"What If It's Real?" (Faith, Doubt, and Evidence)

Some thoughts from my good friend that help me think about evidence and the supernatural

One of my very good friends is an atheist.

He said something last year that I can’t shake. We were talking about the implications of the life and death of Jesus, including the accounts of miracles and the scandalous claims that He made.

My friend doesn’t believe it’s real, of course. He is an atheist after all.

But, my friend said.

If it’s real…

…it would have to change absolutely everything.

He grasps the extreme conundrum of the Christian faith at a deeper level than most Christians I know, myself included.

It shows that the wrestling match between faith and doubt can never be a purely intellectual exercise. We are not impartial evaluators because the stakes are so significant.

what if it’s really, actually, truly, real?

They are both exhilarating and scary.

If it’s real, there is a God who created not just the world and the universe, but the moral laws that govern everything.

If it’s real, it means that this God actually loves humans so much that He inserted Himself into Creation in order to live, and die, and provide a way back to Him.

If it’s real, it means we are lost without Him. And if it’s real, we need to do something about Jesus. We need to accept Him or reject Him.

But if it’s not real, we can safely ignore Him. We can punt instead of answering the question. We can claim that the evidence isn’t conclusive and move on to other things.

Rejecting For Lack of Evidence

Some atheists I’ve talked with are convinced that there can’t be a God. This is called ”explicit” or “positive” atheism.

More atheists I’ve connected with subscribe to “weak” or “soft” atheism. People with this belief system don’t believe in God or any gods, but don’t claim that it must be impossible.

Negative and positive atheism (image source)

Soft atheists say they theoretically might be able to believe. There just isn’t conclusive enough evidence to do so.

Here’s what one such person had to say on the Atheism reddit thread.

Seems to me that scientific atheism, at its core, is all about going with the facts, data and evidence - whatever that may be. If one day there were in fact indisputable evidence of God's existence, it would be unscientific to reject it. [source, reddit.com r/atheism]

It’s on God, the soft atheist says, to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this whole thing is real.

The Bible, however, doesn’t promise evidence that can’t be disputed or ignored. In Romans chapter 1, Paul does write that God’s invisible qualities have clearly seen “from what has been made” since the creation of the world.

But Jesus also makes clear in Mathew 7:7-8 that there is a place for asking, seeking, and knocking. For wrestling.

After all, if the evidence cannot be disputed, there is no faith. Faith is the “assurance of things hoped for” according to Hebrews 11. It is “the conviction of things not seen.”

Why doesn’t God provide a 100% ironclad case of His existence for all humans?

I don’t know.

But I suspect it has something to do with learning to have a relationship with Him. And perhaps because God knows that even with perfect evidence, many of us will still choose to reject Him.

Because the Bible shows us that sometimes even the most ironclad evidence can be rejected.

Rejecting Despite the Evidence

At the end of the Gospel of Mathew, the resurrected Jesus appears on a mountain before His followers.

For Jesus followers this is the supernatural miracle of all miracles. The most solid foundation anyone could have in their faith.

But the Bible says there was both faith and disbelief even then.

When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. [Mathew 28:17]

Is that REALLY you Jesus? (AI)

Even when our senses tell us something, our minds might initially want to reject it because it seems so fantastical.

Too far outside the norm of the natural world.

I imagine this was true for some of those folks in Mathew 28.

Here’s one person articulating such a view on that same Reddit thread.

…I’m an atheist and if something came down from the sky and claimed to be a god I wouldn’t believe it. I don’t think any being I could physically encounter could prove to me they are a god. Because how do I know it’s not a sufficiently advanced alien that’s using technology or science to con me. [source, reddit.com r/atheism]

This person is a strong atheist and has deep faith in that position. With this worldview, there can never be evidence strong enough.

So convinced are some strong atheists, that they do not believe in the existence of a historical Jesus of Nazareth. This is an outlier position rejected by virtually all scholars. But one place to read a comprehensively articulated view is on the website of the American Atheists.

Can We “Prove” Jesus?

Most contemporary scholars and historians believe Jesus was real. Ancient historians like Tacitus, Josephus, and Suetonius thought Jesus was real.

But until He comes back, there will never be proof that 100% of people will accept that proves Jesus was real.

The strong atheist who has already classified any potential supernatural experience as a deceitful alien tells us this. So does the article from the American Atheists. Mathew 28 tells us this too.

And in many ways it doesn’t matter whether Jesus existed or not. At least, it doesn’t matter whether or not only the historical Jesus existed.

Because to the Christian, it is the Risen Christ, the supernatural Jesus that is the foundation of faith. Without the supernatural power of the resurrection, Paul says that any faith is useless.

And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. [1 Corinthians 15:14]

To follow Jesus means to believe that He is real and to believe that He is the entrance to the supernatural Kingdom of God.

If It’s Real We’re in a Supernatural World

If Jesus rose from the grave it means that the world we live in is not only a natural one.

We are in a natural world that exists alongside a supernatural world. And that means things like miracles can happen here. It means that our own lives aren’t just about our own hopes and dreams, but somehow have cosmic implications.

That’s where we’re going in the weeks ahead.

Next week we’ll look why I think we all believe in the supernatural…whether or not we admit that to ourselves.

Then, we’ll look at some stories from people who had personal encounters with something beyond the natural world.

And finally, we’ll look at some of the things the Bible says about the supernatural, including God’s divine council, satan, and demons.

But first, one more story about faith and doubt.

No More Doubt

Not only do we see that “some doubted” in Mathew 28:17, one of the 12 disciples famously doubted Jesus.

John chapter 20 recounts the resurrected Jesus appearing to the disciples. But one is missing: Thomas.

The other disciples share the amazing news when they are back with Thomas: “We have seen the Lord!”

But Thomas is not convinced. He replies:

“Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

A week later, the resurrected Jesus appears again. This time, Thomas is there. Here’s what Jesus says next:

27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” [John 20: 27–29]

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Next week: Do we all believe in a supernatural world?

Last week: Yom Kippur and the Crimson Thread