{"id":641,"date":"2011-06-18T06:34:15","date_gmt":"2011-06-18T10:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=633"},"modified":"2011-06-18T06:34:15","modified_gmt":"2011-06-18T10:34:15","slug":"salvation-by-gullibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2011\/06\/salvation-by-gullibility.html","title":{"rendered":"Salvation by Gullibility?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

When does an openness to \u2018taking things on faith\u2019 become gullibility? Why should God view people favorably because they show themselves open to falling for claims that do not have evidentiary support? And if God does indeed value belief of that sort, why would a willingness to believe without sufficient evidence that an individual was raised from the dead 2,000 years ago be more positive than a willingness to believe that someone in Nigeria wants to transfer millions of dollars into your account? To state that one of the claims is \u201ctrue\u201d doesn\u2019t help, unless we are in fact dealing with a question that can be settled, or at least supported, by relevant evidence and the examination and evaluation thereof.<\/p>\n

In fact, Paul (the \u2018apostle of faith\u2019) doesn\u2019t seem to have ever expected people to become Christians by making a \u2018leap of faith\u2019 in the absence of evidence. On the contrary, he refers to the evidence of the Spirit at work in and\/or among the Thessalonians, the Galatians, and the other churches he writes to.<\/p>\n

I wonder if the idea that one must make a blind leap of faith does not have at least as much to do with a discomfort (on the part of the religious and the secular alike)\u00a0with treating spiritual gifts and experiences as \u2018evidence,\u2019 \u00a0as with a shift in the meaning of the English word\u00a0faith<\/em>. In the ancient world, as for many today, religious claims were evaluated by the miraculous power to heal body and soul. Apart from among Pentecostals and charismatics, such claims and experiences are quite far from the experience and even the thinking of most Christians today, in spite of the importance they seem to have had in early Christianity.<\/p>\n

Yet it is worth asking theoretically, even if one hasn\u2019t been driven to ask such questions by one\u2019s own experiences or theological reflections, whether faith in God based on what God has done or can do for you is necessarily a wholesome, positive sort of faith. What if it turned out that God doesn\u2019t do anything for anyone specifically \u2013 the weather on your wedding day just happened to be good, and the person you love who recovered from an illness just happened to do so? What if it turns out that God is not the answer to our individual problems, but simply the meaning of our existence? How many of those who call themselves Christians would worship such a God for that reason alone, expecting nothing in return? Would willingness or unwillingness to worship such a God be a good thing?<\/p>\n

This post was based on one I wrote a few years ago<\/a>, and I was sparked to revisit the topic by recent posts about Christians\u2019 willingness to believe<\/a> unsubstantiated stories<\/a> about God<\/a> changing someone\u2019s DNA<\/a>. It is precisely the fact that people now are willing to accept impressive stories uncritically, that makes it impossible to read ancient texts about miracles and feel confident that the same was not true then. And so gullible Christians in the present day play a major role in undermining any confidence thinking people \u2013 Christians or not \u2013 can have in ancient miracle stories.<\/p>\n

But it seems to me a more important question to ask whether it is appropriate to treat such gullibility as a virtue in Christian circles, as the meaning of \u201cfaith.\u201d And for those of us who are persuaded it isn\u2019t, what can we do to most effectively promote a different view of faith, such as that advocated by Paul Tillich?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When does an openness to \u2018taking things on faith\u2019 become gullibility? Why should God view people favorably because they show themselves open to falling for claims that do not have evidentiary support? And if God does indeed value belief of that sort, why would a willingness to believe without sufficient evidence that an individual was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1087,1140,1846,2759,3329,3589,4269,4677,7502,8136,8843,10838],"class_list":["post-641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-beliefs","tag-bible","tag-christianity-religion","tag-dna","tag-faith","tag-fraud","tag-gullibility","tag-hoax","tag-miracles","tag-nigeria","tag-paul-tillich","tag-scam"],"yoast_head":"\nSalvation by Gullibility?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When does an openness to 'taking things on faith' become gullibility? 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