I’ve repeated my goal of seeking truth and goodness throughout this book. Evidence and reason are tools I use in that search. Integrity has been my guiding core value.
Searching for truth with integrity comes with risk. I couldn’t just defend what I already believed. I had to accept what evidence revealed as most likely, even when it meant abandoning what I had believed all my life; even when friends and family members distanced themselves from me because they disagreed with my conclusions. Fortunately, the truth I found illuminated the greatest goodness in the universe: altruistic love.
Love overcomes uncertainty, differences of opinion, and many other obstacles in life. Love conquers all!
Love and Respect. Amanda struggled for a while in our engagement when she learned that I thought the first chapters of Genesis were allegory, not history. She liked that I could offer scientific arguments for a creator and historicity credentials for the NT, but denying the literal character of the creation and flood stories felt like heresy to her.
I rarely expressed those opinions at that time in my life. Our pastor and nearly every member of our church were young-earth creationists (YEC) who ridiculed evolution and big-bang beliefs. That lack of respect put me in a difficult situation. I lived with theological secrets among overconfident, misinformed Christians. If I wanted to spread shame and condemnation, I could call them arrogant and ignorant, but those adjectives are harsh. Love requires that we speak with gentleness and respect. The young-earth creationists who ridiculed my beliefs were confident in their faith. Confident faith is generally a good thing, but expressing confidence by mocking people we disagree with isn’t right.
My Christian YEC friends didn’t understand the strength of evidence against their theology, so their confidence came from a lack of understanding. The uncomfortable position they put me in with their derision of the scientific principles I believed could justify a harsh reaction, but I still love and appreciate that church. I want to respect them.
Even though I believe they were wrong in this point, they were good, loving people. They were seekers of truth, but like all people, they were mistaken in some things they believed. That pastor gave me great insights into scripture and demonstrated true love and devotion most of the time. Leaders in the single adult Bible study that Amanda and I attended also provided great examples of altruistic love and challenged us to live out the gospel. Amanda and I share intense emotional bonds from our experiences in that church. We made great friends there, had a lot of fun, grew socially and spiritually, and finally we were united in marriage there in 1989. Cornerstone Church (now a Calvary Chapel) of Merritt Island, Florida was a body of believers blessed and used by almighty God to advance his kingdom on earth. God doesn’t require complete knowledge of truth to work in us. Love overcame the shortcomings of limited understanding.
Amanda and I began our marriage in disagreement over the historicity of Genesis 1-11. Living in loving unity with that disagreement taught us tolerance, but it was a mild source of stress. The stress intensified as Amanda relied increasingly on supernatural spiritism in her faith. She trusted teachings regarding the operation of the Holy Spirit that seemed presumptuous to me. Most advocates of specific doctrines related to angels, demons and the Holy Spirit presume certain interpretation of scripture and reinforce their presumptions based on anecdotal experiences. There are many conflicting doctrines related to the spirit realm within Christianity. As an evidentialist, I try not to embrace teachings based on presumptuous interpretation of scripture without very strong evidence.
When Amanda found emotional strength in certain practices and wanted me to embrace these spiritual doctrines, my intellectual integrity prohibited me. I supported her choice and considered seriously that these teachings could be true, but there were too many red flags. Contradictions and questions added to the lack of evidence. I intensely desired to come alongside my wife, supporting everything good that she was experiencing, but I couldn’t believe something was true when evidence indicated it was likely false.
As Amanda desperately sought healing for her anxiety through these spiritual doctrines, interacting and counselling with people who shared these beliefs, our differences sometimes led to disappointment and stress in our marriage relationship. Fortunately, our love and commitment founded on faith in God has endured. We are able to love, respect, support and encourage each other through challenges even with our differences. We each esteem what our spouse offers with gratitude. Love and respect overcome differing opinions!
Love is the most prevalent message in scripture. God loves and provides for us. He demonstrated his love in the human form of Jesus Christ. God wants us to love him. God wants us to love each other.
We find this message of altruistic love in creation too. Throughout time and in all cultures, people have recognized that love makes life better. Individuals who love experience greater joy and peace, and they make life more enjoyable for others. When groups of people all learn to live in respectful love, they find the greatest goodness possible in this world.
Selfishness in a competitive environment may provide a level of survivability, but it leads to misery. People who learn to cooperate in altruistic love achieve greater survivability and joy.
The love I’m referring to far exceeds feelings of attraction or affection. Altruistic love requires that we stop putting our own interests first. We choose to care for the interests of others at least as much as we care for ourselves. It’s good to love yourself, as long as you love others the same or more.
Love for God is unique. Since God created us and everything we enjoy in life, he holds a higher position than anyone. God also knows what’s best, always. My love for my Creator should exceed that for myself, anyone else, or anything in creation. The Creator is above creation. Love for God leads to obedience.
I’m not advocating a theology that says, “just love people and nothing else matters.” Humans, with our limited knowledge and selfish desires, can think we’re doing everything fine when in fact there are negative consequences to our choices. That’s why obedience to God is important.
