I am not a philosopher. When the philosophy professor put a brick on his desk and led a 70 minute discussion of whether there was actually a brick there, I was one of the unenlightened few who simply accepted that there was indeed a brick. I could see it, feel it, hit myself in the head with it, smash windows with it. Of course there was a brick!
To me, knowing there is a God is a lot like knowing there was a brick. I know he is there because I talk to him and he talks to me. I feel him, and experience him. To me it would take an unbelievable amount of faith to believe that God did not exist. But believing that God exists is only a beginning, it is not and end unto itself.
What anyone believes is critically important. It is central to who and what we are, how we act and how we interpret the world around us. Beliefs are scary things. They cause men to give up their lives or take lives. Sometimes they bring people together and sometimes they drive people apart. Beliefs cause nations to rise and to fall. They cause people to act, for better or worse.
Belief in what is generally termed “christianity” does not scare me, but some professed Christians do. I wish that every person who comes to faith in Christ would be required to memorize Romans 2:1, which says “Therefore you are without excuse, every man of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.” Judgmental people in general scare me.
Couple judgment with moral authority, and you get a very scary creature indeed. The most scary people on earth are the ones who claim, and probably genuinely believe, that God has told them to carry out acts of hatred, or who believe that they must defend God’s honor, as if he were incapable of doing that himself. Whether it is someone from Saudi Arabia or Northern Ireland, or the U.S., or wherever, those people are dangerous. Anyone who’s aim is greed and ambition is dangerous.
Christianity has certainly shaped our civilization, for better or worse. Often, very often, it has been used as a pretext for political or personal gain. It was used in Europe almost exclusively for that purpose for well over a thousand years. For some reason, even very intelligent people do not look too far behind an evil doer’s claim that they act on behalf of God. Instead of demanding the authority by which the person acts, people tend to simply deride the God that the evil one credits, and cite that person as proof that faith in God is unjustified. Jesus said that if you want to know whether someone is one of his disciples, you look to see if he or she loves people. If they don’t act with love, they are not acting on his authority, no matter what they claim.
Loving people are not scary. People who visit the sick and give to the poor and help old ladies cross the street are not the least bit frightening to me. The bible says that love casts out fear, and I for one, believe that to be true. It is not the sheep we should fear, but the wolves.