If you're a long-time reader of this blog, you've read this quote from C. S. Lewis before, but it certainly belongs on this list of Top 25 Quotes about Jesus (per azquotes.com)and deserves a second look.
It's been called a tri-lemma; three options, one of which must be chosen.
"You must make your choice: either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
These words are the conclusion of a line of reasoning within Lewis' book, Mere Christianity.
Given that Jesus claimed equality with God...okay, I know that's a premise that some are unwilling to concede, but in order for that unwillingness to make sense, it's necessary to throw out accepted conventions of historical document verification and claim the gospel accounts in the New Testament are wishful thinking; made up by a church that formed because of a Jesus myth...okay, I know there are sincere individuals who would argue with that generalization and say they are NOT ignoring accepted conventions of historical document verification and, and, and...
And that's the real issue with apologetics and atheism and reasonable doubt and almost anything else a person can have an opinion about. We believe what we believe and we find reasonable arguments to support our beliefs and cast aspersions on any opposing views. It's called confirmation bias and it's real and I confess to it.
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Truth is...Christianity, while being a reasonable faith, cannot be arrived at through spreadsheets and if-P-then-Q logic. That's probably why it's called faith. There is reason enough to believe, but it's not iron-clad...same with "the opposing view".
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