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Apologetics
9. Questions about Faith Being 'Wishful
Thinking'
(Clearing
away Debris)
A
series that helps consider the foundations for faith
Contents:
Introductory
Comments
•
The purpose of the
page
1.
What is the charge of "Wishful Thinking"?
•
Noting
the form of the charge
2.
What is the first answer?
•
And the atheist!
3.
What is the second answer?
•
I don't like
my father!
4.
What is the third answer?
• This
invisible friend isn't like me
5.
What is the fourth answer?
•
It's all about history
Conclusions
The
charge that atheists seem so keen to make against Christianity
or religion generally is that it is simply wishful thinking.
On
this page we will note first of all the form it often takes
and then four obvious answers to it.
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| 1.
What is the Charge of "Wishful Thinking? |
It's
obvious, say misguided psychologists (such as Sigmund Freud)
and subsequent atheists jumping on the bandwagon, that all
your religion is wishful thinking. It's a scary world and
so it is natural for human beings to want to have a father
figure or even an invisible friend to be there for them. It's
just wishful thinking on the part of all you religious people.
We've got to grow up and learn to live on our own.
That's
what is said, and there are at least four answers to be considered,
which we will cover briefly and simply:
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| 2.
What is the first answer? |
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Answer:
Charles
Colson in How
Now Shall We Live? wrote:
“We
could argue that the myth of human goodness to which modern
culture has succumbed is best explained by the psychology
of atheism, which is itself a form of wish fulfilment
– a deep desire to be free from all external authority
and from any transcendent source of morality.”
In
other words he is saying that the alternative, atheism, is
open to the charge of ‘wishful thinking' because, in fact,
many people don't want to be told what to do and so the idea
that there is no God who is THE Supreme Being who knows best
is appealing to the sinful mind which wants to be free to
do its own thing.
Summary:
Atheism is just as likely to be wishful thinking!
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3.
What is the second answer?
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Answer:
This
is almost an extension of the first answer. As much as subconsciously
we might want someone to watch over us, psychologists tell
us that many people struggle with a father figure because
their fathers were abusive or less than caring, so in fact,
many people struggle with the idea of God as a Father figure
so this is actually a hindrance and not a cause for belief.
Summary:
Many people don't like father figures!
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4.
What is the third answer?
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Answer:
Part
of the charge is that God is a made-up idea, rather like the
invisible friend that many children have, someone to keep
us company, someone to play with us and be nice to us.
When
you try to apply this idea to God there is an obvious problem.
The truth is that when you start to examine childhood ‘invisible
friends' they are almost always similar to the child. The
reason for this is obvious: we like people who are like us.
Thus
our childhood invisible friend is like us, but when it comes
to God, the God of the Bible, we find a completely different
picture: He is utterly different from us. He knows everything
and He knows best. More than that, He demands that we become
like Him. This is exactly the opposite to the ‘invisible childhood
friend' idea.
Summary:
God's not like me!
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| 5.
What is the fourth answer? |
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Answer:
The
claim is that it is wishful thinking, but the point about
Christianity is that it is NOT a set of clever ideas pandering
to our needs; it is an account of God's activity in history,
revealing His love for us.
The
Bible is a series of historical documents founded in history,
recording events of time-space history.
So
much of it uses the language of the witness, recording what
people saw and heard. If you want to do a study of this, check
out the following: Luke
1:1-3, 1 Jn 1:1-3, Acts
2:32, 3:15, 4:18-20, 5:30-32, 10:39,40, 1 Cor 15:3-8, 1 Pet
5:1, 2 Pet 1:16, Jn 19:33-35, 20:24-30, Heb 2:3,4.
Summary:
Not bright ideas, but history!
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It's
a silly claim, this one that says all we believe is wishful
thinking.
Our
faith doesn't come in a way that many of us find acceptable
(the father  figure),
it doesn't come in a form that panders to us (the invisible
friend), and it isn't a bunch of clever ideas, but a record
of history, of God revealing His love to us, and that is clear
and distinct from our own thinking.
No
wonder the apostle Paul said we needed our minds transforming
(Rom 12:2). It's all about us conforming our minds to Him,
not us making up things to believe in!
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