Today I want to post a "Slice of Infinity" from Ravi Zacharias.  Ravi has a unique way of nailing truth.  The Slice is called "Point of Exclusion".   It talks about the argument that Christianity claims exclusivity.  All religions do this.  Here is the article.


Point of Exclusion

With the numerous religions in the world, how can Christians claim exclusivity? I am often asked this question in different settings. But I've always been fascinated by the fact that the Christian faith is the only one that seems to have this question posed. The truth is that every major religion in the world claims exclusivity, and every major religion in the world has a point of exclusion.

Hinduism, for example, is often represented as being the most tolerant and accepting of other faiths. That is just not true. All Hindus believe in two fundamental, uncompromising doctrines—the Law of Karma, and the belief in reincarnation. These will not be surrendered. In fact, Buddhism was born out of the rejection of two other very dogmatic claims of Hinduism. Buddha rejected the authority of the vedas and the caste system of Hinduism. The issue here is not who was right or wrong. The truth is that they were systemically different—both claiming rightness.

Islam, as you know, is very clearly an exclusive claim to God. A Muslim will never tell you that it doesn't matter what you believe or that all religions are true.

But before we get upset with such claims, let us remember that it is the very nature of truth that presents us with this reality. Truth by definition is exclusive. Everything cannot be true. If everything is true, then nothing is false. And if nothing is false then it would also be true to say everything is false. We cannot have it both ways. One should not be surprised at the claims of exclusivity. The reality is that even those who deny truth's exclusivity, in effect, exclude those who do not deny it. The truth quickly emerges. The law of non-contradiction does apply to reality: Two contradictory statements cannot both be true in the same sense. Thus, to deny the law of non-contradiction is to affirm it at the same time. You may as well talk about a one-ended stick as talk about truth being all-inclusive.

So where does that leave us? We must not be surprised at truth claims but we must test them before we believe them. If the test demonstrates truth then we are morally compelled to believe it. And this is precisely the point from which many are trying to run. As G.K. Chesterton said, the problem with Christianity is not that it has been tried and found wanting, but that it has been found difficult and left untried.

Christ is either the immeasurable God or one dreadfully lost. Apply the tests of truth to the person and the message of Jesus Christ. You see not only his exclusivity, but also his uniqueness. 

Ravi Zacharias is founder and chairman of the board of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries

As I have said many times before on this blog, have an open mind and check it out for yourself.  Look at the evidence for all religions.  Test them and see if they provide coherent, logical answers to the fundamental questions of life.  Make it a front burner issue in your life to find out the "truth".  It is important.

The New Atheist Problem

It has become clear to me that Richard Dawkins and the New Atheists have a problem.  They continually re-define the word “faith”.  They characterize faith as the belief in something without any evidence and belief in something even in the teeth of evidence to the contrary.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Faith is more a sense of trust based on evidence and reasons to accept.  What the New Atheists are referring to is “blind faith”, which is indeed a reprehensible and indefensible position.

But if we look more closely at what these critics are saying, we find the illogical nature of it.  The humanist/naturalist believes in nature and science.  They claim all things can be explained by science.  Yet that statement is a philosophical statement without any evidence!!  What are the reasons for accepting such a claim?  I can give numerous examples of things that science cannot explain.  Take for example the periodical cicadas.  Every seventeen years this insect comes back to life from the ground in numbers so great is astounds us all.  The sound of them rubbing their wings is at times deafening.  How is it that these insects know to come up out of the ground, lay their eggs, live for a few weeks, die, and then return in 17 years?  How do they know that?  How is it that their sense of time is so accurate?  Science can’t explain it.  They speculate, but have no solid evidence for the phenomenon.

What about the constants of nature in the universe?  The positive and negative force of the proton and electron in the atom, the force of gravity, the entropy in the universe all are examples of phenomenon that science has no answer for.  Are we then to conclude that they don’t exist?

You see, in order to accept the humanist/naturalist/evolutionist position, one must take a ‘leap of faith’ that has less evidence for it than does the reasonable and rational decision to accept Christ, as Frank Turek and Norm Geisler so appropriately said in their book of the same title, “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist”.   The “brights” like to make it seem as though their position is better thought out, more rational, reasonable, and with more evidence.  But the opposite is actually the truth.  Philosophers, scientists, and thinkers for centuries have sought after God.  The depth of their discoveries has been the basis of science in the modern age.  Yet only recently do we come to think that science has all the answers.  What hogwash!  It is as though we simply can dismiss the thinkers of the past as being misguided, uninformed, and simplistic.  The arrogance of the “brights” to think that way is beyond measure.  They like to cite the many examples of the past where the prevailing thought was later shown to be wrong.  Well, is it not possible that their prevailing thoughts today are wrong about the supernatural?

It seems to me the best course of action is to investigate from all angles and to look at history, philosophy, and science to find the evidence with which to base a logical and supported hypothesis.  One must keep an open mind and not venture into the investigation with a decision that the supernatural cannot exist already made, which is what they do.

The search for God and Truth has been the single most important and significant endeavor of man’s existence.  It is because life on this planet has no meaning, no value, and no purpose without God and immortality.  If we are all just molecules in motion in a baseless and irrelevant universe, then I wish to no longer be a part of it.  Ecclesiastes says it well, “So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me.  All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.  I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.”  Think about it, without God and immortality, what are we here for?  Where do we come from?  Where are we going?  Is this all there is?

If you want to answer the fundamental existential questions of life about origin, meaning, purpose, and destiny, there is only one place you can find answers that are coherent, logical, and reflect reality.  That place is in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Fantastic meeting yesterday of the Milwaukee Chapter of Reasonable Faith.  Great discussion on whether or not the supernatural exists. 

We will suspend meetings now for the summer and resume in September in the new Southbrook Church.  Since we are acquiring a facility for the chuch, the chapter will now have a convenient location for future meetings.  We discussed the possibility of organizing a conference to be held at the new Southbrook, maybe next Spring.

The excitement level is high.  Praise God for His blessing on our efforts to move forward with the chapter and spread the idea of reasonable faith.

The next meeting of the Milwaukee Chapter of Reasonable Faith will be held at Southbrook Church on Sunday, June 17th @ 9:00am.