| God Will Stand Up For You... | "Professing to be wise, they became fools" |
This story is an urban legend - it was based on a true story, but was reported by the author. His report is on http://www.shipoffools.com/Bulletin/Myths. However, I'll leave the story up - it can be encouraging...
There was a professor of philosophy there who was a deeply committed atheist. His primary goal for one required class was to spend the entire semester attempting to prove that God couldn't exist. His students were always afraid to argue with him because of his impeccable logic. For twenty years, he had taught this class and no one had ever had the courage to go against him.
Sure, some had argued in class at times, but no one had ever really gone against him' (you'll see what I mean later). Nobody would go against him because he had a reputation. At the end of every semester, on the last day, he would say to his class of 300 students, "If there is anyone here who still believes in Jesus, stand up!"
In twenty years, no one had ever stood up. They knew what he was going to do next. He would say, "because anyone who does believe in God is a fool. If God existed, he could stop this piece of chalk from hitting the ground and breaking. Such a simple task to prove that he is God, and yet he can't do it."
And every year, he would drop the chalk onto the tile floor of the classroom and it would shatter into a hundred pieces. All of the students could do nothing but stop and stare. Most of the students were convinced that God couldn't exist. Certainly, a number of Christians had slipped through, but for 20 years, they had been too afraid to stand up. Well, a few years ago, there was a freshman that happened to get enrolled in the class. He was a Christian, and had heard the stories about this professor. He had to take the class because it was one of the required classes for his major and he was afraid. But for 3 months that semester, he prayed every morning that he would have the courage to stand up no matter what the professor said or what the class thought.
Nothing they said or did could ever shatter his faith, he hoped. Finally the day came. The professor said, "If there is anyone here who still believes in God, stand up!" The professor and the class of 300 people looked at him, shocked, as he stood up at the back of the classroom.
The professor shouted, "You FOOL!! If God existed, he could keep
this piece of chalk from breaking when it hit the ground!" He proceeded
to drop the chalk, but as he did, it slipped out of his fingers, off his
shirt cuff, onto the pleats of his pants, down his leg, and off his shoe.
As it hit the ground, it simply rolled away, unbroken. The professor's
jaw dropped as he stared at the chalk. He looked up at the young
man and then ran out of the lecture hall. The young man who had stood
up proceeded to walk to the front of the room and share his faith in Jesus
for the next half-hour. 300 students stayed and listened as he told of
God's love for them and of his power through Jesus.
"LET ME EXPLAIN the problem science has with Jesus Christ." The atheist professor of philosophy
pauses before his class and then asks one of his new students to stand. "You're a Christian,
aren't you, son?"
"Yes, sir."
"So you believe in God?"
"Absolutely."
"Is God good?"
"Sure! God's good."
"Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?"
"Yes."
"Are you good or evil?"
"The Bible says I'm evil."
The professor grins knowingly. "Ahh! THE BIBLE!" He considers for a moment.
"Here's one for you. Let's say there's a sick person over here and you can
cure him. You can do it. Would you help them? Would you try?"
"Yes sir, I would."
"So you're good...!"
"I wouldn't say that."
"Why not say that? You would help a sick and maimed person if you could...
in fact most of us would if we could... God doesn't.
[No answer.]
"He doesn't, does he? My brother was a Christian who died of cancer even
though he prayed to Jesus to heal him. How is this Jesus good? Hmmm? Can
you answer that one?"
[No answer]
The elderly man is sympathetic. "No, you can't, can you?" He takes a sip
of water from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax. In
philosophy, you have to go easy with the new ones. "Let's start again,
young fella."
"Is God good?"
"Er... Yes."
"Is Satan good?"
"No."
"Where does Satan come from?" The student falters.
"From... God..."
"That's right. God made Satan, didn't he?" The elderly man runs his bony
fingers through his thinning hair and turns to the smirking, student
audience. "I think we're going to have a lot of fun this semester, ladies
and gentlemen." He turns back to the Christian.
"Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?"
"Yes, sir."
"Evil's everywhere, isn't it? Did God make everything?"
"Yes."
"Who created evil?
[No answer]
"Is there sickness in this world? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness. All the
terrible things - do they exist in this world?"
The student squirms on his feet. "Yes."
"Who created them? "
[No answer]
The professor suddenly shouts at his student. "WHO CREATED THEM?
TELL ME, PLEASE!"The professor closes in for the kill and climbs
into the Christian's face. In a still small voice: "God created
all evil, didn't He, son?"
[No answer]
The student tries to hold the steady, experienced gaze and fails.
Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace the front of the classroom
like an aging panther. The class is mesmerized. "Tell me," he
continues, "How is it that this God is good if He created all
evil throughout all time?" The professor swishes his arms around
to encompass the wickedness of the world. "All the hatred, the
brutality, all the pain, all the torture, all the death and ugliness
and all the suffering created by this good God is all over the world,
isn't it, young man?"
[No answer]
"Don't you see it all over the place? Huh?"
Pause.
"Don't you?" The professor leans into the student's face again and
whispers, "Is God good?"
[No answer]
"Do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?"
The student's voice betrays him and cracks. "Yes, professor. I do."
The old man shakes his head sadly. "Science says you have five
senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you?"
"No, sir. I've never seen Him."
