"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're 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.
"Ahh! 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 them? Would you try?"
"Yes sir, I would."
"So you're good...!"
"I wouldn't say that."
"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 to heal him. How is this Jesus good? Hmmm? 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, young 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
back to the Christian.
"Tell me, son.
Is there evil in this world?"
"Yes, sir."
"Evil's everywhere, isn't
it? Did God make everything?"
"Yes."
"Who created evil?"
No answer.
"Is there sickness in
this world? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these 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 throughout 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 ever seen your Jesus?
"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."
"Yet 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 around
the room. "Some interesting points you are making, sir. Now
I've got a question for you. Is there such 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, mega-heat,
white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don't have anything called
'cold'. We can hit 458 degrees below zero, which is no 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-. You see, sir,
cold is on a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure
cold. Heat can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold
is not the opposite of heat, sir, just 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...?"
"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 light, flashing light, 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 here'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 magnets but has never seen, 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 holds 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 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 good?"
The professor's face
has turned an alarming color. He is so angry he is 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 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, 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, stoney 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's science!"
"Ahh! SCIENCE!" the student's
face spits 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 or smelt
the professor's brain?" No one appears to have done so.
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, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says the professor
has no brain."
The class is in chaos.
The Christian sits...
Because that is what a chair is for.
~ Unknown ~
Visitors since February 2000.