2.4 The Case for Faith

Is that what faith is all about —— fooling yourself into becoming a better person? Convincing yourself there’s a God so that you’ll become motivated to ratchet up your morality a notch or two? Embracing a fairy tale so you’ll sleep better at night? Evidence to support the author’s statement: the resurrection of Jesus could not have been a legend:

The apostle Paul preserved a creed of the early church that was based on eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ return from the dead—— and which various scholars have dated to as early as 2-3 years after Jesus’ death. That is far too quick for mythology to have tainted the record. Hui: How do you know it is too quick? Is there any reference to compare with?

Even David Hume, one of history’s most famous skeptics, said it’s just barely possible that God exists. That’s at least a somewhat reasonable position —— to say that there is at least a small possibility…How can a mere finite human be sure that infinite wisdom would not tolerate certain short-range evils in order for more long-range goods that we couldn’t foresee?

Faith is active; it demands a response. Unlike reason, which bows down faithfully to the evidence, faith is prejudiced.

If there is no God, where did we get the standard of goodness by which we judge evil as evil?

Hui: it is a very popular argument but I don’t understand why. How come the presumption that the existence of good/evil standard indicating a God? 1) the standard is not well objectively defined. It is actually very subjective and varies by time and location. 2) how can we be sure there is no other reason that we just can’t comprehend due to our intellectual limitation? 3) even there is well defined standard and it is from God, how can we know it is A God not many Gods? 4) Even it does indicate a God, how can we know it is the God described in Christianity?

If death has no meaning, how can life ultimately have meaning? Hui: This is the point turned me on.