Is Christianity a crutch, a delusion, an exercise in wishful thinking? Those charges have certainly been levelled against the faith plenty of times, and critics of Christianity continue to argue that people would be better off by “freeing” themselves of the shackles of religious thought.

In this Slice of Infinity devotional, Jill Carattini counters with the suggestion that Christianity’s critics aren’t offering the positive alternative to religion they imagine they are:

But do the growing numbers of atheists who insist that life without God is “freeing” not succumb to a similar temptation, making life and even death sound better than their own philosophies impart? If God is a farce and life is but rapidly moving time and the unapologetic force of chance, is “reassured” really a viable option? If there is no divine being, no creator of time, no one hearing prayers or answering the cries of injustice, can we really be comforted, unworried, even lighthearted about life as we know it….

Surely we can attempt to dress such a philosophy in beautiful robes, but in the end we will find it was all an act. Whatever our philosophies, whatever colorful billboards catch our eyes, we do well to follow them to their logical ends….

Faith in God is not a source of worry, as the buses and billboards (and perhaps some believers) suggest, nor is faith in Christ an obstacle for enjoying life. Far from this, by faith the Christian is given a life truly like that of Christ’sfully human, fully alive. And whether Christian or atheist, freethinker or fretting player, we must take care not to raise billboards that suggest something other than our philosophies impart.

By: Andy. This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 15th, 2010 at 4:32 pm and is filed under Devotional. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.