| Spiritual Non-Fiction posted January 20, 2020 |
  |
This realization brought me to Believe...
A Logical Leap of Faith...
by GregoryCody
Faith Contest Winner
This is not a "born again" talk. This is not "Young Life" or a cheery, evangelical message. I'm not going to tell you to smile because "life is a gift". I was an atheist, well, more of an agnostic. I didn't know what was out there. But what I did know was that the "Bible thumpers" and the "kumbaya sing along" groups annoyed me. "Hey everybody, come sit down and grab a Mountain Dew! Oh, I know! It's Friday night! Who's up for a game of Charades!" No. What I did with my friends was drink, fight and do drugs. Why? Because life was Hard. It was a battle and ultimately things were miserable. Life was no gift.
"Get real, I'd say. Have a taste of reality. Grow up in a broken home in a trailer park where you are abused daily. Gift? No. War. You have to Survive life, not be grateful for it. Are you joking. You know nothing."
So it took me some time. I loathed those people at the time and as a result, religion in general. I thought people who believed were simple, and just afraid of death. I honestly just thought they were stupid. But then I realized something: WHY were countless intelligent people, actual Geniuses throughout time and currently; Christians? How were brilliant minds so naive? There HAD to be something to it besides a fear of death.
So I looked into it.
This is where you have to be open minded. I always thought Christians were close minded and would Not listen to facts and science. They were blind on purpose. But think for one moment. What if there were facts and logic that pointed Towards Christianity. By not at least listening to them, wouldn't I be doing the exact same thing?
So be open for five minutes. Really be open. Because frankly, it is intellectually lazy to just Refuse to listen to those facts and logic points. Because the bottom line, there is a Whole Wealth of information just like that, that have been hidden from us, or at least not as widely accessible to the public forum as naturalistic or atheistic views have been.
I am here telling you now. From a former non believer, from someone who detested believers. I am telling you that FACTS and Logic point to Christianity. I just don't think the majority of people are aware of them.
I can go into the logical consistency of this worldview. I can go into the historical facts about the resurrection. The Bible stated that the earth was darkened for three hours and there was an earthquake following the crucifixtion of Jesus. Thallus referenced the sky being dark but attributed it to an eclipse. Look at the government department of NOAA and notice that an earthquake happened in the area of Jerusalem in 33AD. Come on. That's pretty remarkable. I could systematically prove that the gospels about Jesus were Not written hundreds of years later, but rather within ten. This is not me. These are scholars, secular and non. It's true.
I can go into the empirical adequacy of the Bible and Christianity as a whole. We can get really smart and technical with it. Trust me I love this.
But let's focus on just ONE aspect. Just one: experiential relevance.
A group of people swore their friend was the Son of God. They saw him perform miracles. These were crazy feats. Then He was put to death in the most painful, not to mention, embarrassing way, in front of everyone. What would You have thought? (Uh oh. I think we we might have been wrong.) They went into hiding. But then out of Nowhere, they ALL not only came out of hiding, but they ran out into the world Yelling about what they saw. They saw their friend, come back to life. Wouldn't YOU do that? Wouldn't you be fearless? Wouldn't you want to tell everyone? That's precisely what they did. And each but one was put to death for it. WHAT other explanation could there be for that drastic change in attitude? Seriously how would you justify that other than it being true?
Take 3 individuals as an example of this radical change.
Peter, one of the apostles, a favorite of Jesus, was a fair weather believer in a sense. He was a believer but his faith could waver at times, until the resurrection. After Peter claimed that he saw the risen Jesus, he went out the next day professing what he had seen, preaching the word to anyone who would listen, without a care for the consequences, a radical change, quite literally, overnight.
Thomas, another apostle, was hard to convince, a true skeptic (hence the moniker "doubting Thomas"). Even after he saw the risen Jesus, he was not convinced. But when he touched the wounds, he immediately fell to the ground, weeping "Adonai Alai" or My Lord, My God. He then went to India to preach what he had been taught, what he had witnessed.
