People instinctively sense right and wrong

Regardless of culture, religion, or walk of life, every person has an impression of right and wrong. Whether liberal or conservative, evolutionist or creationist, pro-choice or pro-life, “less filling” or “tastes great,” everyone appeals to some sort of standard that he or she expects others to know and follow. In the political realm, for example, liberals uphold tolerance while conservatives focus on personal accountability, but the key is that both groups point to some standard that they believe is right. But step back and ask yourself: Why do people have this sense of right and wrong, a “little voice” inside them that guides them and brings outrage when they see someone violate that standard? 

To Christians, Christianity provides a credible answer to the mystery of that little voice inside of you and I. It says that this awareness is from God, whose very nature (ultimate righteousness) sets the standard (see Chapter 7 for more on the Christian understanding of God’s nature). When he created people, he gave a conscience to guide humans and let them know when they stray from that end. 

This idea of right and wrong poses problems for people who don’t believe in God, because they allow nothing apart from the human race to back their standards. They may sincerely believe that morality is based on each individual’s personal decision, but this belief is out of step with how people actually live – everyone holds others up to some sort of a standard that they adhere to.  

If you’re sceptical, consider a test: Try cutting in line at the supermarket. The first time you do it, politely explain to the person you cut in front of that you’re sorry, but you’ve got a sick child at home and you simply must get cough syrup to her as soon as possible. In this case, most people will be glad to help out and aren’t bothered by the inconvenience. However, try cutting in line a second time, but this time be rude and aggressive when you do so, offering a sneer rather than an explanation. I guarantee the person you cut in front of will be outraged, and his anger will run deeper than the inconvenience you’re causing. Your rude action crosses a line in his mind over what’s acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. Yet, without a God who gives us an idea of right and wrong, your belief that line-cutting is okay isn’t morally different from his belief that first come should be first served. (See Chapter 16 for more on the shortcomings of the belief that truth is relative.) 

A must-read: Mere Christianity

In the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist – in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless – I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality – namely my idea of justice – was full of sense. Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. “Dark” would be without meaning.  – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Harper San Francisco, 2001) 

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis is a witty, persuasive, common sense-based account of the basics of Christian doctrine and the logic of the faith. Lewis was an atheist and set out to disprove Christianity only to become a Christian in the process. Early in my Christian walk, I often wrestled with intellectual doubts about my faith; more than anything else, Mere Christianity was the means that transformed my faith into a rock solid belief system. 

Demonstrating Christianity as a Liveable Faith

In order to be credible, any belief system that attempts to explain the world must be in line with known historical and scientific facts and provide answers to the big questions of life without contradicting itself. But it must also be consistent with how life is actually lived out in the real world. Any theory can look good on paper, but if you can’t live it out, then it’s not worth more than the paper it’s written on. Christians say that their faith not only has facts and consistent logic on its side, but is liveable as well. Two examples are as follows: 

Christianity gives life meaning. At some point in life, everyone – atheists, Christians, and Buddhists alike – grapples with the issue of finding meaning in life. Teenagers often go through a time of “soul searching” as they contemplate what they should do with their lives. When middle age looms, people often deal with a mid-life crisis in a desperate attempt to find meaning in a life that is already half spent. Christians believe that God designed people to have an instinctive need to find meaning – to enable humans to ultimately search and find him through this process. Even the most outspoken sceptics in history have struggled with finding meaning in their lives. Although some sincerely believe that people are nothing more than machines, their quest for meaning betrays that claim. 

Christianity meets people’s deepest need for grace. Although other religions focus on people’s ability to reach God through their own effort, Christianity is unique in saying that humans can’t reach God through their own means, but require God to do the work for us. From a Christian perspective, the quest for salvation by our own doing ultimately proves to be just like Sisyphus, the mythological Greek character who the gods forever condemned to roll a rock to the top of a mountain, only to have the stone always fall back due to its own weight. Because people can never measure up to the standard that their conscience holds them to, people need help, as hard as it is for them to admit it. In this light, Christianity’s offer of grace is liberating in a way that nothing else is. Grace, which I discuss fully in Chapter 3, meets people’s deepest spiritual needs and frees us from the Sisyphus-like effort of trying to be good when we do bad things most every day. 

Is real life like The Truman Show?

In the film The Truman Show, Jim Carrey stars as Truman Burbank, a thirty-something man who doesn’t realize that his whole life is a non-stop television show and has been ever since the day he was born. At one point, an interviewer asked Christoff, the creator and director of the show, why he thought Truman took so long to figure the secret out. Christoff replied, “We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented.” 

Christoff’s remark seems to describe the way most people deal with life’s big issues – accepting what’s given to them without too much bother. People grow up either believing or rejecting what their parents taught them (for reasons that often have nothing to do with whether they thought the teaching was true or not), go off to school and usually accept what they learn as fact, and then get on with building a career and raising a family. 

In this hustle-bustle world that never sleeps, it’s easy to remain distracted for decades with work, kids, exercise routines, TV, the Internet, sports, and vacations. Yes, people do experience angst about death and yearn to lead meaningful lives, but most tend to put off dealing with such matters until they’re hit smack dab in the face with them. Occasionally, a tragedy like 9/11 comes along, causing people to reprioritize and think of life-and-death matters... for a while. But unless the tragedy personally affects you, the normal grind of life gradually steers you back onto autopilot like you were before. Frankly, unless you deliberately work at it, modern life doesn’t promote a serious investigation of much of anything.

 

But when it comes to the big issues, the most important question that people should ask about what they believe is: “But is it true?” Ultimately, when all is said and done, a “yes”  answer to that question is all that matters.