Logic

A while ago I read an interesting book by Norman Geisler (who just recently passed away) and Frank Turek, provocatively entitled "I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist." At the time I didn't think all their arguments were watertight and yet the general logic of what they presented was pretty sound and definitely logical overall.  The thrust of what they present in their book is that, of all the worldviews, ideologies and religions, Christianity is the most logical explanation for what we actually see and experience.

It has been a while since I read the book and so rather than try to pick back through all their arguments which I half remember, can I perhaps encourage you to read the book for yourself, and instead I'll focus on a different framing of the logic of Christianity presented by Ravi Zacharias in which he suggests there are four questions which must be answered by our worldview that should be tested against the three criteria of logical consistency, empirical adequacy, and experiential relevance. They are questions of (1) origin, (2) meaning, (3) morality, and (4) destiny. Let's see if the Christian perspective on these four is logical...

Origin

This is probably where the most heated discussions start and this is the topic on which I've read numerous books on creation vs evolution, old earth vs new earth etc.  Where did we come from?
OK, so I said I wouldn't focus on the book by Geisler and Turek, but this is one of their sound arguments I do remember.  The Universe came out of nothing into existence in time and space, right?  And there are scientific rules that govern the operation of the Universe. Combining these two together, it is quite logical that an intelligence outside of the Universe - outside of time and space - created it. What name do we give to an intelligence outside of the Universe? God.

If you start from the logical point that God first caused the Universe to exist, then God creating life, creating humans and interacting with them in the way shown in the Bible are all very logical. Even the existence of miracles is logical from this perspective as only the one who set up the rules in the first place can operate beyond the rules to show it.

Meaning

OK, so God creating the Universe and humans in it is logical.  But why did He do it? What is the meaning of life? (Not 42, by the way!)

The worldview presented through the Bible is that God is relational i.e. He created us to have a relationship with Him. That shows itself in the ways He loves us, we love Him and how we love each other. Jesus put it this way:

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

In other words, the meaning of life is to love God and love one-another. That's it. Simple and logical to me.

Morality

I recall reading about C.S. Lewis's moral argument for the existence of God. I think it may even have been a major reason why he moved from atheism to faith. I don't know that I see this as a strong argument personally, but it is certainly logical. If we have morals, then they must have come from somewhere or someone.

For me, the Christian explanation for the presence of good and evil is logical.  When we see the beauty of creation, or experience the pleasure of good conversation, warm hugs or one of my dogs doing something extremely cute, the world is very good.  But when I see the news stories of killings in the name of ideologies, petty theft, abuse, or cyclones wiping out villages, or people succumbing to cancer, I see that there is also grievous evil in the world.  The Bible holds these two observations together through the concept of the fall.  We live in what was meant to be a good world, but it's broken.  This isn't a water-tight explanation for good and evil, particularly if you're on the receiving end of the brokenness, but it is at least logical. To fully accept the explanation for sure requires faith.

Destiny

So now to Ravi's last point about worldviews.  What happens when we die? This is where faith really kicks in as it's impossible to know from experience until it happens! I guess you can look at the people who've had near-death experiences or had dreams and visions of heaven, but ultimately for me I have to trust that what Jesus said is true. It's logical, and - coupled with my personal experience of trusting Him in this life - that step of faith is the most compelling of all the worldviews. It's logical to trust Him because He is trustworthy.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Summary

I want to wrap up this blog by quoting directly from the article from Ravi Zacharias (link again here) as I think he has a very nice way of summarizing things in a logical and succinct manner:

There you have it. Who is God? He is the nonphysical, intelligent, moral first cause, who has given us intrinsic worth and who we can know by personal experience.

The verification of what Jesus taught and described and did make belief in Him a very rationally tenable and an existentially fulfilling reality. From cosmology to history to human experience, the Christian faith presents explanatory power in a way no other worldview does. Our faith and trust in Christ is reasonably grounded and experientially sustained.

I often put it this way: God has put enough into this world to make faith in Him a most reasonable thing. But He has left enough out to make it impossible to live by sheer reason alone. Faith and reason must always work together in that plausible blend.

Seems logical to me!