Conventional wisdom looks at Christianity as a matter of faith, not logic. Perhaps it will lead to a good life, and perhaps it provides hope, but it also requires one to blindly follow a text and not be skeptical.
While this line of thinking may be politically correct, it is rather insulting, as it implies that Christians are people who do not think for themselves. For the sake of dialogue, let’s turn the tables:
If the Bible is not the word of God, then what is it? Fiction? Exaggeration? Propaganda? If it is a group’s attempt to fool future generations, then what was the motivation? Why spend so much time on it? Why choose obscure people like Matthew, Mark and Luke as authors for the gospels instead of well-known figures of the time? Why did historians like Papias and Irenaeus affirm that the gospel writers existed and were precise in recording testimony? Why are there no other specific theories as to who really wrote it?
If the Bible is propaganda, not history, then why is it written the way it is? Why so much detail? Why the chronological and sometimes dull tone? Why tell the same story several times, always with the basic details the same? Why do the gospels read so differently from each other, as if the authors worked independently and neither coordinated nor compared their accounts for consistency, as propagandists would? Why feed the skeptics by including paradoxical aspects of Christianity? What kind of people risk scorn, suffering and death to trick future generations into believing a false ideology, especially when they have nothing to gain financially?
If the Bible is just a series of tall tales that were exaggerated over time, then why does its earliest translation date back to A.D. 100? Why didn’t historians object to the Bible’s accuracy back then, when less than a generation had transpired since the events described? Why are there 24,000 ancient manuscripts of the Bible, but nothing alleging what would be the most extensive conspiracy in human history?
If Jesus didn’t exist, then why do so many people believe that he did? Why did the historian Josephus in A.D. 93 refer to a man named James as “the brother of Jesus, who was called the Christ”? Why did Tacitus in A.D. 115 write about Nero’s persecuting of Christians? Why do critical accounts describe Jesus as a sorcerer, instead of calling his existence a myth?
If Jesus was not the son of God, then who was he? Why did he fulfill the Old Testament properties of the Messiah, from ancestry, to place of birth, to method of death, to the coinage someone accepted to betray him? If he didn’t perform miracles, then why did his critics call him a sorcerer? Why did he claim to be the only path to Heaven and forgive people for sins? Why did he gain millions of followers, while other prophets did not? Why didn’t he correct those who thought he was God? Why would the Romans want to kill a carpenter who just happened to speak in parables? Why did they hang a “King of the Jews” sign above his head?
How could someone who falsely claims to be God be a good person? Aren’t the only alternatives to Jesus being the son of God that he was insane or lying? Could an insane person sway masses with modesty, calm and compassion? Could a liar convince people he was sinless and inspire them to such an ethically demanding religion? How many con-men willingly die to keep their acts going?
If Jesus did not die on a cross and then rise from the dead, then what happened? How could someone survive a Roman flogging of metal balls, bones and whips, seven inch spikes through his wrists and a spear through his side, especially when Roman executioners were themselves killed if those being executed did not die, or if a body was stolen? And how could a person in a beaten and pathetic state possibly inspire others with a message of hope and life?
If Jesus’s resurrection did not happen, then how did Christianity spread so quickly through Jerusalem? Why would people who saw him die believe he rose again without any evidence? Why would so many change their religious traditions to reflect his teachings? Why did they suddenly start practicing communion and baptism?
And why did Jesus’s disciples say he rose from the dead if he really didn’t? Why were they killed for saying he did? Who dies for a lie?
Nathan Carleton is a Trinity senior.
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