"What is one thing that would really force you to question your beliefs"
A friend asked me this question a few months ago, with regards to Christianity. At some level it is a question that, based on how I answer, allows the one who posed the question to evaluate how I pursue my belief. If I say "nothing could make me question my beliefs" than I must not really analyze or challenge anything that comes from a religious standpoint. On the other hand, if the thing that makes me really question Christianity is very plausible, or in fact has happened in the past, then I look like an idiot. (This question wasn't posed in a threatening or challenging way of any sort, for the record, but was genuinely curious). I think it's a great question that everyone should ask themselves and of others.
So, having just discussed how I try to approach my faith in a logical fashion, let's begin with these beliefs that I accept as true:
1) God created the universe and everything in it.
2) God created humans on earth
3) Jesus (God as a human) died and rose from the dead to save humans from their sins.
"What is one thing that would really force you to question your beliefs"
Lucky for me, I had thought this through before. Kind from a backwards approach, where I realized that if x were to happen, I'd really question my faith in Christ.
The one thing that would most cause me to question my faith is discovering intelligent life on another planet. Really, it's more than "intelligent life" but life with a soul. (No, I don't have any method of proving if aliens would or would not have a soul, but meet me halfway). Why? There's a few reasons.
1) I've talked about how the universe we live in is a whole bunch of systems that God started and let run a long time ago. I'm of the opinion that the universe exists solely for us to run around in. That means that all of the other planets and solar systems and galaxies and everything else out there is pretty much a byproduct of creation (which could have been done via big bang for all I know or care).
Life, in my opinion, is still a tiny miracle every time it happens. Every new creature and new bit of life is God shooting a little lightning bolt to earth and yelling "Go!" He puts life on Earth. If life and humanity was the sole purpose of creation, I don't see why God would put life on other planets as well. There's no need for him to put it on Mars or anyplace we haven't yet found.
If there was unintelligent life on another planet, I would still really examine what I believe and why. If we found that trees are growing somewhere out there, I wouldn't be terribly concerned, but my theory about life being "God lightning bolts" would break down. If there were animals crawling around, I would be much more skeptic, but I still don't think it would be shattering. (I would essentially be forced to change my opinion that life is a tiny miracle happening by the grace of God every day. Instead I would view it as yet another "system" that God put in place and is running along just fine.) If, however there were some sort of "people" "walking around," I would have one main question:
2) Do they have some form of Judaism/Christianity? I feel like their humanity would have the same types of issues as ours did: at some point falling from the grace of God, or not falling and still being in a garden of eden like state. If either of those two scenarios are not present at some level, then pretty much everything I've believed I am going to re-examine very closely.
I don't expect you to really care or agree with any of this. But when I've had this conversation with other people they've been genuinely interested, and I find that writing it out makes me think through it better. So I figured there's a chance that you might care or have similar/differing thoughts. Please feel free to leave them as a comment below (or email me, grant dot gilchrist at gmail). I just felt the desire to express it.
For what it's worth, my wife was asked the same question and said "the equivalent of the rapture happening in some other religion." Meaning, if the biggest, grandest, most final prophecies of other religions came true, she would probably believe that religion instead. A much smarter, simpler answer, really.
A friend asked me this question a few months ago, with regards to Christianity. At some level it is a question that, based on how I answer, allows the one who posed the question to evaluate how I pursue my belief. If I say "nothing could make me question my beliefs" than I must not really analyze or challenge anything that comes from a religious standpoint. On the other hand, if the thing that makes me really question Christianity is very plausible, or in fact has happened in the past, then I look like an idiot. (This question wasn't posed in a threatening or challenging way of any sort, for the record, but was genuinely curious). I think it's a great question that everyone should ask themselves and of others.
So, having just discussed how I try to approach my faith in a logical fashion, let's begin with these beliefs that I accept as true:
1) God created the universe and everything in it.
2) God created humans on earth
3) Jesus (God as a human) died and rose from the dead to save humans from their sins.
"What is one thing that would really force you to question your beliefs"
Lucky for me, I had thought this through before. Kind from a backwards approach, where I realized that if x were to happen, I'd really question my faith in Christ.
 |
| The potentially biggest obstacle between me and my faith |
1) I've talked about how the universe we live in is a whole bunch of systems that God started and let run a long time ago. I'm of the opinion that the universe exists solely for us to run around in. That means that all of the other planets and solar systems and galaxies and everything else out there is pretty much a byproduct of creation (which could have been done via big bang for all I know or care).
Life, in my opinion, is still a tiny miracle every time it happens. Every new creature and new bit of life is God shooting a little lightning bolt to earth and yelling "Go!" He puts life on Earth. If life and humanity was the sole purpose of creation, I don't see why God would put life on other planets as well. There's no need for him to put it on Mars or anyplace we haven't yet found.
If there was unintelligent life on another planet, I would still really examine what I believe and why. If we found that trees are growing somewhere out there, I wouldn't be terribly concerned, but my theory about life being "God lightning bolts" would break down. If there were animals crawling around, I would be much more skeptic, but I still don't think it would be shattering. (I would essentially be forced to change my opinion that life is a tiny miracle happening by the grace of God every day. Instead I would view it as yet another "system" that God put in place and is running along just fine.) If, however there were some sort of "people" "walking around," I would have one main question:
2) Do they have some form of Judaism/Christianity? I feel like their humanity would have the same types of issues as ours did: at some point falling from the grace of God, or not falling and still being in a garden of eden like state. If either of those two scenarios are not present at some level, then pretty much everything I've believed I am going to re-examine very closely.
I don't expect you to really care or agree with any of this. But when I've had this conversation with other people they've been genuinely interested, and I find that writing it out makes me think through it better. So I figured there's a chance that you might care or have similar/differing thoughts. Please feel free to leave them as a comment below (or email me, grant dot gilchrist at gmail). I just felt the desire to express it.
For what it's worth, my wife was asked the same question and said "the equivalent of the rapture happening in some other religion." Meaning, if the biggest, grandest, most final prophecies of other religions came true, she would probably believe that religion instead. A much smarter, simpler answer, really.
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| A picture of the baby, because I know that's why half of you are here anyways. |
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