Taking beliefs seriously

you’re either all in or you're out

I think most christians aren’t really christians. Until recently, I don’t think I had ever met what I would call a real christian (someone that really lives christianity, by which I mean: behaves like believes in christianity). Most people who identify as christians seem rather to be the so called cultural christians (for example Jordan Peterson), where they kind of vibe with christianity and identify with its values but they don’t really have faith on it, they defend it culturally but not religiously. I never liked religious extremists but now I can see that you should either be non religious or religious extremist. It seems that if christianity is true, then extremism is the only coherent and possible way to live it. If you genuinely believe in christianity and god, how could that not be the single most important thing in your life? I’m not saying everyone should become a priest or a pastor, I’m just saying that genuine belief should (and indeed does) radically reorder your priorities (if it doesn’t it’s because it’s not genuine belief). You would naturally want to read the bible regularly, attend services or masses, pray, and orient your life towards god. The fact that many christians don’t even go to church regularly makes me doubt that they actually believe what they claim to believe. If you truly thought your eternity depended on christianity, causal belief wouldn’t make sense at all. I think most “believers” have more of a quasi belief rather than genuine belief. In that sense, I think you’re either all in or out (either you believe, or you don’t). The wrong position is the middle one, pretending to believe, or saying you believe while living as if you don’t. Someone who claims to be a christian but doesn’t live like one is no more christian than an atheist. That’s why I was so surprised and shocked when I went to Life Church for the first time, I saw people that actually lived christianity and acted like they believed, they didn’t merely believed in it. Their belief shows up in how they treat others. The way people relate with one another (especially strangers) is a very good measure to know whether someone truly lives christianity. How you view god determines how you live your life. If you truly believe that god forgave all your sins and loved you despite your many imperfections, then that love should overflow into how you treat others. And one very interesting thing about Life Church is that everyone feels special (it’s hard to describe), it seems that loving god allows them to love themselves more deeply. Again, if there’s this good that forgave you in all your imperfections and embraced who you are despite your sins, then you truly feel like you’re loved in this world just as you are. And this is something very rare, especially because a lot of love in this world seems to be conditional. “I will love you if you have a good grade in your exam”, “I will love you if you start behaving better”, “I will love you if you do what I expect you to do”, etc. Another interesting thing I noticed is that for some people at Life Church, it seems belief is unavoidable, not optional. If they weren’t believers, their lives would just be completely different. That’s another good rule of thumb to know whether someone truly lives their religion: if it feels like they could live the same life without belief, then they probably don’t truly live their religion. And if you truly believe and live christianity, one of your priorities should be spreading the word of god so that you can maximize the number of people that are saved. Yet, this strikes me as something that is not very common at all, most priests or pastors seem to be rather focused on their community of already religious people other than focused on going to the non religious communities in order to persuade them to become religious.

Scott Adams, who died very recently, wrote in his goodbye letter: “I’m not a believer, but I have to admit the risk reward calculation for doing so looks attractive. So, here I go: I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, and I look forward to spending an eternity with him. The part about me not being a believer should be quickly resolved if I wake up in heaven. I won’t need any more convincing than that.” I don’t think this works (or worked, given that he’s now dead). If belief in god were primarily about a risk reward calculation, then no one would genuinely believe and everyone would “believe”. Christianity would turn into a kind of insurance policy, with infinite upside rather than an act of true faith. It would become about self interest (and a very utilitarian and useful belief), and valuing your own life (and survival) more than the life of god, or in other words, loving yourself more than loving god. Faith is the thing that will get you to heaven, it’s not enough to act as if christianity is true. So even if you truly believe in god and live your life accordingly, but somehow you don’t believe you’re saved, then you are not saved. You have to genuinely believe that god saved you and forgave your sins. If you truly believe you are saved, then you are saved, if you truly believe you are not saved, then you are not. And one question that arises is: how sure can someone be that they’ll go to heaven? Most people I met at Life Church are fairly sure, but not absolutely certain. They still seem to admit occasionally that they could be wrong. A good analogy is driving a car. You can be fairly confident you won’t get into an accident, while still knowing there’s a small chance you might. That small probability of getting into an accident doesn’t make you afraid of driving though (just like they aren’t allegedly afraid of dying). Also, I don’t think you can really believe in christianity if you’ve never read the bible. The bible is the content of the religion, the book of god. If someone has never read it but claims to believe in christianity, then what they really believe in is whatever their local church tells them. As Lyndon Johnson said, “If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking”. At that point, belief isn’t grounded in scripture but outsourced entirely to the authority of their church. The fact that most christians (at least in Portugal, in the US seems to be very different) have never read the Bible makes me automatically suspicious of their faith.