“
Let me explain the problem science has with Jesus Christ.”
The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks
one of his new students to stand.
“ You are a Christian, aren’t you son?”
“ Yes sir.”
“ So you believe in God?”
“ Absolutely.”
“ Is God good?”
“ Sure! God’s good.”
“ Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?”
“ Yes.”
“ Are you good or evil?”
“ The Bible says I’m evil.”
The professor grins knowingly. “ Ahhh!
The Bible!” He considers
for a moment. “ Here’s one for
you. Let’s say there’s a sick
person over here and you can cure him. You
can do it. Would you help him?
Would you try?”
“ Yes sir, I would.”
“ So you’re good?”
“ I wouldn’t say that sir.”
”
Why not say that? You would help a sick and maimed person if you could.
In fact most of us would, if we could.
God doesn’t.”
No answer.
“ He doesn’t, does he? My
brother was a Christian who died of cancer even though he prayed to Jesus for
help. How is this Jesus good?
Hmmmm? Can you answer that
one?”
No answer.
The elderly man is
sympathetic. “ No you can’t,
can you?” He takes a sip of water
from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax.
In philosophy, you have to go easy with the new ones.
“ Let’s start again, you
fella.”
“ Is God good?”
“ Er …. yes.”
"Is Satan good?"
“ No. “
“ Where does Satan come from?”
The student falters. "From... God..."
“ That’s right. God made Satan,
didn’t he?” The elderly man
runs his bony fingers through his thinning hair and turns to the smirking,
student audience. “ I think
we’re going to have a lot of fun this semester, ladies and gentlemen.”
He turns to the Christian.
“ Tell me son. Is there evil in
this world?”
“ Yes sir.”
“ Evil is everywhere, isn’t it?
Did God make everything?”
“ Yes.”
“ Who created evil?”
No answer.
” Is
there sickness int his world? Immorality?
Hatred? Ugliness? All the terrible
things –do they exist in this world?”
The student squirms on his feet. “ Yes.”
” Who created them?”
No answer.
The professor suddenly shouts at his student.
“ Who created them? Tell me
please!’
The professor closes in for the kill and climbs into the Christian's face. In a still small voice: "God created all evil, didn't He, son?"
No answer.
The student tries to hold the steady, experienced gaze and fails. Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace the front of the classroom like an aging panther. The class is mesmerized.
“ Tell me,” he continues, “ How is it that this God is good if He
created all evil through all time?” The
professor swishes his arms around to encompass the wickedness of the world. “All the hatred, the brutality, all the pain, all the
torture, all the death and ugliness and all the suffering created by this good
God is all over the world, isn’t it young man?”
No answer.
“ Don’t you see it all over the place?
Huh?”
Pause.
“ Don’t you?” The professor leans into the student’s face again and whispers, “ Is God good?”
No answer.
"
Do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?"
The student's voice betrays him and cracks. "Yes, professor. I do."
The old man shakes his head sadly. “
Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world
around you. Have you?”
“ No, sir I’ve never seen Him.”
“ Then tell us if you’ve ever heard your Jesus?”
“ No sir I have not.”
“ Have you ever felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelt your Jesus?
In fact, do you have any sensory perception of your God whatsoever?”
No answer.
“ Answer me please.”
“ No sir, I’m afraid I haven’t.”
“ You’re AFRAID you haven’t?”
“ No sir.”
“ But you still believe in him?”
“ Yes.”
“ That takes FAITH!” The professor smiles sagely at the underling. “ According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son? Where is your God now?”
The student doesn’t answer.
“ Sit down please.”
The Christian sits …. defeated.
Another Christian raises his hand. “
Professor, may I address the class?”
The professor turns and smiles. “ Ah, another Christian in the vanguard! Come, come, young man. Speak some proper wisdom to the gathering.”
The Christian looks aroung the room. “ Some interesting points you are making, sir. Now I’ve got a question for you. Is there such a thing as heat?”
“ Yes,” the professor replies. “ There’s heat.”
“ Is there such a thing as cold?”
“ Yes son there’s cold too.”
“ No sir, there isn’t.”
The professor’s grin freezes.
The room suddenly goes very cold. The
second Christian continues. “ You can have lots of heat, even more heat,
super-heat, white heat, a little heart or no heat but we don’t have anything
called “cold.” We hit 458
degrees below zero, which is not heat, but we can’t go any further after that.
