So Illogical It’s Illogical

I have to speak about a good conversation I had yesterday at the Kauffman stadium here in KC with a gentleman whom I shall call Ted (though not his real name). I first want to thank Ted for the awesome BBQ he prepared during the tailgating outside the ballpark. I had never had elk until yesterday and I love it. Between the four to six pounds of elk and the chicken legs and baked beans all prepared with his unique blends of spices and sauces…wow! I can’t the homade salsa that was just the way I like it: hot. All of that plus drinks for only $6, nice.

Ted is my roommate’s cousin and that’s how I met Ted. My roommate Eric was talking at somepoint in the afternoon and I heard that the converstaion took a theological flavor to it. I know not who opened up the disucssion but I was drawn in for two reasons: 1.) to see what Ted would say, and 2.) to see how Eric would respond. Ted had said that the point of life is enjoying oneself and being good people. He said that life is about helping people and having fun while doing it. While expressing agnostic doubts, he felt like all religions were like spokes on a bycicle wheel, they all point to the center. For him that center was living a moral life and when one dies all that matters is having lived that life and if there is a god, that god will give the person entrance into heaven for his effort to better society.

I wanted to interact with Ted so I spoke up. HIs wheel analogy advocated that it didn’t matter which religion one followed because they all taught the same thing. There is no right or wrong religion. But this isn’t true. For example, Islam and Judaism accept Jesus as a prophet but not as the incarnation of I AM. God is not trinitarian. They reject for Jesus the title: Son of God. Christianity also says that only through Jesus can one attain heaven. I asked him if that claim from John 14:6 is correct or was Jesus wrong. He told me that I had to prove Jesus said it. So I argued that the gospels were written by eyewitnesses to Jesus (i.e. John) or are the collections of eyewitness testimony (i.e. Mark). These testimonies were then copied and handed down through the age of the church. That claim isn’t a textual varient in the manuscript tradition so he needed to first demonstrate the claim wasn’t made. When that wouldn’t work, I pressed him to answer if Jesus is the only way AS HE CLAIMED. Ted said that if the exclusivity found in John 14:6 meant some tribe in South America who has never had the chance to hear about this only way and have to go to hell because of it, then yes Jesus was wrong. I wanted to press him on that but the topic was quickly changed back to just living a moral life. But he has in effect told God that he is wrong to say that the only way to eternal life is not through God! The one who decides who can get into the age to come is wrong if it isn’t the way Ted, the creature, wants it to be set up. That is Romans 1:18-32 being exposed, he is exchanging the Creator for the creature and professing to be wise he is a fool.

I asked him why he thinks everyone should be good and moral people. He said that it is because it’s a good thing to do. It’s good to do good. We enjoy doing good to others. We all believe it, every religion teaches it. He quoted the golden rule, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” However, he is demonstrating an irrationality. He wants the morals of the religions of the world–in his case Christianity–without the foundations each religion presents for the morals and ethical lives they command their adherents to live. The golden rule is from Christianity, Jesus’ rewording of Leviticus 19:18. He even asked me what the greatest commandment was. I answered like Jesus did with Deuteronomy 6:4-5. Then he asked me what the other one was and I said Leviticus 19:18. He wanted to leave the conversation at that but it is illogical and unreasonable to do so. In Jesus answer the greatest commandment is Deuteronomy 6:4-5, the other greatest commandment is Leviticus 19:18. THe first quote predicates the second. A person cannot have Leviticus without Deuteronomy first. Any reading of Leviticus will tell anyone that. It is a command given to people who worship Yahweh. God, more precisely the Christian God, is the foundation for the command. It is his command that he gives only to those who follow and submit to him. It only works in a Christian context. When Paul says what counts is faith expressing itself in love (Galatians 5:6) is that it is faith in Jesus Christ (One will note that in that chapter that this love is for others which is summed up as Leviticus 19:18 and that it is a fulfillment of the whole law). Only in the context of following Jesus does that moral command fit and have ground. We love because we have been loved by God first, a love expressed in Jesus’ work on the corss as the propitiatory sacrifice.

When I asked him why I should enjoy letting people die of disease as opposed to curing disease, he asked why not cure disease? I said because of his premise of enjoying life. I enjoy watching people suffer from cancer and other terrible disease. Why is that wrong? Why should I not do that and instead find cures for disease? I follow Leviticus 19:18 and seek to love others because I follow the one who gives that command. The command rests in Jesus’ authority to command us and to punish us for our failure to obey. Ted didn’t know what to do with that, ‘why do “evil” as he said instead of “good?”‘

He then began to question why Chritians always look for the bad in people. The answer is that they are fallen creatures who only do evil, a corrupt form of righteousness. They are in Adam and therefore rebells against their Creator. Ted said that we should look for the good in people. Before I could answer this charge, the conversation was ended. BUT if I had answered it I would have said this, I can look for the good in people because I believe they are made in the image of the God I worship. There is a foundation to do so in Christianity, Ted has no foundation to look for good or evil. There is no warrant. Why he chooses to do so is not something I discussed. But I would be curious as to why he chooses to look for it.

I told him that he was being irrational and illogical. He told me he was so illogical that he is logical. I don’t think so. It’s so illogical that it’s…illogical.