Misconceptions About Christianity

I started out as a militant atheist, but I have since then come to Jesus. I am now addressing the most common wrongful claims about Christianity.

One claim is that Christianity is fanaticism. Any ideology can be fanatical, whether or not it is religious. There are fanatical Communists. There are fanatical feminists. There are fanatical anti-Semites. There are fanatical “skeptics” and personality psychologists. Fanaticism can happen under just about any belief structure, whether or not it is religious.

Another claim is that Christians are bigots. Now there are certainly some people who are Christians because they were raised Christian; but once again we see the same thing with any belief structure. They understand the transmission mechanism; they do not understand the reasons why the thing started. The early Christians were in no way bigots. They were radicals who were fighting a very powerful empire and outlasted it. The Romans were not ignorant. They had knowledge of many things such as engineering and medicine. Yet Christianity outlasted the Roman Empire, which means that there is something else going on besides the transmission mechanism. With contemporary Christians, many have come from other paths, and they have a very good reason to believe what they believe.

Another claim is that Christianity is illogical. What these people do not understand is that logic is a method and not a worldview. When faced with an experience that challenges the worldview, the correct solution is not to deny the experience but to change the worldview. To do the opposite is not logical; it is dishonest. In my case I have had many experiences with less than a billionth chance of happening whose only possible explanations are of the religious nature, and I, being myself quite effective at reasoning and having started out as an atheist, do not have the luxury of such beliefs.

We also see the claim that Christianity is misogynistic. The worst misogyny that I have seen has been of secular nature. The Freudians who think that women are an incomplete gender possessing a penis envy. The “rationalists” who think that anything with feelings is an inferior form of life. The skinheads who think that real men knock women around. Some of the happiest women that I have known were wives of Christian priests. These men were in no way misogynistic. They did what the Bible tells them to do – love their wives as their own flesh.

What else. That Christianity is stupid. I used to think the same thing; then I had the experiences of Christ in my life. What I experienced was not stupid at all. What I experienced was the wisest presence that I have ever dealt with. Christ has been working on my character, and I have gone from someone whom most people I knew saw as a bad person to someone whom most people I know see as a good one.

Then there is the Marxist claim that Christianity is something that “propertied classes” spread to control the “masses.” The first Christians were not part of the “propertied classes.” They came from “the masses.” Christianity was adopted by both the “propertied classes” and “working classes” alike, as well as by people in places such as America where there were no rigid class lines and people could rise or fall as far as their efforts would take them. When Marx saw an order based on “exploitation,” he saw the religion that was claimed by the “exploiters” and the “exploited” alike as being a part of the problem. He was wrong.

A related claim is that of equating Christianity with sheepish conformity. Once again, that can happen under any belief structure. Some people will be more likely to be leaders, and other people will be more likely to be lead. There is more rigid conformity in North Korea than there is in Texas.

And then of course there is a claim that it is a con. No, it is not a con. God is real. Jesus was real. We will find dishonest people under any ideology. That Pat Robertson has made false statements does not damn Christianity; it damns him.

Now I am the last person in the world whom one would expect to accept Jesus. This means that, if this can happen to me, then it can happen to anyone. I hope that people who have these kinds of beliefs experience the kinds of things that I have experienced. And I hope that they do so for their own sake as well as for that of others.