Tuesday, July 10, 2007

You Don't Know Jack...

I was driving to the airport to pick up my girlfriend yesterday and I started thinking about what happens when flying ceases and gravity takes over. I tend to think pessimistically when airports are involved.

So I'm thinking about downwardly spiraling airplanes and my thoughts went to how many Christians say they "know" what's going to happen to them when they die and are very quick to lament your life if you aren't preparing yourself for the same bliss they're counting on. If you try and convince them that there's a chance they might be wrong they are very quick to discount the possibility. "The bible tells me what's going to happen when I die, the bible is the word of god, therefore I KNOW it to be true," says a hypothetical Christian who for the purposes of this entry we'll call Stu.

But here's the thing. God requires faith of this adherents. Faith is defined as belief that is not based on proof. If there were proof of the afterlife, then faith wouldn't be possible. So can you know, with certainty, that what the bible says is absolute truth? No, of course not. That would require absolute proof and absolute proof would destroy completely the potential for faith.

So really, an essential factor for any believer having faith in the bible as the true word of god is an understanding that they COULD be wrong. That is in essence what faith is. Faith is saying, "I don't have any proof for what I believe, and understand that what I believe could be wrong, but I choose to believe it anyway." As an atheist, I am equally beholdant to this definition of faith. I don't "know" there is no god. I choose to believe this with the knowledge that I could be wrong.

So ultimately my point is this. Christians, you don't KNOW anything with certainty about your god or his policies. Intrinsic to your dogma is the possibility that it's incorrect. And my two cents...it probably is. So screw you, Stu.