Is Christianity plausible

Answer 1

According to the dictionary definition of the term plausible which contains the idea of something being 'apparently reasonable valid and truthful' , then most certainly yes.

The idea of God as an almighty being who can do all things that He both wills and are according to His nature makes a lot of things both possible and plausible that may otherwise be impossible. This does not mean that a Christian can resort to 'God did it' for anything and everything which is unexplainable but that many things which we would call miracles are both possible and plausible. They are also plausible in the sense that they have occurred in the space/time universe and many of them have been observed and recorded and corroborated as having happened.

To human reason which (unreasonably I believe) excludes the possibility of miracles (a la David Hume) then all this is mere nonsense. But if you look at the world, the incredibly complex world which we have discovered with both modern technology and with our incredibly complex brain, then it is a natural question to ask how this all came to be. But the very fact that we ask the question at all or stand in awe of the night sky on a clear moonless night (away from the light pollution of a city) when we are just a complex blob of chemicals in a particular arrangement - this indeed makes one wonder how anything else is plausible.

The reason why we exist and even more, the reason why God would come and become as one of us relates to two factors which bear on this whole question. Firstly God created this whole world and in particular has an interest in people who are the center of His redeeming love, just because He loves them. These two facts are clear throughout The Bible, the very Word of God - and that is another thing - as Francis Schaeffer pointed out, it is not just important that God is there but that He is not silent. Christianity teaches that He not only exists but that He has spoken. If this were not so then all our ideas about Him would be mere myths of guesswork or human wishful thinking.

The Bible also teaches that not only has God revealed Himself to us but that it is possible to know Him both through His creation and through a personal relationship.

All this having been said in a general sense, in a specific sense it is also true that Christians, who are also humans, have added much [in the way of human developed requirements] to what God has told us would please Him. Some of these things may not indeed be plausible - they do not please God either, nor do they please Christians who would just follow what God says in His word.

Of course it is. To this, let's look at the main precepts of Christianity

1. God is Creator. Despite some claims to the contrary, very many scientists are now resigned to the fact that this universe seems explicitly designed for life to exist. The Anthropic Principle dictates that even miniscule changes in the fundamental physical constants that were set up at Creation would result in a universe unfit for life to exist, and yet our universe has managed to allow life not just to exist, but to thrive, way beyond the realm of coincidence. The universe seems designed - it bent over backwards so that we could exist. As our Creator, God is himself still creating, maintaining these laws keeping everything working like clockwork, and as a result loves his creation - and us - with an overwhelming love. All seems logical to me.

2. Free will and sin. Lower organisms (animals & plants) live their lives either by biochemical reactions alone or by instinct. As intelligent and conscious humans we have a conscience and also free-will. However, instead of going God's way, we go our own way because we think we know best. And we've made a mess of things ever since records began. As a result we cannot have a relationship with our perfect Creator God, simply because he is perfection and we are now not. Therefore, we have doomed ourselves to spiritual death as a result. All seems logical to me.

3. God's Love and the role of Jesus. God's love for us is so perfect that he craves a proper relationship with us despite our shortcomings. He gave the original 'chosen people', the Israelites, laws. He gave them righteous kings. He lavished them with good things - he even punished them. He sent prophets to encourage and to warn. All was in vain. Finally he sent his Son, as the ultimate sacrifice, so that his sacrifice could once and for all atone for the sin that separated us from Him. Christians are now the 'Chosen people' (see 1 Peter 2-3). Jesus' miracles have always caused controversy, but if Jesus is God, and was present as the Word of God at Creation, then if he made the physical laws he can presumably also break them. All seems logical to me.

4. Death. If Jesus is God, and the result of sin is spiritual death, then as Jesus was sinless the resurrection was inevitable - not some unbelieveable miracle. It had to happen. Otherwise everything else would never fit into place. Frank Morrison's book 'Who moved the Stone' s all the questions from the sceptics regarding the resurrection, too many to go into here. Over 500 people witnessed the risen Christ. The resurrection happened, period. Therefore Death has been conquered finally as a result of Jesus' sacrifice and we can look forward to spirtual rebirth and a proper relationship with a Creator God whom we can now call Abba (Daddy) and who can love us as we love Him. All seems logical to me.

5. Holy Spirit. We cannot be Christians alone - we are human after all with all human failings. We need a helper. The Holy Spirit fills this need admirably and plays such an important part in millions of peoples' lives. All seems very logical to me.

6. Finally, If God is a God of love he will want to draw all of us to be with Him for ever. Death has already been conquered but we are still living in the aftermath. When the Allied (UK, USA etc) troops landed on the Normandy Beaches at D Day 1945 we knew that World War II was won. Although the surender declaration hadn't yet been signed, nor had some minor skirmishes between the Nazis and the Allied Forces stopped, we knew the war was won at that point. One day, in the near future, we knew that Churchill and Roosevelt would reign once more in peace and the evil leaders would be vanquished. This finally happened a short while later. So too has the resurrection marked the victory over death. The final surrender of death and Satan will not come until the end - when Christ returns to reign for ever. And guess what.... it all seems logical to me.

So even if I was not someone with a strong Christian faith, Christianity would seem to me to be so wonderfully logical, and plausible.