The most unusual would be Saul of Tarsus, or Paul. Paul did not know Jesus during his lifetime, but rather met the transcendent Jesus. Paul was an elite Jew, well trained and well versed in scripture, and was a leader in seeking out to destroy the "Jesus movement" as it was being called. He ordered and witnessed stonings and deaths of Christians, including Stephen's, the first to be killed for his faith. Upon his journey to Desmascus, Paul was encountered by Jesus. He was struck blind for three days. When his sight was restored, Paul became a devout believer and would go on to write 1/3 of the New Testament.
Peter and Thomas were petrified after the crucifixtion. They were confused and in hiding. They saw the risen Jesus and instantaneously began evangelizing the truth, without fear, without doubt. Paul was not only an unbeliever, he was a leader in the persecution of Christians. If a person in that situation had an immediate change in belief, clearly there has to be some weight to that. They were fearless in their proclamations, and each, but one, were martryed for it, tragically being executed. It doesn't make sense, logically, for this to have happened, other than the fact that what they were saying was true. What other logical explanation is there for three sane individuals to change their views so drastically and be willing to die for them?
Jesus appeared to over 500 people while he was back on earth.
Paul wrote in Corinthians "After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep."
In essence, he was saying, if you don't believe ME, ask one of them.
You Have to ask yourself. WHY am I so against this being true? Logically it Makes sense does it not?
Again, I can go into technical aspects, historical facts, scientific examples if you are not convinced and need hard evidence. Seriously, there IS hard evidence. But use simple logic. WHAT other explanation could there be for these people acting this way?
We have been fed the belief that religion is for the ignorant and atheism is for the scholars. The truth has been hidden.
After you examine the evidence, after you accept simple logic, I am telling you...
It would take more faith for one to be an atheist than it would be to be a Christian.
This is not a "born again" talk. This is not "Young Life" or a cheery, evangelical message. I'm not going to tell you to smile because "life is a gift". I was an atheist, well, more of an agnostic. I didn't know what was out there. But what I did know was that the "Bible thumpers" and the "kumbaya sing along" groups annoyed me. "Hey everybody, come sit down and grab a Mountain Dew! Oh, I know! It's Friday night! Who's up for a game of Charades!" No. What I did with my friends was drink, fight and do drugs. Why? Because life was Hard. It was a battle and ultimately things were miserable. Life was no gift.
"Get real, I'd say. Have a taste of reality. Grow up in a broken home in a trailer park where you are abused daily. Gift? No. War. You have to Survive life, not be grateful for it. Are you joking. You know nothing."
So it took me some time. I loathed those people at the time and as a result, religion in general. I thought people who believed were simple, and just afraid of death. I honestly just thought they were stupid. But then I realized something: WHY were countless intelligent people, actual Geniuses throughout time and currently; Christians? How were brilliant minds so naive? There HAD to be something to it besides a fear of death.
So I looked into it.
This is where you have to be open minded. I always thought Christians were close minded and would Not listen to facts and science. They were blind on purpose. But think for one moment. What if there were facts and logic that pointed Towards Christianity. By not at least listening to them, wouldn't I be doing the exact same thing?
So be open for five minutes. Really be open. Because frankly, it is intellectually lazy to just Refuse to listen to those facts and logic points. Because the bottom line, there is a Whole Wealth of information just like that, that have been hidden from us, or at least not as widely accessible to the public forum as naturalistic or atheistic views have been.
I am here telling you now. From a former non believer, from someone who detested believers. I am telling you that FACTS and Logic point to Christianity. I just don't think the majority of people are aware of them.
I can go into the logical consistency of this worldview. I can go into the historical facts about the resurrection. The Bible stated that the earth was darkened for three hours and there was an earthquake following the crucifixtion of Jesus. Thallus referenced the sky being dark but attributed it to an eclipse. Look at the government department of NOAA and notice that an earthquake happened in the area of Jerusalem in 33AD. Come on. That's pretty remarkable. I could systematically prove that the gospels about Jesus were Not written hundreds of years later, but rather within ten. This is not me. These are scholars, secular and non. It's true.
