In 2007, after 50 years of serving as a champion and defender of atheism, British philosopher, Antony Flew, made a decision that rocked the atheistic world: he changed his mind. He published his story in 2007 titled, “There is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed his Mind.” It’s a brilliant book I strongly recommend to both Christians and non-Christians alike.
Flew’s, cites this amusing pericope from Lewis Carroll’s beloved Alice in Wonderland:
“When Alice journeyed through the looking glass in Lewis Carroll’s famous fantasy, she met a queen who claimed to be “one hundred and one, five months and a day”.
“I can’t believe that!” said Alice.
“Can’t you?” the Queen said in a pitying tone. “Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.”
Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said: “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” [end quote]
Alice in Wonderland falls within the literary genre of “literary nonsense”.
And that’s the same category within which some believe the Bible falls.
One of my professors, Michael Licona, offered sage advice when faced with the incredulity of someone who finds it beyond the realm of reason to believe in God. He said,
Considering the given data, what is most probable. Or, per Occam’s Razor, what is the most logical answer? For instance, regarding Jesus’ resurrection, should someone insist, “People don’t rise from the dead. The gospel writers made this up.” Is that possible? Anything’s possible. But what is most probable?
A deep dive into the historical reliability of the New Testament quickly reveals a wealth of ancient manuscript attestation not enjoyed by any other ancient literature. (Coming in a very distant second are the Homeric Epics.)
For the skeptic, the more you employ honest investigative criteria into the historical reliability of the New Testament, you are faced with a list of why what the gospel writers recorded is very likely true.
Sure, you can, a priori, dismiss the possibility of miracles on any level.
But, if God exists, then raising a man from the dead is not a problem.
If God exists…
That’s the crux of the issue.
Does God exist? Given the data, what is most probable?
Consider creation.
1) Science has established “something can’t come from nothing.” Yet, our universe came from nothing i.e. Ex Nihilo. Meaning time, space, and matter had to be created by something outside of time, space, and matter.
2) An explosion results in chaos. Yet, the “Big Bang” resulted in fine-tuned order giving us our Laws of Physics.
3) Science soundly denounces abiogenesis (that life can arise from non-life). Yet here we are. The odds of blind, unguided chance randomly forming just one functional protein is 10 to the 77th power. How big a number is that? The number of seconds between now and the beginning of the universe is 10 to the 18th power. The chance of randomly producing a single human cell is 10 to the 40,000th power.
4) Human consciousness remains beyond the purview of science. How did consciousness arise from non-conscious matter? At what point in Darwinian evolution did a protein molecule become self-aware?
5) Strict Darwinian evolution is impotent to account for objective morality or objective beauty. Why is murder universally wrong, or helping others universally right? What makes a sunset beautiful. Why do the Rocky Mountains or the ocean fill us with peace and awe? Why does Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” affect me deeply? Blind, unguided, purely natural processes cannot account for this.
And, finally…,
6) Remember when I cited the chances of randomly producing a single human cell is 10 to the 40,000th power. You and I have between 30-40 trillion (that’s 1000 Billion) cells in our body. All working together communicating, replicating, functioning like a factory. Each cell possessing 23 pairs of chromosomes, giving us what we know as DNA – an information-rich “instruction manual” for human life.
So we return to where we started.
Is it possible all we know and see happened by random, blind, unguided chance?
Anything’s possible. But what is most probable?
Clearly, for even the most ardent skeptic, I submit what is most probable, given empirical science, is that God exists, and what the Bible says is true.
Holding to Socratic principles of logic – “Follow the argument wherever it leads” – even “the world’s most notorious atheist” agreed what is most probable is that God exists.
Sure, Christianity is “by faith”; but it’s not blind faith.
At minimum, the claims of Christ merit serious consideration. I invite you to embark on this grand adventure.
nick