Love Your God With All Your Mind [15th Anniversary Repack]: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul by J. P. Moreland

Author:J. P. Moreland
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781617479007
Publisher: Navpress
Published: 2012-08-21T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE QUESTION OF GOD (PART I)

Christians believe two things: (1) That God really exists, has a certain nature, and has a set of ideas about various things that He has disclosed to us. (2) That the things claimed in the first premise can be known to be true and need not be accepted by a blind, arbitrary act of privatized faith exercised by weak people who need such a crutch. It should go without saying that within the span of a single volume, it would be impossible to adequately defend these claims. So I won’t try. However, what I will do is talk my way through considerations that have been central and persuasive in my own journey in the hopes that you will find something of value for your own pilgrimage. And I will provide footnotes that can guide you into fuller, more sophisticated treatments of these themes in case you wish to pursue these matters further. Part of loving God with all of your mind is being able to defend your views about God, and the next three chapters will lay out one way of doing that.

GETTING STARTED

So, how should you approach this topic of defending your faith? How does one search for God, anyway? Let me, first, tell you how not to do it. You don’t want to look for something that works for you or helps you irrespective of whether or not it’s true. To see why, recall the case in chapter 4 of a fictitious figure we called Wonmug.

Wonmug was a hopelessly dumb physics student attending a large Western university. He failed all of his first semester classes, his math skills were around a fifth-grade level, and he had no aptitude for science. However, one day all the physics students and professors at his college decided to spoof Wonmug by making him erroneously think he was the best physics student at the university. When he asked a question in class, students and professors alike would marvel out loud at the profundity of the question. Graders gave him perfect scores on all his assignments, when in reality he deserved an F. Eventually, Wonmug graduated and went on for his PhD. The professors at his university sent a letter to all the physicists in the world and included them in the spoof. Wonmug received his degree, took a prestigious chair of physics, regularly went to Europe to deliver papers at major science conferences, and was often featured in Time and Newsweek. Wonmug’s life was pregnant with feelings of respect, accomplishment, expertise, and happiness. Unfortunately, he still knew absolutely no physics. Everyone hated and disrespected Wonmug and mocked him behind his back. In short, he was a dunce.

Do you envy Wonmug? Would you wish such a life for your children? Of course not. Why? Because his sense of well-being was built on a false, misinformed worldview placebo. If you approach the question of God in this manner — with no regard for truth, guided only by what you will get out of it — you are trivializing your life and should be pitied just like Wonmug.

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