God & Science
Religion is just a crutch for people afraid of death.
Short answer
Wanting something to be true doesn't make it false. Wishes run both ways: the atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel admitted, "I don't want there to be a God." Christianity is also a strange thing to invent for comfort. It calls us to deny ourselves and admit we're sinners, and it stakes everything on a fact that can be checked: that Jesus rose from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:14).
In simple words: Some people say we believe in God just to feel better. But Christians believe because Jesus really rose from the dead, and that's something we can look into.
Response
Sigmund Freud argued that belief in God is wish-fulfillment, a comforting illusion based on our longing for a protective father (The Future of an Illusion, 1927). Many people today say something similar: faith is a crutch for those who can't face death.
But explaining why someone might want a belief doesn't show whether it's true. A thirsty man's longing for water doesn't prove there's no water. C. S. Lewis argued the opposite: "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." The Bible says God "has also set eternity in the hearts of men" (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
The argument also works in reverse. Some people have strong reasons to hope there is no God, such as not wanting to answer to anyone. The philosopher Thomas Nagel candidly wrote, "I want atheism to be true," and "I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that." Wishes run both ways, so they can't settle the question.
And Christianity isn't what people would invent for comfort. Jesus said, "If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me" (Luke 9:23). It tells us we're sinners who need rescue. The first Christians gained no comfort from it in this life: many were beaten, jailed and killed.
Christianity doesn't ask you to believe because it's comforting. It rests on a fact: "if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is worthless, and so is your faith" (1 Corinthians 15:14). If it's true, the comfort is real. If it isn't, Paul says, "we are to be pitied more than all men" (1 Corinthians 15:19). So look at the evidence.
Key evidence
- Explaining why someone holds a belief doesn't show whether it is true.
- Desire cuts both ways: some want God to exist, others want him not to (Thomas Nagel, The Last Word, 1997).
- Christianity's call to self-denial and repentance makes it an unlikely invention for comfort (Luke 9:23).
- Christianity rests on a historical claim that can be investigated: the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:14-19).
Bible passages
- Ecclesiastes 3:11 Eternity in the human heart.
- Luke 9:23 Deny yourself and take up your cross.
- 1 Corinthians 15:14-19 If Christ has not been raised, faith is worthless.
- Acts 26:26 "It was not done in a corner."
Quotes
“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952)
“I want atheism to be true… I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that.”
Thomas Nagel, atheist philosopher, The Last Word (1997)
Discussion questions
- Can a belief be both comforting and true? Can one be both uncomfortable and true?
- What parts of Christianity are hard rather than comforting?
- Why does Paul stake everything on the resurrection?