The Blatchford Controversies, II - Why I Believe In Christianity

Two facts of note: First, Christianity rose and spread within a very modern world, in that the Romans had a highly developed rational philosophy.  But it spread anyway.  Second, the Christian world advanced by leaps and bounds beyond the non-Christian world.

Secularists ridicule what they see as central contradictions at the core of Christian belief, but we should examine the nature of the contradiction.  The easiest way to avoid contradiction in belief is to proclaim agnosticism, but it is entirely unworkable.  As a practical matter, simply to get through the day, we must commit ourselves to one philosophy or to another.  If nothing else, we must decide to hold or not to hold others responsible for their actions.  The secularist tries to deny free will, but knows that he must behave in everyday life as if it were real.  Why can we not ridicule that contradiction, lived every day?  Whereas a Christian who professes free will recognizes the difficulty in the position, sees no other way, embraces the contradiction, calls it mystery-- and puts it at the center of his life.  Can we not respect the honesty?  Especially considering that that philosophy has all the success.

Alternatives: We can respect the beautiful natural world as our creator, but at some point we will ask, then why not go to war as the birds do?  Or we can recognize that problem, throw up our hands, and call the universe absurd.  Then why continue to try to make our way through the world, assert ourselves against that universe? 

Or, we can appreciate the birds as birds while we recognize man as man, with all the baggage and difficulty that comes with that declaration.  And as we do so, we can proclaim that the God who made the birds birds Himself became man.  And we will know we have solved the dilemma, even as the new path is full of contradiction.

Finally, the whole secularist program actually reaffirms Christian theology.  While they proclaim the march of progress, progress can only be recognized as a movement toward a higher state.  But actually recognizing a higher state as being higher requires an overall orientation that a barren universe does not provide.  The Christian story of the Fall leading to the Resurrection, on the other hand, is the template of against which all progress is judged.  The concept of a good human nature that can either be fallen short of or successfully pursued requires, at some point, the reality of that good state.

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Five pages.  Holy crap.