Beware-- Prejudice fuels Unbelief

Ever heard the objection, "The reason youʼre a Christian is because you were born in a Christian culture. If you were born in India you would be a Hindu, or in Iraq, you would be a Muslim?" Or consider two men, one a pediatrician in New York and the other a pygmy in the Congo. Each describe the cause of sickness in different ways. The pediatrician faults germs; the pygmy, evil spirits. The doctor invokes medicine for healing, the pygmy uses magic. Each believes exactly what his culture has taught him, and lives as if it were so. Answering the question of who's right can never be found by analyzing the cultural influences or psychological reasons that motivates people -- be they medicine men or religious men.

Why a person believes something to be true, and what a person believes to be true many times are not the same. Objections to Christianity such as the one above or other similar ones that say that Christians are hypocrites or intolerant focus erroneously on the believer, not his belief. In logic this is called the psychogenetic fallacy -- and Christians aren't immune from committing the same error as well. Neuroscientist, Simon LeVay, in doing research for a "gay gene" was the target of much criticism from Christians because of his homos exuality. Focusin g on what motivates a person like LeVay in his research tells us nothing about the veracity of that research. Even his admitted bias doesnʼt necessarily translate into a scientific bias. That requires separate scrutiny.

The response to all the above objections is two simple words, "So what?" So what if Christians are hypocrites, or people born in another culture probably will be raised into that culture's religion, or that I'm even pig-headed and totally intolerant. So what? What does my behavior or misbehavior have to do with the veracity of what I believe? It stands or falls on its claims alone. My behavior might impede others from believing, but it adds or subtracts nothing from the truth of that belief itself.

Christ being born on the "wrong side of the tracks" -- regardless of what He said or did, kept many from being born again by God. The lesson to be learned is beware -- prejudice fuels unbelief far more than logical reasons ever will.

- Mark Lacour