ASK “Isn’t Christianity Just a Psychological Crutch?”

Introduction: This morning we’re continuing in our series called “Ask” based on questions coming from our community. We’ve engaged with many of our friends and neighbors from the Georgian Triangle region and had some interesting discussions already. Some of those people haven’t really asked a question, they’ve stated, in different words, that Christianity is a fairy tale or a myth, like Santa Claus. Others in history, like Sigmund Freud, have inferred that we believe in God simply in order to psychologically help us to cope with difficulties in this life. The atheist P.K. Atkins said, “[Religious belief is] outmoded and ridiculous. [Belief in gods was a] worn out but once useful crutch in mankind's journey towards truth. We consider the time has come for that crutch to be abandoned.” This seems to be a common refrain, but is it true? Does God simply exist as a figment of our overactive imaginations? Have we simply invented him or her or it in order to make our lives easier? I won’t speak today for other religions, but I will speak for Christianity. Let me begin with a story. A few days ago, the Open Doors annual World Watch List of the most dangerous places in for Christians to live came out. North Korea is number one on the list. In many countries in our world today, being a Christian or becoming a Christian puts you at risk of persecution and even death. Not here, of course, generally speaking. In fact, today, before you go to bed tonight, today, if it was an average day, around the world at least 8 Christians will be killed simply because they chose to follow Jesus Christ. That number is probably low because of countries like North Korea or , where it’s difficult to get accurate reports. One of those people is a pastor by the name of Lawan Andimi from Nigeria. He was declared missing on January 3rd after a raid by Boko Haram – an Islamist militant group. In a ransom video – he thanked God, and asked people not to cry, but to give thanks to God. It was reported on January 21st that he was beheaded after he refused to deny faith in Jesus Christ.

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It’s difficult to imagine that the martyrs in Iran, Afghanistan, Nigeria, North Korea or throughout history came to Christianity as a psychological crutch – something that will make their lives easier, or help them to cope. For many, conversion to Christianity means ostracism from family, the loss of job, home and status. For others it means arrest. Yet, it’s interesting, isn’t it, that it is in some of those very countries that the church is growing the most rapidly. So, how do we deal with this claim about faith? When making an honest examination of them, the first thing to recognize is what those making the statements are claiming about themselves. Critics of faith are saying that Christians are prone to psychological and wish-fulfillment factors that they, the skeptics, are not. But how do they know that? Perhaps Freud, himself, had an outworking of wish-fulfillment that revealed itself in not wanting a Holy God and judgment in the afterlife to exist, a wish for hell (for example) not to be real. After all, he did say that, “The bad part of it, especially for me, lies in the fact that science of all things seems to demand the existence of a God.” Some atheists have honestly and openly stated that. Serving as one example, Philosophy Professor Thomas Nagel once said, “I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don't believe in God and naturally hope that I'm right in my belief. It’s that I hope that there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that.” So, I think we could easily turn that question around and ask, “Isn’t atheism just a psychological crutch for those who do not want to believe in God?” What leads someone to say that they hope that there is no God? That may be interesting and somewhat informative, but it still doesn’t deal with the facts, which is what we ought to be dealing with. If it’s not a psychological crutch, why would we say it isn’t? 1. True Christianity doesn’t always (ever?) make your life easier. The assumption here is that Christianity does make your life easier. That is not at all what the Bible teaches, and it certainly isn’t true for many Christians around the world. I love what C.S. Lewis said, “I didn't go into religion to make me happy. I knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel comfortable, I would not recommend Christianity.”

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Here, I think, we must make reference to what some have called “easy-believism.” This is the brand of Christianity in some parts of the West that has been used to give all who claim to follow Christ a bad name. It is a faith with no cross, no suffering, and no expectations. In contrast to that, we have the words of Jesus to those who were considering being His disciples: “Take up your cross and follow me.” What He was saying was well understood by those who were listening to Him. In fact, many turned away when He said that. Those Galileans were used to seeing the condemned, following the Roman soldiers, carrying their crosses to the place of crucifixion. The cross meant death. As we come to see in Jesus’ teaching, it doesn’t always mean a physical death for His followers, but what it does mean is that those who follow Him die to their own selfish ambitions and agendas and live to advance the Kingdom of God. The early church advanced the Gospel around the known world with limited resources, limited means of transportation, and in an often hostile environment! Their lives were not easier! True Christianity always comes with a cost. It is worth it, yes. But, as the great British writer and philosopher G.K. Chesterton said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” I believe that what Freud was criticizing was not Christianity, but a caricature of Christianity. 2. Christianity is based on historical facts I do think that Freud may be onto something about believing in myths as a psychological crutch, but Christianity is not about myths, rather it is based in historical fact. That is largely what we’re talking about in this series. There is a huge difference here. You see, many religions are based in myth. Their stories were never meant to be taken as historical, but usually as allegorical. Some which have made claims have been proven to be mythological – such as the Mormon story of advanced ancient civilizations in North America. John Stonestreet wrote that, “unlike other faiths, Christianity is rooted in real human history. It tells the story of God’s actions in the same world that you and I occupy, as opposed to some mythical ‘once upon a time.’” This is one of many reasons that makes biblical Christianity different from every other religion on earth.