"Then tell us if you've ever heard your Jesus?"
"No, sir. I have not."
"Have you ever felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelt your
Jesus...in fact, do you have any sensory perception of your God whatsoever?"
[No answer]
"Answer me, please."
"No, sir, I'm afraid I haven't."
"You're AFRAID... you haven't?"
"No, sir."
"Yet you still believe in him?"
"...yes..."
"That takes FAITH!" The professor smiles sagely at the underling.
"According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable
protocol, science says your God doesn't exist. What do you say
to that, son? Where is your God now?"
[The student doesn't answer]
"Sit down, please."
The Christian sits...Defeated.
Another Christian raises his hand. "Professor, may I address
the class?"
The professor turns and smiles. "Ah, another Christian in the
vanguard! Come, come, young man. Speak some proper wisdom to
the gathering."
The Christian looks around the room. "Some interesting points
you are making, sir. Now I've got a question for you. Is there
such thing as heat?"
"Yes," the professor replies. "There's heat."
"Is there such a thing as cold?"
"Yes, son, there's cold too."
"No, sir, there isn't."
The professor's grin freezes. The room suddenly goes very cold.
The second Christian continues. "You can have lots of heat,
even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, white heat, a little
heat or no heat but we don't have anything called 'cold'.
We can hit 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but
we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing
as cold, otherwise we would be able to go colder than 458 below.
You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence
of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal
units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat,
sir, just the absence of it."
Silence. A pin drops somewhere in the classroom.
"Is there such a thing as darkness, professor?"
"That's a dumb question, son. What is night if it isn't darkness?
What are you getting at...?"
"So you say there is such a thing as darkness?"
"Yes..."
"You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something, it is the
absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright
light, flashing light but if you have no light constantly you have
nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? That's the meaning we
use to define the word. In reality, Darkness isn't. If it were, you
would be able to make darkness darker and give me a jar of it. Can
you...give me a jar of darker darkness, professor?"
Despite himself, the professor smiles at the young effrontery
before him. This will indeed be a good semester. "Would you mind
telling us what your point is, young man?"
"Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is
flawed to start with and so your conclusion must be in error...."
The professor goes toxic. "Flawed...? How dare you...!""
"Sir, may I explain what I mean?"
The class is all ears.
"Explain... oh, explain..." The professor makes an admirable
effort to regain control. Suddenly he is affability itself.
He waves his hand to silence the class, for the student to
continue.
"You are working on the premise of duality," the Christian
explains. "That for example there is life and then there's
death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept
of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir,
science cannot even explain a thought. It uses electricity
and magnetism but has never seen, much less fully understood
them. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant
of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing.
Death is not the opposite of life, merely the absence of it."
The young man holds up a newspaper he takes from the desk
of a neighbor who has been reading it. "Here is one of the
most disgusting tabloids this country hosts, professor. Is
there such a thing as immorality?"
"Of course there is, now look..."
"Wrong again, sir. You see, immorality is merely the absence of morality.
Is there such thing as injustice? No. Injustice is the
absence of justice. Is there such a thing as evil?" The
Christian pauses. "Isn't evil the absence of good?"
The professor's face has turned an alarming color. He is
so angry he is temporarily speechless.
The Christian continues. "If there is evil in the world,
professor, and we all agree there is, then God, if he exists,
must be accomplishing a work through the agency of evil. What
is that work God is accomplishing? The Bible tells us it is
to see if each one of us will, of our own free will, choose good over
evil."
The professor bridles. "As a philosophical scientist, I don't
view this matter as having anything to do with any choice; as
a realist, I absolutely do not recognize the concept of God or
any other theological factor as being part of the world equation
because God is not observable."
"I would have thought that the absence of God's moral code in
this world is probably one of the most observable phenomena
going," the Christian replies.
"Newspapers make billions of dollars reporting it every week!
Tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they
evolved from a monkey?"
"If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young
man, yes, of course I do."
"Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?"
The professor makes a sucking sound with his teeth and gives
his student a silent, stony stare.
"Professor. Since no-one has ever observed the process of
evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process
is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion,
sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a priest?"
"I'll overlook your impudence in the light of our philosophical
discussion. Now, have you quite finished?" the professor hisses.
"So you don't accept God's moral code to do what is righteous?"
"I believe in what is - that's science!"
"Ahh! SCIENCE!" the student's face splits into a grin. "Sir, you
rightly state that science is the study of observed phenomena.
Science too is a premise which is flawed..."
"SCIENCE IS FLAWED..?" the professor splutters.
The class is in uproar.
The Christian remains standing until the commotion has subsided.
"To continue the point you were making earlier to the other
student, may I give you an example of what I mean?" The professor
wisely keeps silent.
The Christian looks around the room. "Is there anyone in the
class who has ever seen the professor's brain?" The class breaks out in laughter.
The Christian points towards his elderly, crumbling tutor.
"Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor's
brain... felt the professor's brain, touched or smelt the
professor's brain?" No one appears to have done so. The
Christian shakes his head sadly. "It appears no-one here
has had any sensory perception of the professor's brain
whatsoever. Well, according to the rules of empirical,
stable, demonstrable protocol, science, I DECLARE that
the professor has no brain."
The class is in chaos.
The Christian sits... Because that is what a chair is for.