meaning; consequently assumed that it had
none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this
assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned
exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics, he is also concerned to prove
that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to
do, or why his friends should not seize political power and govern in the way
that they find most advantageous to themselves. … For myself, the philosophy of
meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation, sexual and
political." An interesting comment here – Huxley started first with his
desire that there be no God and then worked out reasons to support his desire.
For him and his friends, it came down to sexual freedom and the pursuit of
political power. So much for the idea that people rationally decide there is no
God.
Then there's
Thomas Nagel, Professor of
Philosophy and Law at New York University: "I want atheism to be true and
am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed
people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t
believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I
hope there is no God! I don’t want
there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that." Again,
think about what he's saying. He admits
having a prejudice that colors his rational thoughts. Notice that it's
Christians who are charged with wishful thinking when it comes to the existence
of God. But the atheist is the one who wants there to be a universe with no God
for them to be accountable to.
So, those who comment about our exclusive faith as if that turns them off
may have key motives for dismissing all religions. If there is no special way
to God, maybe there's no God at all. Then they can live however they like--no
humbling of themselves, no surrender to a higher power, no submission to a
superior being.
OK, more next time on this issue of Christian exclusivity.
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