I was sitting at the computer writing when my email notified me that I received a comment on one of my blog entries. Someone who goes by the name "bp" wrote this comment in response to my entry, If Christianity is True, Why Do We Need Apologetics?:
You will get your evidence that there is a Creator when you die. You will also know the truth of all things. Unfortunately, it will be too late to save your soul. Pray to God that he show you the truth now and then go read your Bible and continue on in Faith that you saved by grace through the resurrection of Jesus.
Subsequently, I wrote this reply, which I now share here:
You wrote: "You will get your evidence that there is a Creator when you die. You will also know the truth of all things. Unfortunately, it will be too late to save your soul."
Why would a loving god wait until it's too late to reveal the truth to me? I've asked god to reveal himself. I prayed and prayed. I didn't want to call myself an agnostic. I wanted Christian apologetics to actually make sense. I wanted to believe that heaven was waiting for me when I die. If the god in which you believe exists, why doesn't he show himself to me? Why wait until I'm dead, when it's too late? And on that note, why is it "too late" after you're dead? Why is death the cut-off?
You wrote: "Pray to God that he show you the truth now and then go read your Bible and continue on in Faith that you saved by grace through the resurrection of Jesus."
Like I said, I did pray. I prayed a lot. And I searched a lot. And I looked for answers, and I read the apologetics books, and I read the Bible, and I talked with ministers and Christian philosophers and theologians. God didn't reveal himself to me. All I got was silence.
But let's say I take your advice and pray to god, asking him to show me the truth. You just said that I'll get my evidence when I die (when it's "too late"). So which is it? Will god reveal the truth to me now, or after I'm dead and it's (for whatever arbitrary reason) "too late"?
Ah, but you revealed the heart of the problem when you wrote: "go read your Bible and continue on in Faith that you saved by grace through the resurrection of Jesus."
That's what it comes down to, isn't it? Faith. Appropriate that you capitalized the word. Faith = belief without - even in spite of - evidence to support said belief. Faith = wishful thinking bolstered by the strong desire for all the things you can only believe by faith: things you must believe by faith because evidence is either weak or non-existent.
This isn't about finding truth. It isn't about knowledge at all. You want me - rather, you expect me - to base my life on the same kind of wishful thinking by which you base your life, for no other reason than the threat of hell if I don't accept your god, religion, and Faith. Your threats are as worthless as your faith, for neither are founded on reason, logic, evidence or anything demonstrable or real.
I understand that you're most likely a troll, but bear in mind that I didn't write this response for you. If you care to engage in rational dialogue, by all means, let's chat. If all you care to do is proselytize and threaten me with eternal damnation, then, to use the common colloquialism (to end with a touch of irony), you can go to hell.
