The Questioning Christian

Tag: facing the facts

  • Eight reasons for a rationalist to follow Jesus

    In a long discussion thread on TitusOneNine, a commenter, the Rev. Kevin Maney, asked me (cordially): Why would you want to follow a dead guy?   Here’s an edited version of my response.

    I try to “follow Jesus” for two main reasons: 

    1. Jesus stressed the Summary of the Law: I’m persuaded that the Summary of the Law, which Jesus emphasized, touches on something fundamental in the fabric of the universe, at the heart of the processes by which the creation continues. Specifically, we seem to do our best in life — both individually and as a species, both in passing on our genes to future generations and in serving as God’s created co-creators:

    • when we put God first — more concretely, when we face the facts of the reality that he wrought, and when we rejoice in, or at least acknowledge, the goodness of that reality; and
    • when we seek the best for others as for ourselves.

    2. Jesus was faithful, even unto death, to what he believed to be his duty. For whatever reason(s) — growing up in the military, my own military service, whatever — that kind of faithfulness is a huge hot button for me. 

    These are the two main reasons why in an earlier posting I called Jesus a heroic prophet, someone eminently worthy of admiration and emulation.  Off the top of my head, I can think of several other qualities about him to admire and emulate:

    3. Jesus was personally kind. I’m going to assume readers can “take judicial notice” of this without my having to cite chapter and verse.

    4. He was willing to admit that he didn’t know everything, viz., the day or the hour when the Son of Man would come in the clouds with great power and glory [Mk 13.31-32].

    5. He believed in facing facts. When the imprisoned John the Baptist sent emissaries to ask Jesus, are you the one who is to come?, Jesus responded, look around you, and draw your own conclusions: “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them” [Matt 11.5]. When predicting the return of the Son of Man [Mk 13], he urged his listeners, pay attention to what you see happening around you!

    6. He was willing to change his mind, to be persuaded by other points of view, viz., that of the Syrophoenician woman whose daughter was cured even though she was not an Israelite [Mk 7.24-30].

    7. He was willing to “tell it like it is,” another matter for judicial notice.

    8. He was personally courageous, physically confronting the moneychangers in the temple, and seemingly not being rattled by the crowds that wanted to kill him.

    On reflection, it probably would be fair to characterize what I do as seeking, not to follow Jesus as Jesus, but to conduct my life in accordance with the principles and values that he emphasized and exemplified. 

    Phrasing it another way, I put Jesus in roughly the same hero category as the late Dr. Michael DeBakey, who died a few days ago — except that:

    • Jesus’ impact on the world has so far been several orders of magnitude greater than that of Dr. DeBakey;
    • so far, none of Dr. DeBakey’s later followers have taken it upon themselves to persecute and even kill those who disagreed with them.

    Granted, arguably this view of Jesus is scarcely any different than wanting to “be like Mike” [Michael Jordan]. But I don’t see a problem with that.

    Related posts:

  • Don’t confuse me with the facts ….

    Nicholas Kristof writes in today’s NY Times about how bias can affect perception:

    Psychologists showed a film clip of the football game to groups of students at each college and asked them to act as unbiased referees and note every instance of cheating. The results were striking. Each group, watching the same clip, was convinced that the other side had cheated worse — and this was not deliberate bias or just for show.

    “Their eyes were taking in the same game, but their brains seemed to be processing the events in two distinct ways,” Farhad Manjoo writes in his terrific new book, “True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society.” It’s the best political book so far this year.

    The title of the cited book is certainly intriguing; I’ll have to look into it.

    Kristof continues:

    Mr. Manjoo cites a more recent study by Stanford University psychologists of students who either favored or opposed capital punishment. The students were shown the same two studies: one suggested that executions have a deterrent effect that reduces subsequent murders, and the other doubted that.

    Whatever their stance, the students found the study that supported their position to be well-conducted and persuasive and the other one to be profoundly flawed.

    “That led to a funny result,” Mr. Manjoo writes. “People in the study became polarized.”

    A fair reading of the two studies might have led the students to question whether any strong conclusions could be drawn about deterrence, and thus to tone down their views on the death penalty.  But the opposite happened. Students on each side accepted the evidence that conformed to their original views while rejecting the contrary evidence — and so afterward students on both sides were more passionate and confident than ever of their views.

    In other words, don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind’s already made up. Hmm… that sounds like some of the religious folks I know ….

    You might think that people would have this tendency no matter what their ideology. And you would be wrong:

    This resistance to information that doesn’t mesh with our preconceived beliefs afflicts both liberals and conservatives, but a raft of studies shows that it is a particular problem with conservatives. For example, when voters receive mailings offering them free pamphlets on various political topics, liberals show some interest in getting conservative views. In contrast, conservatives seek only those pamphlets that echo their own views.

    Likewise, liberal blogs overwhelmingly link to other liberal blogs or news sources. But with conservative blogs, the tendency is much more pronounced; it is almost a sealed universe.

    I’ve been a lifelong Republican, going back to elementary school, when I wanted to put a Goldwater sticker on my parents’ car (they said no).

    Lately, though, I’ve been thinking of myself as an independent, for reasons more or less along the lines Kristof describes. Fidelity to the First Commandment calls for us to face the facts; too many of today’s so-called conservatives aren’t willing to do that.