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What is truth? Here the question must be addressed: how can we know what is true? And even – what is truth? A simple definition of truth that I like is this: truth is that which conforms to reality. Some people – especially in our day and age – would deny the existence of objective truth. We touched on this earlier as we addressed moral and cultural relativism. But if someone ever tells you that there is no such thing as truth, just ask them if what they are saying is true. Even to make the statement doesn’t make sense. How can you affirm anything if you don’t believe that truth exists? So, the question then becomes, how can we determine what is true from what isn’t? Thankfully, we have lots of different ways of doing that. We have the scientific method, which looks for repeatable results through experimentation to affirm or deny a thesis. Through the scientific method theses become theories which may be revealed as laws – like the law of gravity. We have archaeology, where we can unearth things long since buried which often confirm or deny truth claims. There are many different methods used to determine the accuracy of such things. I have found it interesting reading the work of J. Warner Wallace who was a police detective in Los Angeles, often featured on Dateline, and an atheist until he was convinced to put his cold case skills to work on looking at the testimony from the New Testament. Here’s the method he used in his criminal cases and in this case, where the New Testament is claimed to be an eyewitness account. 1. Principle One: Make Sure the Witnesses Were Present in the First Place 2. Principle Two: Try to Find Some Corroboration for the Claims of the Witnesses 3. Principle Three: Examine the Consistency and Accuracy of the Witnesses 4. Principle Four: Examine the Presence of Bias on the Part of the Witnesses The evidence for the historical accuracy of the Bible was enough to convince a skeptical atheist that these eyewitnesses were telling the truth, and that the New Testament conforms to reality – it is true history.  The Bible and the teachings of the Christian faith are based not on legend, but on historical figures and events.

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We’re not following some fairy tale, or myth, as many religions clearly do. Jesus Christ, the founder of our faith, came to earth at a specific place and at a specific time in history. The locations described in both the Old and New Testaments can be toured today. The writings of Jesus’ disciples were faithfully preserved through 2,000 years with multiplied thousands of manuscripts as evidence. If you missed last week, I encourage you to visit our website and listen to that. There is a great deal of information and study notes for you to check out. Here is the bottom line and the fundamental claim of Biblical Christianity: Jesus validated His claims and those of Scripture by rising from the dead. Why do we believe that Jesus rose from the dead? There are really four lines of evidence.  His absence from the tomb.  His presence with the disciples.  The transformation of the disciples and the birth of the church.  Christian experience throughout history. The evidence was so good, that the avowed atheist and Oxford University professor, C.S. Lewis, came to faith in Jesus Christ after his research. As he said, "We are faced then with a frightening alternative. The man we are talking about was (and is) just what he said or else a lunatic or something worse. Now it seems to me obvious that he was neither a lunatic, nor a fiend; consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that he was and is God. God who has landed on this enemy occupied world in human form." Christ’s resurrection validates Scripture and ennobles man. On the other hand, hear what Richard Dawkins, one of the new atheists, has to say about the human race. “We are survival machines – robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes. Our genes made us. We animals exist for their preservation and are nothing more than throwaway survival machines. The world of the selfish gene is one of savage competition, ruthless exploitation, and deceit.” Next week I’m going to tell you why I believe he’s wrong, as we deal with the question: “Hasn’t science proven that we don’t need God?” Now try to move from Dawkins’ position and advocate for universal human rights. Why should robot vehicles have human rights? It’s survival of the fittest, let them fight to the death. Yet so many will declare this on the one hand, and on the other

