From Steve Jones at Freethinking Faith comes one of the best arguments I’ve ever seen why skeptics — even those who, like Jones (and me) don’t believe Jesus was God — should still follow him:
… I have taken that existential leap, I’ve ventured my life upon the essential truthfulness of the Christian message. In all my weakness and doubt, I consider myself a follower of Jesus.
What else is there for me? Atheism? No, I see too much evidence for a Great Mind behind the complexity of life, a thing that never could have arisen by luck of the draw. How about Deism, a God detached from the universe He created? No, too many people have experienced too many things relating to the Sacred. They can’t ALL be delusional.
Well, what about other religions? Judaism? Buddhism? No, despite their obvious virtues, I can’t see myself embracing either of these. Judaism, as far as I understand it, falls shorts of Christ’s lofty ethic of love for enemies, open-ended forgiveness, unreasonable gentleness. Buddhism is too accepting of suffering, too acquiescent toward evil for my taste. The Christian is called to confront and defeat evil, not to find peace with its existence. That’s why Christian-based hospitals, orphanages and relief agencies dot the globe. We’re not content to just let bad things flourish.
Despite all of the negative things — like petty church people and dumb doctrines — I have seen amazingly good thing come out of Christian faith. I’ve seen so many examples of drugged-out, angry, aimless people becoming kind, sane, joyous people in the briefest spans (my own brother, for example). There must be something divine about it all. I never see that happen as a result of psychology or some secular philosophy. But I’ve seen it many times when people enter a relationship with God as a response to Jesus of Nazareth.
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