DO THE BENEFITS OF FAITH IN GOD OFFER ANY EVIDENCE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD?
Theistic proofs take many forms. Some focus in on our very experiences. Take this example - If Christian beliefs enable the Christian to live longer and more joyfully, does this fact say anything about the existence of the Christian God? While the atheist will reject the idea that emotional, psychological, and physical benefits have anything to do with truth, most will acknowledge this relationship.
According to the Deist Ben Franklin, we even need God for a moral society:
• If men are wicked with religion, what would they be without it? (Os Guinness, The Journey, 119)
The benefits even extend to our most intimate relationships, as former atheist, Patrick Glynn, reports:
• A 1978 study found that church attendance predicted marital satisfaction better than any other single variable. Couples in long-lasting marriages who were surveyed in another study listed religion as one of the most important “prescriptions” of a happy marriage. (God: The Evidence, 64)
For most Christians, such observations are as predictable as night following day. We have long seen how the Lord and His wisdom salvage our relationships. Glynn also relates religious belief to better physical and emotional payoffs:
• “Religious belief is one of the most consistent correlates of overall mental health and happiness. Study after study has shown a powerful relationship between religious belief and practice, on the one hand, and healthy behaviors with regard to such problems as suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, divorce, depression, even, perhaps surprisingly, levels of sexual satisfaction in marriage, on the other” (Glynn, 61).
I can also attest to this. My life in Christ had freed me from my self-delusions (John 8:31-32), enabling me to see, to accept myself, and to satisfyingly navigate the reality of people and things.
In contrast to this, the atheist experience is admittedly dismal, although it might commence with a sense of freedom from guilt and constraints. Jean-Paul Sartre confessed that, “Atheism is a cruel, long-term business.” Bertrand Russell described his atheistic faith in this manner:
• The life of man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain… Brief and powerless is mean’s life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark. Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way. (Why I am not a Christian)
H.J. Blackham, a former director of the British Humanist Association, wrote:
• The most drastic objection to humanism is that it is too bad to be true. The world is one vast tomb if humans are ephemeral and human life itself is doomed to ultimate extinction… There is no end to hiding from the ultimate end of life, which is death. But it does not avail. On humanist assumptions, life leads to nothing, and every pretense that it does not is a deceit. (Guinness, 106)
However, does any of this offer any objective evidence for the existence of God? I would say so. The things that Christians choose tend to bring objective benefits. This is even true of the animal world. They seem to have been endowed with “wisdom.” Grazing animals tend to eat nutritious greens and to reject the poisonous ones. They know to drink when they get thirsty, to find shade when they get hot, and to rest when they get tired. They are able to make positive adjustments to an objective reality that surrounds them, and they derive benefits from this.
However, delusion is strongly associated with costs and not benefits. If we are deluded or simply mistaken about which roads to take to get to our destination, our trip will be more costly. Why then, if Christians are deluded about God, do they derive unmistakable benefits from their “delusion?” Instead, it would seem that Christians are doing something right, even wise and in-touch with a reality that eludes others.
Is it possible to flourish through distorted thinking? Atheists claim that a belief in God is a matter of gross self-delusion. They have many pejorative phrases to describe faith in God: “imaginary friend,” “big-daddy in the sky,” “complete nonsense,” or “self-delusion.”
However, these charges do not seem to be consistent with the reality of Christian lives and societies. Delusions put us out-of-touch with reality, especially the “delusion” that lies at the foundation of our entire lives. Instead of assisting us to constructively manage our jobs, relationships, home, and even driving a car – and all of these endeavors require accurate feedback – delusions about a God should interfere with any prospect of a positive adjustment. Instead, we flourish, even in the midst of hardships.
Why? Just consider riding your bicycle blindfolded. You would soon crash incurring great costs. Closer to home, consider someone who navigates life with rose colored glasses. He might think that all women secretly love him, and this will give him a high, at least for the short run. Consequently, he would not take “no” for an answer. I knew such a man who was arrested repeatedly for “harassment” because of this cognitive distortion. Innocently, he just wouldn’t take “no” as an answer.
Cognitive distortions inevitably cost. Consider a woman who was confident that she was performing better on the job than she really was. Consequently, she saw no need for improvement and was eventually fired.
Or consider people who are deluded that they were treating others caringly, when they really aren’t. Eventually, they lose their friends.
Generally speaking, distorted thinking costs. In All in the Playing, Shirley MacLaine confidently explained her distorted faith:
• I went on to express my feeling of total responsibility and power for all events that occur in the world because the world is happening only in my reality. And human beings feeling pain, terror, depression, panic, and so forth, were really only aspects of pain, terror, depression, panic, and so on, in me!
How would such distorted thinking affect her relationships? Wikipedia concluded its posting on MacLaine this way:
• In 2015, she sparked criticism for her comments on Jews, Christians, and Stephen Hawking. In particular she claimed that victims of the Nazi Holocaust were experiencing the results of their own karma, and suggested that Hawking subconsciously caused himself to develop ALS as a means to focus better on physics.
Understandably, her thinking created relational problems, among other things. Why then do those who believe in a “heavenly Christian sky-daddy” – an all-encompassing “delusion” – make positive adjustments, while others do not?
Perhaps instead, Christians are onto something real. But how? By a Book written two thousand years ago? How would following the Bible written by “camel-drivers,” enable us to successfully navigate life? It would be like expecting a buggy-whip to help us drive our Audi.
I hope that the next few chapters will demonstrate how the wisdom and practice of our ancient Book has led to positive changes, even on a global level.