For example, Jesus taught against lust. He even added a hyperbolic warning emphasizing how dangerous lust can be.[1] From my limited perspective, indulging myself with lustful fantasies and pornography seems harmless; it’s not hurting anyone directly. Since I believe the Bible is authoritative, I must take this teaching against lust seriously. I try to love God with a submissive obedience, so I need to live out this teaching in my thoughts and actions. Perhaps lust corrupts my mind in ways that affect my behavior even if I don’t succumb to adulterous temptations. If God wants us to avoid lustful thoughts, there must be some harm caused by them.
If sociologists conducted a legitimate scientific study of the effects of pornography on societies, I believe the evidence would confirm the value of what Jesus taught regarding lust. Unfortunately, many moral and ethical choices that we face come with profuse complexity and uncertainty. It’s easy to rationalize selfish choices as harmless.
Diligently Seeking. There’s a danger in uncertainty that can lead to apathy. With so much uncertainty, it’s tempting to just give up and do what seems reasonable without expending much effort. It’s in our human nature to take the easy way in life, but scripture warns us against this paradigm. The book of Judges states, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.”[2] The author of Judges inserted this bit of wisdom while recording the foolish, selfish behavior of early Hebrews.
Scripture contains many admonitions to diligently seek what’s true and good, such as “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart”[3] and “…work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”[4] The many biblical admonitions to work hard and seek earnestly align with the uncertainty I find in life. Because so many things are uncertain, it takes effort to find true goodness. Instead of apathy, uncertainty in life should motivate us to work diligently in our efforts to understand truth and goodness.
Even without these repeated admonitions in the Bible, it makes sense to search for truth and goodness diligently. The world is complex and confusing. Our minds are limited and easily deceived. Simply observing ourselves and other people objectively shows that accurate understanding takes effort, and even with great effort we are all frequently mistaken. Gaining knowledge, understanding and wisdom comes with rewards that make the effort worthwhile. Things can still go wrong in life, but the more we understand, the better the odds get. We can live better lives for ourselves and help others more if we work hard to gain knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. This principle is evident in the world; it’s repeated in scripture;[5] it's taught in most religions, and philosophies recognize it.
There are many additional challenges and opportunities in the evidential approach to truth. I discuss more of them in Appendix 2.
Exclusive or Inclusive Christianity with other Faiths?
Another prominent question in evidentialism asks which belief system is best and does it really matter? Evidentialism does not support relativism. We can’t just follow any path with the apathetic philosophy that they are all the same or it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere. Evidentialism indicates that all religions and philosophies contain some truth and some error, but they are not all the same. We should seek the greatest truth and goodness we can find. Recognizing uncertainty should reduce arrogance and increase respect for different opinions, but when we find greater evidence for truth in one belief system than others, it’s sensible to adopt principles from that belief system.
Historicity credentials for the NT justify favoring Christianity, but not with dogmatic arrogance. I acknowledge that other faiths and philosophies have credibility and Christianity has its issues, but I find stronger evidential support for Christianity than any other religion or philosophy.
One of the biggest objections people raise against Christianity is the exclusive theology fundamentalists and some evangelicals insist on. The idea that only Christians go to heaven and everyone else goes to hell seems offensive, unfair, and unjust. I’ve heard a few plausible rationalizations for this theology, but I don’t find it evidentially strong.
Little evidence exists to aid in our understanding of heaven, hell and judgement, so I rate uncertainty very high in all related theological positions. From my study of scripture, repentance seems to be the key to our destiny beyond this life. Souls who prioritize themselves first appear doomed to suffer in the spirit realm while those who put the interest of others first appear destined to find peace and joy when they die.
The Bible reveals a Creator who’s more interested in the condition of our souls than our religious affiliation. The list of faithful heroes in Hebrews 11 are recognized for their faithful obedience, which is an act of love for God. It wasn’t about being strict Jews. In fact, some of them weren’t even Jews. Jesus frequently criticized the most religious people of his day, but commended common people for acts of love and faithful trust in God. Jesus ministered to Samaritans and Gentiles as they were. He admonished them to stop sinning, but never told anyone they needed to be a good Jew to go to heaven. Jesus taught fundamental principles of truth and goodness while minimizing religious rules and rituals.
We find abundant evidence of truth and goodness in creation, but little pointing to a specific religion. It appears to me that God is concerned with the condition of our hearts more than our theology. I believe core Christianity to be true, but I also believe God offers salvation to anyone with a repentant heart, regardless of their religion, including atheists.
Evidence points to the altruistic love as the greatest good. Altruistic love wins.
[1] Holy Bible, NIV, Matthew 5:28-29.
[2] Holy Bible, NIV, Judges 17:6; 21:25.
[3] Holy Bible, NIV, Jeremiah 29:13.
[4] Holy Bible, NIV, Matthew 5:28-29.
[5] Holy Bible, NIV, Proverbs 2:6; 4:1-13; 9:10; 15:4; 16:16; 19:8; Colossians 1:9.