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The emotional tug of Christmas and the Christian story.
Christmas is celebrated by Christians as the birthday of Christ and let’s face it there is just something about the Christian story that makes people want to believe it, otherwise it wouldn't have had any followers in the beginning and after two thousand years of the physiological pull it has become ingrained in Christian society.
The psychological pull is so evident and strong you can see it just by talking to the average Christian especially here on mynews24 and comparing their different and opposing beliefs.
There is no other story like the Christian story. In fact, when I watch videos of the Gospel story I feel its psychological pull on me, even though I'm a former believer who has rejected that story. And If I still have a soft spot for the story how much more is the psychological pull on the “hearts” of others, especially believers, whose faith is, confirmed whenever they ponder it. Take a look at the words of this Christmas gospel song :
“Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered will soon deliver you.
Mary did you know that your baby boy would give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when your kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God.
Oh Mary did you know---
The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again.
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak, the praises of the lamb---.
Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?
This sleeping child you're holding is the great--I--- AM---.”
Who needs Christian apologetics with a story like this? Who needs to defend such a story at all? The story itself provides the only evidence people need to believe. Just tell the story. Claim it as a properly basic belief. Tell us the Holy Spirit testifies to this story through an inner witness. After all, it does resonate with us.
Why? Because we want it to be true, we want to believe we can be forgiven for things we have done wrong. We want to believe there is divine help when in trouble, or divine healing when sick. We want to believe there is life after death too. And we want to believe we are so important that God would take notice of us and redeem us.
God, the creator of the universe loves and cares for me so much, that he became a baby and died for me on a cruel Roman cross, and is ever present to help me through life and welcome me into his everlasting arms of comfort when I pass on. He who was born from lowly and humble origins, abused, mistreated and crucified for my sins gets the comeuppance over Satan and death by rising from the grave, ascends to heaven to sit on his royal throne next to God.
We thrill at the idea that he could take out his opponents and ours with his Godly power at any time if he so chooses. The typical superhero fantasy myth just when you think he's defeated he Jesus gets power from God, sets the captive free, breaks the chains of hell and the grave and is coming back again to serve justice and judgement upon Satan, demons his accusers and all unbelievers. Myths are powerful because they resonate with something within us and the Christian gospel myth seems to resonate more than other myths.
Never mind the fact that we haven't a clue as to how a child could be 100% God and 100% human or that we only find virgin birth stories in pre-scientific cultures or that we cannot make any sense whatsoever as to how the death of Jesus atones for our sins or that no one has ever actually seen a man resurrected from the grave, nor do we have a clue how this is even possible, or why we should ever believe it, since it was first told us by ancient prescience superstitious people.
No, to be a Christian you have to switch off, ironically the brain God gave you and embrace your emotions. Walk with them, live your life by them because it makes life more comfortable for you and the alternative that there is no personal God is too ghastly to contemplate.
When anyone questions your faith appeal to an emotional subjective experience of God and claim God’s ways are mysterious when stumped by atheist’s logic. The bottom line is the Gospel story has the power to persuade and offers the believer a great deal more than atheism; even though it is a myth it still has the ability to resonate with something within us.
Nevertheless I'm here to tell Christians that their faith is a delusion. As an atheist I have nothing to offer you, but truth and reality. I cannot promise you divine help in times of trouble, answered prayers, divine healing, nor divine forgiveness either. Atheism offers no hope of seeing your loved ones again after they die. I have nothing more to offer but knowledge and understanding.
You see why it’s easier to be a Christian than it is to be an atheist. It's hard to compete with a fantasyland. People would rather believe a delusion than face the truth. The genius of Christianity is that it makes all wrongs, in actuality, offenses against God and not against man only. It's God who has been offended. The good news is that God is ever willing to forgive. That means that, ultimately, it doesn't matter whether a human victim forgives. God always will, because he's made atonement for all "sins"; and if God forgives you, you're forgiven indeed.
Yet the real “miracle” is not the story of Christmas and the virgin birth of a God/man but the fact that so many people actually do believe it and that they even expect us to believe that they believe it.