There is no such thing as cold, otherwise we would be able to go colder
than 458 degrees. You see sir, cold
is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold.
Heat can we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy.
Cold is not the opposite of hear, sir, it is the absence of it.”
Silence. A pin
drops somewhere in the classroom.
“ Is there such a thing as darkness, professor?”
“ That’s a dumb question, son.
What is night if it isn’t darkness? What are you getting at?” The professor was starting to get impatient.
“ So you say there is such a thing as darkness?”
“ Yes.”
“ You’re wrong again, sir.
Darkness is not something. It
is the absence of something. You
can have low light, normal light, bright lights, flashing lights but if you have
no light constantly you have nothing and it’s called darkness, isn’t it?
That’s the meaning we use to define the word.
In reality, darkness isn’t. If
it were, you would be able to make darkness darker and give me a jar of it.
Can you give me a jar of darker darkness, professor?’
Despite himself, the professor smiles at the young effrontery
before him. This will indeed be a
good semester. “ Would you mind
telling us what your point is, young man?’
“ Yes professor. My
point is, your philosophical premise is flawed to start with and so your
conclusion must be in error.”
The professor goes toxic.
“ Flawed?
How dare you!”
“ Sir may I explain what I mean?”
The class is all ears.
“ Explain …. Oh explain …” The
professor makes an admirable effort to regain control.
Suddenly he is affability itself. He
waves his hand to silence the class, for the student to continue.
You are working on the premise of duality,”
the Christian explains. “
That for example there is life and then there’s death; a good God and a bad
God. You are viewing the concept of
God as something finite, something we can measure.
Sir, science cannot even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism but has never see, much
less fully understood them. To view
death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot
exist as a substantive thing. Death
is not the opposite of life, merely the absence of it.”
The young man hold up a newspaper he takes from the
desk of a neighbor who has been reading it.
“ Here is one of the most disgusting tabloids this country hosts,
professor. Is there such a thing as immorality?”
“ Of course there is, now look ….”
“ Wrong
again sir. You see, immorality is merely the absence of morality.
Is there such a thing as injustice?
No. Injustice is the absence
of justice. Is there such a thing
as evil?” The Christian pauses.
“ Isn’t evil the absence of good?”
The professor’s face has turned an alarming coloy.
He is so angry that he becomes temporarily speechless.
The Christian continues, “ If there is evil in the world,
professor, and we all agree there is, then God, if he exists, must be
accomplishing a work through the agency of evil.
What is that work God is accomplishing?
The Bible tells us it is to see if each one of us will, of our own free
will, choose good over evil.”
The professor bridles. “ As a philosophical scientist, I
don’t view this matter as having anything to do with any choice; as a realist
I absolutely do not recognize the concept of God or any other theological factor
as being part of the world equation because God is not observable.”
“ I would have thought that the absence of God’s moral
code in this world is probably one of the most observable phenomena going,”
the Christian replies. “ Newspapers make billions of dollars reporting it
every week! Tell me professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a
monkey?”
“ If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process,
young man, yes of course I do.”
“ Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes,
sir?”
The professor makes a sucking sound with his teeth and gives
his student a silent, stony stare.
“ Professor, since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a priest?”
“ I’ll overlook your impudence in the light of our philosophical
discussion. Now, have you quite
finished?” the professor hisses.
“ So you don’t accept God’s moral code to do what is righteous?”
“ I believe in what is – that’ science!”
“ Ahhh! Science!” the student’s face splits into a grin. “ Sir, you rightly state that science is the study of observed phenomena. Science too is a premise which is flawed .”
“ Science is flawed?” the
professor splutters.
The class is in uproar.
The Christian remains standing until the commotion has subsided. “ To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student. May I give you an example of what I mean?’
The professor wisely keeps silent.
The Christian looks around the room.
“ Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor’s
brain?”
The class breaks out in laughter.
The Christian points towards his elderly, crumbling tutor.
“ Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor’s brain….
felt the professor’s brain, touched the professor’s brain or smelt the
professor’s brain?”
Silence.
The Christian shakes his head sadly.
“ It appears no one here has had any sensory perception of the
professor’s brain whatsoever. Well,
according to the rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol science, I
declare that the professor had no brain.”
The class is in chaos.
The
Christian sit... because that is what a chair is for.