I was afraid to open up about my true, inner thoughts. In my church youth group I had been paired up with an adult volunteer. Not just any guy, but a seminary student studying to be a professional religious person. On the outside that surely looked like a good idea. My father served as a deacon and a Sunday school teacher; my family was there almost whenever the church doors were open. I was a “good” kid who did well in school, followed the rules, and tried to get along with everybody. Yet beneath the façade I hid deep doubts that threatened it all.
If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. 1 Cor. 15:17
At that time I was a high school senior heading to college to study science, physics to be specific. I was logical and rational, with little use for emotion and tradition. Science and the Bible provided me with different pictures of reality. There was no overlap between my fellow students in my advanced high school classes and the kids in the church youth group. Science and Christian faith seemed to have nothing to do with each other, even if not openly hostile. Sure, it was a wonderful story, that the Creator of the whole universe loved me so much that he left heaven to live on earth, die a horrific death, and rise again so I could be with him in heaven forever. But I felt that if it was just a story, it wasn’t worth much.
Reality and the divine
I am a realist. I believe there is a reality “out there” independent of what any of us believes or desires. We can’t change how it is, only work within it. So, if we want to live a good life, we first need to understand it the best we can. The better we understand it, the better we can figure out how to work within it, to use features of that reality to our advantage.
That is what we do in science. We gather data and build theories to better understand the world around us. The more we understand it, the more we can figure out how to utilize the way it works. For example, we study aerodynamics which allows us to build better airplanes. Biologists study bacteria which allows us to develop new treatments for infections. Material scientists study semiconductor growth and behavior which informs us of ways to build better microelectronics. Educational psychologists study how people learn to design more effective instruction. We live better lives when we understand how things really are instead of remaining trapped in fantasies. That is one of the reasons that modern science is one of the greatest triumphs of human kind.
But that raises an existential question. Christianity teaches not only that is there a creator who brought everything into existence but also offers us the opportunity for life after death. But scientific accounts of the origin of life and the cosmos make no mention of a creator. Nor has science found any evidence for life continuing once our body dies. If there is a God who made everything and invites me to live with him after my death, I’d want to align my life with that reality. On the other hand, if our belief in God served merely as a cultural tradition, satisfying social needs, or psychological crutch that allows us to avoid facing reality, I wasn’t interested. I had my whole life before me and believed that it would be stupid to waste my time, money and effort on something that was just a fairytale.
Why I believe
To my relief, Steve (the youth leader) was understanding when I hesitantly expressed my doubts. I think there was some program or study we were supposed to be doing together, but instead he loaned me some books. One was Mere Christianity, the second was Evidence that Demands a Verdict, and I honestly can’t remember the third one. Reading Mere Christianity helped by giving me a glimpse of an honest, intellectual approach to faith, but it was Evidence that Demands a Verdict that really impacted me.
I had plenty of time to read that summer as the pool where I was lifeguarding regularly had slow periods when I was alone. Evidence that Demands a Verdict is far from being a page turner; more of a data dump masquerading as an outline. Still, I hungrily read it cover-to-cover, absorbing the accumulating pieces of evidence on each page. One morning towards the end of the summer I finally finished the book. I closed it and laid it on a table, sighed, and told myself, “Okay, I guess it’s true. So, I should live the rest of my life as a Christian.”
Forty years later, following Jesus Christ is still a central part of who I am, alongside my academic scientific career. Not because I find it a cultural tradition that is easy to follow; being both a Christian and a scientist has required me to blaze my own path in many areas. Not because I find it satisfying social needs; being both a scientist and a Christian has often led to my feeling like an outsider in both academic and church circles. Not because I found it psychologically comforting; it has at times pushed me far out of my comfort zone and told me to stick it out through difficult times.
No, I am both a scientist and a Christian because I am convinced that they both are true, or more precisely, that they are both means to Truth. They both provide reliable information about the fundamental Truth underlying the entirety of reality that surrounds us. In my scientific work I form my conclusions on the basis of what the evidence shows. I trust the Bible because of the same thing. To be more specific, my examination of the internal and external evidence has convinced me that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus were real, literal, historical events. Events that point to a different, supernatural reality from that which science can study. Jesus rose from the dead, and that changes everything. The apostle Paul put it like this:
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:17-19, NIV)
And what about you?
One of the most important questions I believe everyone needs to consider is whether or not the Jesus we encounter on the pages of the gospels (i.e. the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the Bible) is really who he claims to be. He made outrageous claims, likes “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father [God] except by me” (John 14:6) and “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies” (John 11:25). He claimed to have come from God, to be one with God, and that his followers should be prepared to sacrifice everything for him. This Jesus is not merely a wise human teacher sharing hard-won wisdom like Confucius or Aesop; either he is much more, or he is a fraud perpetuated by himself, his disciples, or well-meaning but mistaken later followers who mixed truth with myth.
I believe that the key to figuring out which option is correct is whether or not Jesus really came back from the dead after a brutal execution as he had predicted. If he did, I figure the safe bet is that he truly was a divine being in human form and that what he taught about the ultimate nature of reality and purpose of life is probably correct. In that case, it would be foolish of me to not live according to what he and his disciples taught. But if it is merely a heart-warming made-up story, devoting my time, money and effort to follow him would be a stupid thing to do.
Of all the major philosophers and religious founders in human history, Jesus stands out as the only one who predicted he would be killed and then come back to life and—at least according to many of his followers—did exactly that. Notably, these events are claimed to have happened at a specific place and time within the scope of recorded history, so we potentially can use historical evidence to find support for or against that claim. One of the themes that this blog will explore is some of that evidence that has convinced me, something that I hope you will seriously consider.
References
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (Geoffrey Bles: 1952). Has been since republished by several publishers. Text is available online at: https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20150620
Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell (Thomas Nelson: 1979). There have been several updated/expanded editions published since.
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