In a recent discussion with a friend (over a nice 16-miler in Central Park), we came to the topic of science, which is a shared interest of ours. That discussion quickly jumped to science vis-a-vis faith, and my Christian beliefs. I made the comment along the way, that it’s all or nothing for me. If I can’t find a world view that is consistent with other facts, then I must alter my world view. Still, I maintain what I call a “crunchy”, literal faith and view of the Bible. Christianity, is not about good moral teaching, at least not to me. For if Christ was not God and was not raised from the dead, then everything else he said and did is suspect. I think my friend was surprised by this view–but also seemed to applaud it’s intellectual integrity. I do not believe we can have it both ways. It is all or nothing; there is no half-way.
I came upon this from C.S. Lewis today in which he makes, I believe, a similar point.
There is no half-way house and there is no parallel in other religions. If you had gone to Buddha and asked him ‘are you the son of Brahma?’ he would have said ‘My, son, you are still in the vale of illusion.’ If you had gone to Socrates and asked, ‘Are you Zeus?’ he would have laughed at you. If you had gone to Mohammed and asked, ‘Are you Allah?’ he would have rent his clothes and then cut your head off. If you had asked Confucius, ‘Are you Heaven?’ I think he would probably have replied, ‘Remarks which are not in accordance with nature are in bad taste.’ The idea of a great moral teacher saying what Christ said is out of the question. In my opinion, the only person who can say that sort of thing is either God or a complete lunatic suffering from that form of delusion which undermines the whole mind of man. If you think you are a poached egg, when you are looking for a piece of toast to suit you, you may be sane, but if you think you are God, then there is no chance for you. We may note in passing that He was never regarded as a mere moral teacher. He did not produce that effect on any of the people who actually met Him. He produced mainly three effects–Hatred — Terror — Adoration. There was no trace of people expressing mild approval.
We’ve hardly been in contact since high school, so it’s both exciting and encouraging to me to see how similar our convictions are now. You are absolutely right. Jesus was the most extraordinary figure in human history and a ho-hum response to Him can only be possible when he is not understood. As Tim Keller pointed out in a talk years ago, here was a man who made claims of divinity and then calmly stood and accepted worship (when 1st century Jews would have been among the least likely people of all time to worship a mortal person as divine). Any normal Jewish rabbi at that point would have been tearing his cloak if someone had tried to worship him, but Jesus acted like that was exactly the right thing to do and that all the bystanders were the ones who didn’t get it. That’s only one of many characteristics that make Jesus of Nazareth so polarizing. To those with eyes to see, it’s one of untold things that make him worth of our worship still.