Post
by Dan Byrom » Sat Aug 24, 2019 10:01 am
I'm a Christian.
I've arrived at this point having considered the evidence, but also having met with God personally. That doesn't mean I don't doubt my faith (very often) and I'm very aware that some of the stuff I say can sound ludicrous to non-believers.
The first thing I'd like to point out is that either Jesus rose from the dead, and hence he is who he says he is, and Christianity is true. Or he did not rise from the dead, and hence he was not who he says he was, and Christianity is false.
There is no room to suggest that it is fine for some people to be religious if that is what helps them through life - either we (Christians) are spending our lives worshipping an imaginary creation, or you (non-Christians) are missing out on the most beautiful loving relationship with the one who made you.
Secondly, I would not consider myself 'religious' in the modern understanding of the word. Christianity, rather than being a set of rules and traditions and guidelines for life (a.k.a what we think of as Religion) but is a two-way relationship with a God who loves us enough to die for us. God speaks to us and listens to us.
To suggest that there is no credible evidence at all for Christianity is quite silly (though to choose Atheism having weighed up the evidence, I can understand). The Bible exists, and though it is potentially largely flawed, it contains multiple biographies of this man called Jesus, as well as multiple books written well before Jesus' life that predict Jesus' coming. It is perfectly acceptable to assume Jesus existed, and his character is on the whole similar to how it is described in the Bible. It is conceivable that Jesus is not God, but then who is he? Is he a conman? Has he lied to everyone to go down in the history books? But then how could he be the wisest, humblest most loving man to have existed. Perhaps he is mad then? But reading his biographies suggests to me that he isn't... (You should try looking into this yourself)
It is impossible to prove or disprove the existence of a God using logic and science and reason, if we are supposing that any such God would live outside the realms of human logic and science and reason (and time), so we cannot just claim that the resurrection is impossible.
Moving on to the 'experience' side, I have seen far too many lives completely transformed, and seen too many prayers answered for it to be a coincidence (and I'm a mathematician, so I can understand that coincidences can sometimes happen!) - I've seen people who have been healed through prayer, and seen people prophecy over others' futures with ridiculous accuracy.
Because of all this, I am completely and utterly convinced that, even if God isn't real, there is some sort of Spiritual realm that the human mind can access, that Christians manage to access through prayer. I would go as far as to say that modern Western civilisation is quite backwards in it's understanding of anything other than the purely physical.
I don't expect I'll have convinced anyone to become a Christian based on a few paragraphs on a countdown wiki, but hopefully I've convinced you that it's not just idiots who follow Jesus (billions of people from all cultures and levels of intelligence and points in time over the last 2000 years can't ALL be idiots!), and that it's worth at least considering for yourself - try reading one (or more) of Matthew/Mark/Luke/John and see what you think. Even if you disagree with me, Jesus is a brilliant man and it'll be worth your time to see what he's all about.
If you ever want to send me a message or come and find me at a co:event and ask me more about it then I'd love to. (But I can promise that I won't have all the answers!)