Page | 5 complain that they are being treated unfairly. This leads me to the third reason to think Christianity conforms to reality. 3. The Christian worldview makes sense of the world. The Christian worldview can best answer the basic questions that all human beings must eventually wrestle with: Origin, Meaning, Morality and Destiny, as we’ve been talking about previously. It also helps us to understand the world as it is. We can see people as they truly are: wonderfully made, but flawed as well. The Biblical story of Creation, Fall and Redemption resonates with us because deep down we know that it’s true for each of us. We read about the Dahlits in , the very lowest of the lowest caste in Hinduism, called “Untouchables,” considered worthless and throwaway people by many in their own country. We instinctively know that’s wrong. Yet if people have no intrinsic value, what’s really wrong with treating them that way? Many of them are turning to faith in Jesus Christ, believing that they too were created in God’s image, in spite of what they’ve been told all their lives. We live in a time of cultural conflict and in a battlefield of ideas. What many don’t understand is that ideas have consequences, and that what you believe will affect how you live. What culture, as a whole, holds to be true, impacts each and every one of us through laws, and through social norms that pressure all to conform. In a world of competing opinions, how is it possible for anyone to say, “I know the truth?” Isn’t it all just a matter of opinion after all, with no one opinion better or worse than another? Many atheists and agnostics would tell us that we are no more than a collection of atoms which, through some accidental product of a number of unknown events occurring over multiplied millions of years through managed to crawl out of a primordial ooze and eventually get to where we are today. They would say that natural selection - the survival of the fittest – wherein the strong outlive or destroy the weak, has allowed us to arrive here. Yet, many who believe that would also complain when their human rights are violated. As Francis Schaeffer famously put it: “Modern man has both feet firmly planted in mid-air.” Conversely, Christianity declares that mankind has inherent value because we are created in the image of God. In Genesis 1:1 the Bible declares that “In the

Page | 6 beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” In Genesis 1:27 it says, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” In chapter 2:7 we read that God formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Only the Bible, among religious texts, makes these kinds of statements. It is the Christian West and the Judeo-Christian worldview that has lead the way in human rights for millennia, precisely because we believe that what was written in Genesis 1 is true – you and I were made by a living God in His own image. You have intrinsic rights because God gave them to you. You have free will, because God placed it in you. You have value because He loves you. Our culture has largely forgotten this, and as a result, are becoming more and more confused about rights and responsibilities. People now think that their personal rights trump everything else; that they have a right to do whatever they want. So now we have rights competing against each other. We’ve left off the responsibility part. But just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. We are also made for community, and much of what Jesus taught dealt with the willful laying down of our rights for the common good. So as the debates continue and the worldviews collide, what does Christ’s church have to contribute to the discussion? Again, why does it matter? It matters because there are major issues at stake. Conclusion: Right now, we in Canada are dealing with the question of euthanasia - again. Our government has legislated that doctors can now assist patients in committing suicide, as long as it can be independently verified that they are terminally ill. Over 5,000 Canadians have died with the help of a physician since. Our Supreme Court has now ruled that access needs to be broadened to others, including the mentally ill and to underage youth. What do we do with stuff like this? I sat for lunch a few years ago with one of Canada’s most prominent doctors – Dr. John Patrick from Ottawa. He has been called on numerous occasions to speak with parliamentary and senatorial committees on ethical issues. He shared with me that what activists are trying to do is to deal with the last six weeks of someone’s life, when they know that they will not recover and they want to avoid suffering. He turned to me and asked me what I thought was the most

Page | 7 important aspect of a person’s life, particularly in the last six weeks. I’m a pastor, I deal with this all the time. I responded that I thought it was the spiritual. He agreed, and said that it is generally the last six weeks of a person’s life when they work the hardest on making things right, whether with God or one another. He mentioned that, over and over again, he has watched people transformed spiritually in the last days leading up to their death. So, is it any wonder that in a society that doesn’t believe in the supernatural or in life after death that the goal would be to eliminate any part of it that will force us to consider eternity? Dr. Patrick predicts that doctors and nurses in Canada will shortly be forced to participate in euthanasia and abortions or lose their license to practise medicine. This is what happens when private rights and freedoms are valued above everything else. So, what do you believe and why do you believe it? Ideas have consequences. When you choose to start down a road, you choose to go where that road is taking you. Big issues are at stake, so the accusation that Christianity is simply a fairy tale is not a small thing. It matters, because ideas have consequences. It’s also important for us as Christians to live in such a way that our living invalidates these kinds of claims. Jesus calls us to do the hard work of discipleship; of actually following Him. You who are Christians - do that. I have found that there are two different kinds of skeptics. There are the emotional skeptics: they don’t want Christianity to be true and they deny the truth in advance. I know quite a few of these. The second group are what I call progressive skeptics: they have their doubts but are willing to pursue the truth and the evidence. I love these people. If you’re one of them, let’s talk. Prayer

Benediction:

May you keep your eyes upon the One who is able to keep you from stumbling, and may He present you faultless one day before the throne of our Father in heaven. May you have vision and courage to do the right; strength and endurance to walk in His will; compassion and mercy for your fellow man; and God’s grace to keep you on the right path.

Page | 8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6vvNLJb4yI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQpNvSjoTE4&t=207s https://www.rzim.org/read/just-thinking-magazine/is-believing-in-god-a-psychological-crutch https://www.rzim.org/read/a-slice-of-infinity/is-christianity-a-crutch https://www.rzim.org/read/a-slice-of-infinity/god-as-psychological-crutch

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