We have (I include myself) done and said and thought many things wrong in our lives. That is what it means to live another day: successes, maybe; mistakes, sins, and errors are guaranteed--we are still earthbound. And while some doubters might think from the previous post that they got a "Get-Out-of-Jail-Free" Pass from George MacDonald, that is not at all correct: they overlooked the critically important qualifier “honest” before the word "doubter."
MacDonald deals with our laziness and tendency towards self-deceit:
“No man is condemned for anything he has done: he is condemned for continuing to do wrong once he knows better-and has an avenue; out of his wrongdoing. But [if he chooses differently], he is condemned for not coming out of the darkness; for not coming to the light.”
'"Can't you lead a good life without believing in Christianity?" ...I was asked to write on this... [But first] I have a comment to make. The question sounds as if it were asked by a person who said to himself, "I don't care whether Christianity is in fact true or not. I'm not interested in finding ou whether the real universe is more like what the Christians say that what [others] say. All I'm interested in is leading a good life. I'm going to choose beliefs not because I think them true but because I find them helpful."
Now frankly, I find it hard to sympathize with this state of mind. On of the things that distinguishes man from the other animals is that he wants to know things, wants to find out what reality is like, simply for the sake of knowing.
When that desire is completely quenched in anyone, I think he has become something less than human. As a matter of fact, I don't believe any of you have really lost that desire. More probably, foolish preachers, by always telling you how good [Christianity] is for society, have actually led you to forget that Christianity is not a patent medicine.
Christianity claims to give account of facts - to tell you what the real universe is like.
Its account of the universe may be true, or it may not, and once the question is really befoe you, then your natural inquistiveness must make you want to know the answer.
If Christianity is untrue, then no honest man will want to believe it, however helpful it might be; if it is true, every honest man will want to believe it, even if it give him no help at all.'
(and the rest is in God's Hands)
