It’s been a
long time since I’ve been down the road I’ll now describe. So long that it is a
very vague memory. So vague that I have to make assumptions about me having
made that journey. That road is the understanding of the syllogism that says “All
humans are mortal. I am a human. Therefore I……well that is…..I….am…..ummm….well
you know…..mortal.”
It seems to
me that it took some higher thinking and some assumptions to validate that
syllogism.
First, I had
to distinguish the set called “humans”. How highly functioning must the thought
processes be to recognize humans? Does a
fly cognitively differentiate a human from a cat? Does a mouse?
I think dogs do. Dogs likely can
distinguish many sets from each other: food dishes, leashes, canine butts.
At some
point I made the discovery that things are not always permanent. Food
disappears off of the plate. The TV show ends. The sun goes down. Dad goes away
for the day. A piece of wood disappears within the flames of a campfire.
Probably by such observations, I saw that the status quo changes. The permanent disappearance of humans I knew,
combined with somewhat fantastic explanations of death convinced me somewhere
along the way that humans do not exist forever.
Third, I had
to conclude that I am human despite experiencing myself very differently from
how I experience those of you who obviously are human. For example, from within
a void above my shoulders I notice things through this giant frameless window
through which I see the world. On each the left and right side of my view there
is a fuzzy almost nose-shaped thing. Apparently I have two noses if they even
are noses. Humans seem to be lacking this big window. Instead, they each have a
head, which is a hairy ball with lots of holes and only one nose. I can see that I have shoulders, and when I
reach my hand up above my shoulders to detect a head, the void swallows up my
hand. Nonetheless, eventually I did come
to accept, by some leap of logic, or perhaps by brainwashing, that I am human.
Then came
the unpleasant realization of the final step in the syllogism. Unpleasant
because it triggered the security centre of consciousness discussed yesterday (http://gordon-feil-theology.blogspot.ca/2016/12/my-addictions.html).
I don’t recall the moment of that dawning. I don’t know where I was. Maybe the afternoon of my first funeral. I must have been about 4 or 5 and was taken
by the lady babysitting me to that funeral. I do recall coming back in a state
of slightly stunned contemplation.
I think I
quickly moved on from that realization. I am pretty good at refusing to acknowledge
consequences. And this one is a complicated one, made so by my discovery that
perhaps the best attested fact of ancient history is the resurrection of Y’shuah,
the son of Yousef and Miriam.
Sir Edward Clarke, a British High Court judge who conducted
a thorough legal analysis of the testimonies attesting to the resurrection, and
by that I mean as a lawyer he applied the Rules of Evidence to the writings of Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John, pretending that they were witnesses called on trial to
testify to this, had this to say: “To me the evidence is conclusive, and over
and over again in the High Court I have secured the verdict on evidence not
nearly so compelling. As a lawyer, I
accept the gospel evidence unreservedly as the testimony of truthful men to
facts that they were able to substantiate.”
The Guinness Book of Records lists as the most successful trial
lawyer in history a man by the name of Sir Lionel Luckhoo, twice knighted by
Queen Elizabeth, a man who had 245
consecutive murder acquittals. That’s
why he’s the most successful trial lawyer in history. This former justice and
diplomat subjected the facts of the resurrection to his own painstaking
examination for several years before declaring “I say unequivocally that the
evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels
acceptance by proof which leaves absolutely no room for doubt.”
As British theologian Michael Green said “The appearances of
Jesus are as well authenticated as anything in antiquity. There can be no
rational doubt that they occurred, and that the main reason why Christians
became sure of the resurrection in the earliest days was just this. They could
say with assurance ‘We have seen the Lord.’ They knew it was he.”
Yes, it’s
an amazing world in which carpenters get resurrected.
No comments:
Post a Comment