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Title: 9. Questions about faith being "wishful thinking" (Clearing away debris)
A series that helps consider the foundations for faith
Contents for Overview:
Introductory Comments • The purpose of the page 1. What is the charge of "Wishful Thinking"? • Noting the form of the charge 2. What is the first answer? • And the atheist! 3. What is the second answer? • I don't like my father! 4. What is the third answer? • This invisible friend isn't like me 5. What is the fourth answer? • It's all about history 6. Conclusions
Introductory Comments
The charge that atheists seem so keen to make against Christianity or religion generally is that it is simply wishful thinking. On this page we will note first of all the form it often takes and then four obvious answers to it.
1. What is the Charge of "Wishful Thinking?
Answer:
It's obvious, say misguided psychologists (such as Sigmund Freud) and subsequent atheists jumping on the bandwagon, that all your religion is wishful thinking. It's a scary world and so it is natural for human beings to want to have a father figure or even an invisible friend to be there for them. It's just wishful thinking on the part of all you religious people. We've got to grow up and learn to live on our own.
That's what is said, and there are at least four answers to be considered, which we will cover briefly and simply:
2. What is the first answer?
Answer:
Charles Colson in How Now Shall We Live? wrote:
“We could argue that the myth of human goodness to which modern culture has succumbed is best explained by the psychology of atheism, which is itself a form of wish fulfilment – a deep desire to be free from all external authority and from any transcendent source of morality.”
In other words he is saying that the alternative, atheism, is open to the charge of ‘wishful thinking' because, in fact, many people don't want to be told what to do and so the idea that there is no God who is THE Supreme Being who knows best is appealing to the sinful mind which wants to be free to do its own thing. Summary: Atheism is just as likely to be wishful thinking!
3. What is the second answer?
Answer:
This is almost an extension of the first answer. As much as subconsciously we might want someone to watch over us, psychologists tell us that many people struggle with a father figure because their fathers were abusive or less than caring, so in fact, many people struggle with the idea of God as a Father figure so this is actually a hindrance and not a cause for belief.
Summary: Many people don't like father figures!
4. What is the third answer?
Answer:
Part of the charge is that God is a made-up idea, rather like the invisible friend that many children have, someone to keep us company, someone to play with us and be nice to us.
When you try to apply this idea to God there is an obvious problem. The truth is that when you start to examine childhood ‘invisible friends' they are almost always similar to the child. The reason for this is obvious: we like people who are like us. Thus our childhood invisible friend is like us, but when it comes to God, the God of the Bible, we find a completely different picture: He is utterly different from us. He knows everything and He knows best. More than that, He demands that we become like Him. This is exactly the opposite to the ‘invisible childhood friend' idea.
Summary: God's not like me!
5. What is the fourth answer?
Answer:
The claim is that it is wishful thinking, but the point about Christianity is that it is NOT a set of clever ideas pandering to our needs; it is an account of God's activity in history, revealing His love for us. The Bible is a series of historical documents founded in history, recording events of time-space history. So much of it uses the language of the witness, recording what people saw and heard. If you want to do a study of this, check out the following: Luke 1:1-3, 1 Jn 1:1-3, Acts 2:32, 3:15, 4:18-20, 5:30-32, 10:39,40, 1 Cor 15:3-8, 1 Pet 5:1, 2 Pet 1:16, Jn 19:33-35, 20:24-30, Heb 2:3,4.
Summary: Not bright ideas, but history!
6. Conclusions
It's a silly claim, this one that says all we believe is wishful thinking. Our faith doesn't come in a way that many of us find acceptable (the father figure), it doesn't come in a form that panders to us (the invisible friend), and it isn't a bunch of clever ideas, but a record of history, of God revealing His love to us, and that is clear and distinct from our own thinking. No wonder the apostle Paul said we needed our minds transforming (Rom 12:2). It's all about us conforming our minds to Him, not us making up things to believe in!
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