Thinking Out Loud with Alan Shlemon - Christianity Is the Best Explanation for Reality

Episode Date: June 22, 2021

If someone asked you how you know Christianity is true, how would you answer them? In this episode, Alan offers his response to that question by appealing to some powerful truths that people live by.

If you listen carefully to what people claim are the powerful truths that they live by, you'll recognize that Christianity is the only worldview that can justify all of them. That's what I want to talk to you about in this June 2021 episode of my podcast, Thinking Out Loud with Alan Schleman. If someone asked you how you know Christianity is true, how would you answer them? Would you appeal to your transformed life? Would you talk about maybe seeing or experiencing miracles? Would you give an apologetics argument?

Like, what would you say? How would you respond? Well, C.S. Lewis one time provided his own explanation. And this was something he wrote in the closing line of a paper to Oxford's Socratic Club. This is what he said. Quote, I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. End quote. You see, Lewis believed Christianity provides a framework for understanding many of the common sense ideas that people in our society affirm. And I totally agree with that, right?

In fact, if you listen carefully to what people claim are the powerful truths that they live by, you'll recognize that Christianity is the only worldview that can justify all of them. And so what I want to do is have you consider these following claims that are about reality and notice how not only does Christianity properly explain them, but other belief systems fail to account for these specific beliefs. Okay, so let's start with the first one. And this is that the universe began to exist. Okay, now, prior to modern science, people believed that the universe was eternal. prior to modern science, people believed that the universe was eternal, right? Now, that idea, of course, has been rejected by Big Bang cosmology and things like the second law of thermodynamics and the redshift and so on and so forth, right?

And so today, it's believed that the universe began at a finite time in the past. Now, this fact is also accounted for by the Christian worldview, right? Because obviously the very first verse of the Bible says, God created the heavens and the earth, which basically is a view that is consistent with and explains the way reality is. And that is a universe with a beginning. All right, let's consider another powerful truth that people live by, and that is the fact that morals are real. Now, I would argue that people have an intuitive sense of right and

wrong. Now, although most people would claim that morals are relative to each person, there are some that seem to apply to all people at all times. Like, for example, rape is wrong, or assaulting an elderly woman is wrong, or torturing little babies for fun is wrong. These are all moral beliefs that people have that would probably say are universal. Now, the question becomes, well, what ideological system can explain the existence of objective rules, meaning, you know, universally true for everyone? What system can explain that? Well, Christianity teaches that God exists. And if he does, then he provides an objective standard of morality. All right, so let me give you a third powerful truth that people live by.

And that is the belief that human beings are valuable. All right, now I think most people believe, or at least they act like they believe, that human beings are valuable over and above animals. And this is why we mourn the death of our child more than that we would mourn the death of our cat, okay, if our cat died. So again, what worldview makes sense of what many people believe intuitively to know to be true? And I think the answer again is Christianity makes sense of that reality, right, because it teaches that human beings are made in the image of God, right? First two chapters of Genesis teach this clearly. And so if we're made in the image of God, right? First two chapters of Genesis teach this clearly.

And so if we're made in the image of God, then therefore we have value. Another powerful truth that people believe is that all humans are equal, right? Now, Western society is vigorously opposed to racism. Every person is equally valuable, no matter what their color is or ethnicity or their country of origin. And this is a standard kind of belief system today in the United States and other places in the West. So the question becomes, well, what accounts

for equal value? Now think about it for a moment. There's no characteristic that every person shares equally, right? Some people are taller. Some people are smarter. Some people have more melanin in their skin, right? Every characteristic comes in degrees negating the possibility of their grounding human equality, right? You can't say that human equality is based on some physical characteristic. By contrast, the Christian worldview teaches that every human being is made in the image of God, which is a characteristic that is not a degreed property. You either have it or you don't. You're either made in God's image or you're not

and this is exactly what explains how martin luther king jr could justify his case for civil rights of african americans right he he was a baptist pastor and he believed in the image of god let me give you another valuable truth or powerful truth that people live by. People believe that animals are valuable, right? Now, obviously, I know that there's some overzealous animal rights groups like PETA. I'm not talking about that kind of thing, right? But I would say many people believe that caring for animals is a noble cause, right? In other words, there's no need to torture or to kill animals unnecessarily, right?

And again, the Christian worldview provides justification to care for animals, right? Though animals aren't made in the image of God, they're still created by God, right? I mean, after God made the sea and the land creatures, right? What does he declare about all these animals? He declares them to be good, right? This is Genesis 1, you know, verses 20 through 25, right? Again, this is something that the Christian worldview can account for, that animals are valuable, all right? Here's another powerful truth that people live by, and that is that caring for the environment is a worthy cause, right? Many people are concerned about things like climate change and deforestation and the dumping of toxins in our rivers and lakes and seas, right? But why should we be concerned?

Well, again, the Christian worldview has an answer, right? God made the earth, and we are commanded to be good stewards of his creation. So again, the Christian worldview provides justification for this idea that caring for the environment is something that is important and something that is worthy of our attention. And I'll just give you one more example. And that is that people feel guilty. Now, what I mean by that is, even though I haven't met every person who is listening to me right now, there is something that I know that is true of you.

And that is there are moments in your life when you feel guilty, right? You know you've broken a behavioral standard. In other words, you feel guilty because you are guilty, right? You know you've broken a behavioral standard. In other words, you feel guilty because you are guilty, right? And that's why being forgiven by someone you've wronged is burden lifting, right? These feelings are anticipated and accounted for by Christianity because every person has broken God's moral laws, and our conscience reminds us of that. And so feeling guilty, though, is not where God wants you to remain, though, which is why, of course, he's offered a pardon so that you can be forgiven and feel free of guilt's burden. Now, of course, the message of guilt and forgiveness is at the core of Jesus's message, right?

What we've also seen is that many common sense beliefs that people share about humanity or animals and creation are also accounted for by Christianity, by the Christian worldview. Now, obviously, people with other worldviews might try to explain a few of these beliefs, right? So, for example, a naturalist, right? Somebody who doesn't believe in God, who doesn't believe in the soul or angels or beliefs, right? So for example, a naturalist, right? Somebody who doesn't believe in God, who doesn't believe in the soul or angels or demons, right? Somebody who just thinks that the material world is what exists, right? A naturalist like that, he might posit a beginning to the universe. He might say, yeah, there's a beginning to the universe. But think about it.

He could hardly account for human value. He could hardly account for human equality or objective morality or even why we should care for the environment, right? So notice the naturalist worldview can't account for those things. Take a pantheist, for example, right? Somebody who comes from an Eastern worldview, like perhaps Hinduism, okay? Now they might be able to account for caring for creation or caring for animals, but not a finite universe, right? Or even human equality, because on their view, the universe is eternal, for example, right?

Other worldviews like postmodernism or New Age or nihilism or existentialism fail to explain some of these other claims about reality, but only Christianity accounts for these basic and common ideas. And this is one of the reasons why I think we can know that Christianity is true, because it explains reality. All right, well, that's all I have for you today. If you are enjoying my thoughts on these topics about apologetics and worldview and

theology and other things like this, be sure to rate or review my thoughts on these topics about apologetics and worldview and theology and other things like this. Be sure to rate or review my podcast on iTunes or wherever you listen to this podcast. And thanks for listening. And I will talk to you guys next time.