God Running is a place for anyone who wants to (or even anyone who wants to want to) love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.

Last week we learned about the most delicious of moral treats, and how that differs from the love of Jesus. If you’re interested you can read more here: “The Love of Jesus vs. ‘the most delicious of moral treats’“. Today we’ll take a break from our journey through the book of Acts because I want to share a few thoughts about an interesting conversation I had with one of my favorite family members.

3,000 gods to Choose From

So last night I was with some of my favorite family members (at the time of this writing), driving home across Oregon from a cross country meet. We were rooting for my nephew and niece’s daughter who was competing that day. On the way home, someone in the car mentioned a funny interview on the Stephen Colbert show with Ricky Gervais. During the interview this exchange took place:

Ricky Gervais: “So you believe in one God, I assume?”

Stephen Colbert: “In three persons, but go ahead.”

Ricky: “So, okay, but there are about 3,000 to choose from.”

Stephen: “I’ve done some reading, yeah.”

Ricky: “So basically, you believe, you deny one less God than I do. You don’t believe in 2,999 gods. And I don’t believe in just one more.”

The Red Herring Logical Fallacy

Doesn’t Ricky’s statement sound good on the surface? To me it sounded funny and clever. But in reality, the reasoning behind what Ricky said is a common logical fallacy called a red herring.

One way to illustrate this particular red herring logical fallacy might be a statement like this: “Many people have falsely claimed to be King of England throughout history. It doesn’t follow that the king of England doesn’t exist.”

Here’s another illustration: Let’s say, you tell me El Chapo was the biggest drug lord in the entire world.

And then I say, “El Chapo is a common nickname in Latin America, so . . . there are about 3,000 El Chapos to choose from. So basically, you deny one less El Chapo than I do. You don’t believe 2,999 El Chapos were the biggest drug Lord in the world, and I don’t believe in just one more.”

Of course that doesn’t make sense. Just because there are 3,000 El Chapos doesn’t mean the El Chapo who’s currently in a supermax prison in Colorado wasn’t the biggest drug lord in the world.

Or, to put it very simply, one could pose the question: “Considering all numbers between zero and 3,000, what is the answer to 1+1?”

If someone answered “2,” it would be illogical to accuse the person of being wrong in this way: “Oh, so you deny 2,999 numbers, but you believe your exclusive answer is correct?”

So, just because there are 3,000 options, doesn’t mean one of the options isn’t true.

My Logical Family

To his credit, the person who mentioned that interview recognized the logical fallacy in Ricky’s statement. That’s something I appreciate about my family. They’re bright intelligent people who are grounded in the truth.

The reason that gladdens my heart is because sometimes I hear atheists or atheistic leaning agnostics obfuscate hard when they don’t have a good answer for something. They play games with the truth. When that happens I’m always reminded of Pontius Pilate, who was more concerned about his political success than he was with administering a just and true decision concerning Jesus–who was completely innocent.

Jesus said, “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Pilate’s only response was: “What is truth?”

(John 18:37-38)

Obfuscating truth is only one of many doors atheism opens to dark places. If only matter and energy exist, and nothing else, our lives are devoid of any objective meaning. Each person can decide for themself what meaning there is for their life. And the person who decides they will be fulfilled by the most horrific behavior imaginable is no better or worse than the person who decides to live a life of sacrifice on behalf of others. The universe simply is. Without God there’s no logical path to an ought. Every person can decide for themself what they ought and ought not to do. There is no moral obligation. In fact,

Atheism opens all the doors to all the dark places.

Any and all behavior, including the darkest possible behavior, is an option for the atheist.

I believe Jesus when he said his purpose was to bear witness to the truth.

I believe Jesus when he said, Everyone who is of the truth listens to his voice.

“I am the light of the world,” Jesus said. “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

“Father, have mercy on me and on the person reading this right now. Keep us grounded in the truth. Keep us away from any worldview that opens doors to dark places. Make us into people who follow Jesus closely. Bless us with Your light of life. Keep us intimate with Christ.

“In Jesus’ name we ask this of You.

“Amen.”

Notes:

Image of light shining in the darkness via ChristCentric, Deviant Art–Creative Commons

Available on Google Play Books and on Amazon!

Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus)

Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others. Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:

• Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
• How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
• The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
• How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
• How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
• How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
• How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
• How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
• How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.

With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.

A life of loving like Jesus. (Kindle, hardcover, and paperback now available on Amazon and the ebook is now available on Google Play Books.)