Religious Hash?

This past Monday when I was at the grocery store the checkout clerk was talking about the bad behavior of a public figure. “Well, he’ll get his, you know,” she declared. Then added, “I believe in karma. You know. He’ll get his!”
What I think she meant was that she believes in some sort of cosmic retribution or payback. I didn’t ask her to explain the source of her belief system-mostly because I pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to, other than ‘gut instinct.’
It did get me thinking about the smorgasbord of beliefs people walk around with-mostly a mixture of pseudo-science, some religious faith, superstitions and a lot of hoping-for-the-best. Now and then I run into people who “have no faith but science” which really doesn’t explain much. Why? Even the best of the scientists admit that they have no ultimate, verifiable information on how we came to be and why we are here, not to mention the philosophical questions (morals, ethics, afterlife,etc.) that religious faiths do address. It's been said that it takes a leap of faith to think that science has the answer stored up inside it (-don't misunderstand, science has answers but not of this sort). Lewis speaks to this "faith" in this paragraph regarding the accidental production of our universe:
“If the solar system was brought about by an accidental collision, then the appearance of organic life on this planet was also an accident, and the whole evolution of Man was an accident too. If so, then all our present thoughts are mere accidents – the accidental by-product of the movement of atoms. And this holds for the thoughts materialists and astronomers as well as for anyone else’s.
But if their thoughts-i.e. of materialism and astronomy-were merely accidental by-products, why should we believe them to be true?
I see no reason for believing that one accident should be able to give me a correct account of all the other accidents.
It’s like expecting that the accidental shape taken by the splash when you upset a milkjug should give you a correct account of how the jug was made and why it was upset.”

• C.S. Lewis, From “Answers to Questions on Christianity”

A Burr Under Your Saddle

Or A Faithful Christ Under The Scorching Sun of Life's Realities 

Christianity shall never and should never be popular. In fact, if it is popular, it is probably not true Christianity.
So, what does Christianity bring to the table? Much. First, understand that Christianity depends solely on the reign of Christ in my own life-and it thereby completely removes me, the disciple, from the weary cycle popularity, or "rule by consensus." 
If the Christian life is lived out in love and truth, then it is the "thin blue line" between cultural and personal anarchy and Christian peace in this world. How does this work, you may ask. At several levels—and Christianity is comprehensive, affecting every sphere of my life: from my heart to my head, to my behavior and speech.
Christianity affects:
1) my morality: it determines what is good and bad, it is objective. Neither I nor my fellowman makes that subjective determination. Christianity is deep, it begins with questioning my motives and my purity of heart, supplying what I lack, and removing the worst and restoring what is most necessary before going to the level of words and behaviors.
2) Because of this, and for other reasons, it provides a reason for civil law - the basis for law. If honesty were not expected, then perjury would not be an offense, nor would "swearing an oath" be necessary. Anarchy, deceit and corruption would be the norm-making void their very definition.
3) Answers the "ultimate" question of evil and suffering, because of the real, historic, space-time existence and complete Fall of mankind through Adam. Adam made a choice and actually went against God's specific request, so are not making up a fantasy or projecting an idea. If there were no such event as the fall and the subsequent consequences, then MacLeish's statement in J.B.would be accurate: "If he is God, he cannot be good, if he is good he cannot be God." Or, Baudlaire's, "If there is a God, He is the devil." (which has its logical problems). These would be accurate were you to remove Christianity's roots: God made a significant man in history, and evil was the result of first Satan's and then man's historic space-time revolt. If you try to escape this, and prefer to ignore it all, you've got to be very inexperienced or be living in a fantasy world of your own mind.
4) Man begins life optimistically but weak, unless he checks out mentally, he ends it in despair. Mankind knows that the does not know, and mankind knows that there is a termination to his breath. In the end, he cannot see motivation for love other than reciprocated love. In the end, he will be but dust. In the end, if he hopes his "good deeds" will out weigh his "bad," he really cannot know this with any degree of certainty that he won't have lived a life worth more than a fly's short life. And, in the end, he'll die with more questions than answers, and no certainty of answers awaiting him.
And yet, the living Christ can speak into the despair of every human being-if that person wishes for Him to do so. Here is the historic, time-space difference that the Living Spirit of Christ makes: he speaks life into deadness and brings water out of a stone.

(With thanks to Frances Schaeffer for the reminders!)

You Can At Least Be Honest..

'"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.'

• CS Lewis, Man or Rabbit?

(and the rest is in God's Hands)