I can go into the empirical adequacy of the Bible and Christianity as a whole. We can get really smart and technical with it. Trust me I love this.
But let's focus on just ONE aspect. Just one: experiential relevance.
A group of people swore their friend was the Son of God. They saw him perform miracles. These were crazy feats. Then He was put to death in the most painful, not to mention, embarrassing way, in front of everyone. What would You have thought? (Uh oh. I think we we might have been wrong.) They went into hiding. But then out of Nowhere, they ALL not only came out of hiding, but they ran out into the world Yelling about what they saw. They saw their friend, come back to life. Wouldn't YOU do that? Wouldn't you be fearless? Wouldn't you want to tell everyone? That's precisely what they did. And each but one was put to death for it. WHAT other explanation could there be for that drastic change in attitude? Seriously how would you justify that other than it being true?
Take 3 individuals as an example of this radical change.
Peter, one of the apostles, a favorite of Jesus, was a fair weather believer in a sense. He was a believer but his faith could waver at times, until the resurrection. After Peter claimed that he saw the risen Jesus, he went out the next day professing what he had seen, preaching the word to anyone who would listen, without a care for the consequences, a radical change, quite literally, overnight.
Thomas, another apostle, was hard to convince, a true skeptic (hence the moniker "doubting Thomas"). Even after he saw the risen Jesus, he was not convinced. But when he touched the wounds, he immediately fell to the ground, weeping "Adonai Alai" or My Lord, My God. He then went to India to preach what he had been taught, what he had witnessed.
The most unusual would be Saul of Tarsus, or Paul. Paul did not know Jesus during his lifetime, but rather met the transcendent Jesus. Paul was an elite Jew, well trained and well versed in scripture, and was a leader in seeking out to destroy the "Jesus movement" as it was being called. He ordered and witnessed stonings and deaths of Christians, including Stephen's, the first to be killed for his faith. Upon his journey to Desmascus, Paul was encountered by Jesus. He was struck blind for three days. When his sight was restored, Paul became a devout believer and would go on to write 1/3 of the New Testament.
Peter and Thomas were petrified after the crucifixtion. They were confused and in hiding. They saw the risen Jesus and instantaneously began evangelizing the truth, without fear, without doubt. Paul was not only an unbeliever, he was a leader in the persecution of Christians. If a person in that situation had an immediate change in belief, clearly there has to be some weight to that. They were fearless in their proclamations, and each, but one, were martryed for it, tragically being executed. It doesn't make sense, logically, for this to have happened, other than the fact that what they were saying was true. What other logical explanation is there for three sane individuals to change their views so drastically and be willing to die for them?
Jesus appeared to over 500 people while he was back on earth.
Paul wrote in Corinthians "After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep."
Paul wrote in Corinthians "After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep."
In essence, he was saying, if you don't believe ME, ask one of them.
You Have to ask yourself. WHY am I so against this being true? Logically it Makes sense does it not?
Again, I can go into technical aspects, historical facts, scientific examples if you are not convinced and need hard evidence. Seriously, there IS hard evidence. But use simple logic. WHAT other explanation could there be for these people acting this way?
We have been fed the belief that religion is for the ignorant and atheism is for the scholars. The truth has been hidden.
After you examine the evidence, after you accept simple logic, I am telling you...
It would take more faith for one to be an atheist than it would be to be a Christian.
|
Writing Prompt Write a story or essay about faith. |
Faith Contest Winner |
I did not necessarily edit this as it was more stream of thought prose. Feel free to ask any questions!
And NO offense to Young Life or Bible Thumpers. You all were just in the know faster than me ;)
Pays
one point
and 2 member cents. And NO offense to Young Life or Bible Thumpers. You all were just in the know faster than me ;)
You need to login or register to write reviews. It's quick! We only ask four questions to new members.
© Copyright 2024. GregoryCody All rights reserved.
GregoryCody has granted FanStory.com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.
