Christians have this annoying habit of acting like doubt on the “facts” of the Bible is a heart-and-soul issue. Or, worse, that it’s about the Holy Spirit (whatever that is — in my experience, even most Christians can’t make head or tails of it).
But the “fact” claims in the Bible aren’t abstract events that happened in some mythological space (at least, for most of Christendom). These are facts on external reality. And the best way to figure out external reality is with the tools of reasoning, the scientific method, and logic.
That’s not to say that your emotions are pointless. Emotions are important because they motivate whatever you decide to do with the facts you have. And, technically speaking, emotions can be facts themselves when felt internally (when you say “I feel sad” – yes, of course the emotion is relevant to that fact. Obviously, that’s different from, “Obama is President”). But when it comes to questions about whether claims of things that happened outside of you are true or not, we need evidence and reasoning, not emotions.
No, I’m not just saying this because I’m an atheist, because most Christians try to do this in every area of life, it seems, save Christianity. How well does your heart and soul work when figuring out how much you owe on taxes? Or figuring out tomorrow’s weather? Or trying to diagnose your care problem? Or how much is in your savings?
For things like this Christians usually rely on evidence and reasoning, not emotions. How much more so for facts that supposedly have much greater importance, like what happens after we die, or whether Jesus was resurrected?
I mean, you can’t even divine the approximate number of people living in Jerusalem in 33 AD with your heart, let alone whether some guy rose from the dead.
I really want to hammer this home, because it’s frustrating that Christians miss it. Christians, when you say Jesus rose from the dead, you’re talking about a physical tomb and a physical body and an actual event that happened in time and space. That act – there’s nothing mystical about it all. It either happened in real time and space, or it did not.
Can we talk about it that way, please? Can we please not get sidetracked with annoying testimonies about your emotional experience with God where He “showed” you that Jesus rose from the dead, or blame it on something supposedly mystical and deep like the Holy Spirit, or say it’s a heart thing or a soul thing? That’s missing the point completely. We are talking about an event that either happened or did not happen in real time and space. So, let’s look at this rationally, with reason and evidence, the same way we would look at whether literally any other event outside the illogically cordoned-off realm of Christian myth happened at that time.
I know it might be offensive to say that when you get sidetracked on these mystical rabbit trails, you’re being annoying. But it’s true. I mean, how would you feel if you asked who won the game yesterday, and I told you who I thought won according to my heart instead of looking at the standings? Or if you asked the teller how much was in your bank account, and she said, “Well, my heart tells me that you have a million dollars in there”? Wouldn’t that be annoying after a while?
So please, knock it off. Give me evidence. Give me reasons. And I’m not saying that because I’m some guy who doesn’t feel emotions. I’m not wooden and void of feeling – my emotional well is deep and very passionate, which is why I want to make sure that the directions I turn my emotions in are actually legit. I don’t want to passionately chase phantoms. I want to dedicate my life and motivation to things that are real.
I really hope that makes sense, because it’s bloody irritating when a Christian leans in with a look of pained concern on their face and says — in the middle of my doubts on whether a water-walking godman walked out of a tomb after three days of stone cold death so that Jimmy wouldn’t have to go to hell for eternity for stealing a candy wrapper (and other assorted sins) — “How’s your heart? Listen to your soul. Open yourself up to the Holy Spirit.”
What the heck does that have to do with anything? Nothing. We’re talking about something that either happened or did not happen. Please stop introducing red herrings into the conversation. Can we leave the mystical side-quests for The Legend of Zelda?
It’s not a spirit thing. It’s not a “soul” thing. It’s about something that happened or did not happen in real lifespace, that can be examined with reason and evidence, like pretty much everything else that exists in real, life existence.
If you’re good with that, we can talk. Gravy?
Thanks for reading.