I was listening to Eddie Tabash and William Lane Craig debate secular humanism vs. Christianity on MP3 last Sunday. I have to say that I was quite disappointed by Tabash in this one. He suffers from what I call the “Veruca Salt” complex, where he will believe in God when God does what he wants and could only constantly complain about “Well what if my grandmother is in Hell?!”
Now, I don’t delight in people being in Hell, but the whole time I was hearing that, I was thinking that this is the exact opposite of Man or Rabbit. That’s the title of an essay by C.S. Lewis where some people asked if you needed Christianity. Couldn’t you be good without it? Lewis says that is a foolish question to ask. We should ask if it is true. Also, Christ does not call us to be good. He transforms us instead.
Tabash is asking the opposite in reverse. If Christianity is true, it does not matter whether you like it or not. If your grandmother is in Hell, saying “I don’t like it” will not change it. The way to avoid Hell is not to make people ignorant. Jesus came so that we might believe. The way of salvation is belief and not disbelief.
Why is this objection irrelevant? It simply boils down to “I don’t like it, therefore it can’t be true.” Unfortunately, I believe a lot of things that I like that aren’t true. I believe that I have a limited amount of money in the bank. I’d like to say I have millions, but that wouldn’t be true.
In fact, we do choose truth over happiness in that regards. Many of us would be happy believing we’re financially secure. We choose to believe we’re not though. Why? Because it’s true that we’re not. We would rather be true and unhappy than we would be happy and false.
Now if Tabash wants to argue that this is immoral, that’s a whole other line, but that is inconsistent to believe while espousing moral relativism as he does. From what I could gather though, it boiled down to that Tabash just doesn’t like Christianity. So what? I don’t like a lot of things about it at times. I still follow it though. Why? Because it’s true.
Remember friends. One question must always be asked. “Is it true?” It matters not how much I like or dislike a belief. What matters is if it is true.
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