Saturday, April 14, 2012

Life Transformation

Recently I was speaking with a friend of mine who is a Christian missionary. We were talking about modern day evidence for Christianity and one point he made was that the gospel has the power to change lives (life transformation).

This would be a pretty good point, but there are two problems. Let's say that by changing lives we mean going from a "destructive" lifestyle to a more civilized / happy / fulfilled lifestyle. Does someone who hears the gospel and repents (changes their lifestyle) always remain that way? I'll bet everyone can think of examples of Christians who go back to their "sinful" way of life. So it does not always work and it does not always stick. So the first problem with the point my friend made is that the gospel's power to change lives is not powerful enough to keep everyone changed. This makes transformation and back-sliding look more like regular human nature than something that has a supernatural force behind it.

The second problem with using life transformation as evidence is that it is not unique to Christianity. Thanks to the Internet, finding examples of life transformation in other belief systems is not hard at all. The Internet is full of personal testimonies from people all over the world. Try searching for "How _____ changed my life" and fill in the blank with whatever you want: Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, etc. I've already read through several testimonies that sound just like Christian testimonies only they are not Christian. These are sincere people who really feel that this new belief system or deity they've found has changed them.

I think my friend is grasping at straws when he tries to find modern day evidence for Christianity like this and I don't find it very convincing. What would be more convincing is if we had a consistent and unique experience for Christians that could only be explained by a supernatural force. Early Christians supposedly had the ability to perform miracles or give prophecies and some were even able to handle deadly snakes and drink poison without dying. I would have to change my mind if I witnessed something like that and if it could be verified as a real miracle. Since there are so many ancient writings that contain outrageous claims it is hard to take any of them seriously.

4 comments:

  1. G'day Dave, I linked here from Nate's blog, and I thought I'd make a few comments if that's OK.

    "What would be more convincing is if we had a consistent and unique experience for Christians that could only be explained by a supernatural force."

    I wonder what you make of these three pieces of information?

    The story of a Hong Kong triad gang member who tried (unsuccessfully) several times to come off hard drugs, but came off easily when he prayed. Coincidence? Except the same happened to hundreds of them. The video of their story even shows the Hong Kong police chief (back in the days when it was a British colony) confirming the astonishing change in so many gang members' lives.

    A medical researcher investigated ten cases of miraculous healings, discussed them with the specialists concerned and examined the medical records, and found that extremely unusual cures occurred just after they were prayed for.

    An emergency team work unsuccessfully on a heart attach victim for 40 minutes, so an experienced heart surgeon confirms he is dead. Then he prays for him and the man recovered.

    I'm not sure what you're looking for, but these cases are challenging. I could give more if you were interested.

    Best wishes.

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  2. Hi unkleE, thanks for stopping by my blog. I would appreciate your input on any of my posts. I will stop by the website you link to and check it out. Is it yours?

    After I read about the cases you mentioned I'll follow-up here.

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  3. Thanks. Yes it's my website, but the stories are gathered from various places. They are not proof, but they are suggestive. I look forward to your comments.

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  4. Hi unkleE, I've read all three of the stories you linked to and here are my thoughts:

    (1) The Hong Kong gang member. I've never taken drugs - so I don't know how hard it is to give them up. I once was addicted to video games and played them ALL the time. Some time after my first child was born I gave them up cold turkey with no spiritual interaction. I threw out all the games I had and uninstalled them. I did this because I had made a personal resolution to become a father and not a gamer. I realize that drugs can be much harder to break free from because of the physical pain involved, but I mentioned the video game example because I think that everyone has the potential to make a hard and fast decision (for good or bad) if they choose to do so. Sometimes biting the bullet and doing it all at once is the best way. Praying can also have an impact, I'm just not sure if it's from within or from "above".

    (2) The Ten Healings. I am a little bit suspicious about this list because the name Kathryn Kuhlman comes up a lot. I did a little digging and watched a few videos of her preaching. Frankly, she seems a bit "out there". From Wikipedia: "Following a 1967 fellowship in Philadelphia, Dr. William A. Nolen conducted a case study of 23 people who claimed to have been cured during her services. Nolen's long term follow-ups concluded there were no cures in those cases. One woman who was said to have been cured of spinal cancer threw away her brace and ran across the stage at Kuhlman's command; her spine collapsed the next day, according to Nolen, and she died four months later." Some of the ten cases claim that there are x-rays to prove that miraculous healings occurred. I'd be interested in seeing these along with some kind of physicians notes if any exist. I'll have to try and find that book in the library or somewhere.

    (3) The Heart Attack Recovery. This was the most convincing of the three. I watched the news video and all of the news stories I could find covering the event. What is unclear is whether anyone other than Dr Crandall was interviewed. I'm not a doctor so I'm not sure if the skin turning black indicates death or just symptoms of near death. I do know that if they were performing CPR on the man then his brain could have stayed alive for quite a while. If they were pumping his chest/heart then that could have kept his brain from becoming damaged. Here are two news articles of some long survivals under CPR:

    http://yourlife.usatoday.com/mind-soul/doing-good/story/2011/03/Dozens-of-people-perform-CPR-for-96-minutes-to-save-heart-attack-victim/44427376/1

    http://www.king5.com/news/local/Friends-save-Covington-teen-using-CPR-122378084.html

    Both of these stories can be considered miracles of modern science / CPR. What is remarkable about the story of Dr. Crandall is that he prays and then the heart starts beating regularly. Now I'm sure Dr. Crandall also prays for all of his patients so this should be considered. Also the use of the paddles to revive the heart makes it sound less supernatural as well. I would love to see more examples like this because it does make me wonder if supernatural miracles really do happen.

    Just the fact that we are all here living, breathing, thinking, existing is a miracle. I'm just uncertain if it is a miracle with a natural explanation or a supernatural explanation.

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