Conversation Among Friends

You may have seen the movie "Amazing Grace" about William Wilberforce who just about single handedly brings down the slave trade.  Anyway, I picked up his book "Real Christianity" written ca. 1797.

Here is a lengthy exerpt from the book that seems to address the subject of skepticism.

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By William Wilberforce 1797

There is another class of men and women in this country that is growing at an alarming rate.  These are the absolute unbelievers that have no interest at all in what this book is addressing.  Because of my concern for them, I would like to ask them a question: If they believe that Christianity is not true, is it not at least worth taking a closer look at?  After all, it has been embraced, often as a result of careful examination, by some of the greatest minds of our times.  Such great thinkers as Bacon, Milton, Locke, Newton and a great many others, who have carefully thought through these issues, have embraced the true Christian faith.  This does not even count those who have chosen the clergy as their profession, some of whom are the most astute thinkers I know.

            Can the skeptics say, with honesty, that they have carefully examined the evidences of the faith?  Have they thought all this through with the seriousness and diligence required of such an important subject?  In my own investigations, I have found that unbelief is rarely a matter of examining the evidence and reaching a negative verdict.  It is usually the outcome of a life that is careless and irreligious.  It is usually much more of a moral issue than an intellectual one.  Some people do not want to believe, even if the bulk of the evidence supports the truth of the faith.

            Think about what happens to many young people who are raised with all the benefits of prosperous parents who are cultural Christians themselves.  As children, they are taken to church, where they hear the parts of the Christian message that their particular church embraces.  Although it is rare in our times, maybe they even receive some measure of religious instruction at home.  Eventually, they leave home and launch out into the world.  Some go to work; some to college.  They face temptations that they have not faced before and give in to them.  Their lives might get out of control with the use of alcohol, and they might give in to sexual indulgence.  At the least, they never read the Bible ore make any attempt to develop a spiritual life.  Most don’t even attempt to take what knowledge is at their disposal and form their own beliefs and convictions.  They don’t learn to think.

            Maybe they travel to a foreign country.  Things are even worse there.  They begin to embrace the ideas to which they are exposed.  By the time they return home, they are further away from the faith than before.  Along with their previous frivolous way of life, they now begin to be consumed with the demands of making a living in the workplace and the desire for a career and success.  Most of what they hear about Christianity is in a negative context.  If they go to church at all, they hear things that either make no sense to them or that they find offensive to the way they live.  They have no grasp of the Bible to compare with what they hear.

            The result is an attitude toward Christianity that is not only negative but also one that is rooted in a faulty sense of intellectual superiority.  The young also have a way of seeing right through the charade of those who profess the faith but don’t live the life.  What began as vague imperceptible doubt soon grows.  By slow and steady degrees, the doubt becomes more fixed in their minds.  In a twisted kind of way, the young men and women begin to hope their doubt is well founded.  Any reason that reinforces it is welcomed.  Doubt becomes greater, not based on evidence, but merely by dwelling in the mind.  Ultimately, doubt overtakes all resistance and controls the mind in matters of faith.  This is certainly not always how it goes, but in general you could think of this scenario as the genesis of unbelief.  This is not always the process, but generally speaking, it is the natural history of skepticism.  If you have carefully observed someone you know drifting into unbelief, you have probably seen something like this occur.

            This has also been the theme of those who have written of their unbelief.  It is interesting to read how many of these individuals describe their own lives.  It is not unusual for them to speak of some time in their life when they gave some sort of intellectual assent to Christian faith.  Often, this was when they were children, and merely refers to an inherited religion.  What happened to move them to their new understanding that in their opinion is more enlightened?  Was it some traumatic event?  Was it the conclusion of some extensive research into the facts of Christianity?

            Usually, these had no part in their decision. What you will find instead is that they spent many years living in a morally careless way without any regard for the true principles of authentic faith.  They lived these years in relationship with others who lived the same way.  They became unbelievers.  Ironically, if some of these individuals turn their thinking around and become believers, it is usually by a process much more rational and careful than the process by which they embraced unbelief.  They awaken to reflection.  Reflection leads to investigation. And investigation leads to belief.

            If this is how skepticism develops, then it would appear that unbelief is much more a matter of prejudice against Christian faith than intellectual rejection of what it believes and teaches.  It is a matter of morality, not intellect.  What is true of individuals is also true of cultures.  Where you find a society that is marked by unbelief, you will find that it was not the product of careful investigation that led to such a mass rejection.  Instead, it is often the product of a culture in which morality has been allowed to decline over a great many years.  Belief declines as morals decline.  Unbelief in the masses reinforces itself in the individual.  Material property further enhances the process.

            It would seem that an unbiased look at unbelief would lead to the conclusion that it is irrational and not based on fact.  Ironically, it is the opponents of Christianity who usually accuse those who believe of irrational belief based on prejudice in favor of the Christian faith.  The truth appears to be that the opposite is in fact the case.  It is unbelief that is based on unexamined prejudice.