How to View the Irrationality of Christians? 如何看待基督徒的非理性？

Geoffrey Chen

（中文读者可以直接拖动到下面读中文版）

I acknowledge that reason has its limits, and many atheists would agree with this. However, the fact that reason has limits does not mean that reason is wrong. Within its applicable scope, reason is reliable—it is our most fundamental tool for understanding the world. For example, the simplest logical fact like “1+1=2” cannot be overturned just because I believe in God.

I am not a thorough atheist. On the contrary, I believe the universe is vast, humanity is small, and the existence of God is entirely possible. Note that this is only a possibility, not a certainty (The certainty and possibility mentioned here are based on the human rational framework. If one were to completely reject or break free from this very rationality, then of course they could regard it as the certainty—rather than the possibility—supported by their own logical system). However, I cannot accept the anthropomorphic depictions of God in the Bible—for example, saying that Jesus is the incarnation of God, or the miraculous stories that contradict basic rational understanding. These things are far too distant from our everyday rational cognition.

(Examples of miracles: feeding five thousand men, plus their wives and children, with five loaves and two fish; Jesus walking on water, etc.)

The dilemma is that I do not want to deny the possibility of God’s existence, yet I find certain biblical depictions clearly illogical. This conflict leads me to question: how is it that highly educated Christians, with advanced cultural literacy, can choose to accept something when facing such an obvious clash with reason? Especially when, in order to uphold their faith, they consciously abandon reason—it seems absurd to me. This is not merely acknowledging the limits of reason; it is deliberately rejecting what has already been proven reliable within the known scope of rationality and common sense.

When I speak of “well-educated,” I mean that they possess basic logical reasoning skills and critical thinking ability. Therefore, I believe that such Christians must always carry, deep inside, an unsolvable riddle—the conflict between reason and faith. They are constantly tormented by this conflict, which is why they must pray every day, and recite those inexplicable yet obligatory scriptures every day.

On the other hand, from an irrational and emotional perspective, my experience of meeting, knowing, and interacting with Christians tells me that the vast majority of them are very kind, very loving, and generally handle life, work, and other matters more smoothly than non-Christians overall. This factual outcome in turn strengthens their faith. This is also what puzzles me—things that cannot be explained rationally still turn out, in practice, to be effective and correct.

So, is this the power of faith itself, or does faith conceal some as-yet-unrecognized principle? And if such a principle exists, does it belong to God, or to humanity?

After all this discussion about the conflict between reason and faith, the truth is that I accept the vast majority of Christian doctrine. Many people might think I am a Christian; in fact, I truly wish I could be one.

I have participated in Christian life for many years, carefully reading different versions of the Bible, including both the Old and New Testaments, in Chinese and English, as well as a large amount of supplementary materials, and taking part in various discussions, both large and small. At least on the surface or in practice, I appear more like a Christian than many actual Christians.

Unfortunately, I am not a complete Christian, because I can never shake off the conflict between reason and faith, and I do not want to pretend to be one. This does not mean that other Christians are pretending—I am only saying that perhaps they have the ability to resolve this conflict, whereas I do not.

我承认理性是有局限的，很多无神论者也会同意这一点。但是，理性有局限并不等于理性是错的。在它能够适用的范围里，理性是可靠的，是我们认识世界最基本的工具。比如“1+1=2”这种最简单的逻辑常识，不能因为我信神就被推翻。

我并不是彻底的无神论者。相反，我觉得宇宙很大，人类很渺小，神的存在是完全可能的。注意这只是一种可能性，而不是确定性（这里所说的确定性和可能性是基于人类的理性框架，如果对这种理性本身进行彻底的否定或者摆脱，那么他们当然可以认为那是他们的逻辑系统所支持的确定性，而不是可能性）。但是，我也无法接受圣经中那种把神拟人化的描绘，比如说耶稣是上帝化身，或者圣经里那些违背基本理性常识的神迹故事。因为这些内容和我们日常的理性认知差距太大。

（神迹举例：五饼二鱼喂饱了5000男子以及他们的老婆孩子，耶稣在水面上行走等等）

困惑就在于，我既不想否认神存在的可能性，又觉得圣经的某些描绘明显不符合逻辑。这种冲突让我质疑：那些受过高等教育、文化水平很高的基督徒，在面对这样明显的理性冲突时，为什么能够选择接受？尤其是当他们为了维护信仰而主动放弃理性的时候，我觉得这是非常荒谬的。因为这不仅仅是承认理性有局限，而是有意识地否定在已知范围内已经被证明可靠的理性和常识。

我这里说的“受过良好教育”，主要是强调他们具备基本的逻辑能力和批判性思维能力。所以我认为，这一类基督徒的内心深处一定始终存在着一个解不开的谜团——那就是理性和信仰的冲突。他们一直受这种冲突的折磨，这也是为什么他们每天必须祷告，每天必须背诵那些无法解释、却又不得不相信的经文。

另外，从非理性、感性的角度来看，事实上，从我接触、认识、交流过的基督徒的感受来说，他们绝大部分都非常友善，非常有爱心，而且他们在生活、工作等各方面处理得都比较圆满，明显比非基督徒整体表现得更好。这种事实上的结果，反过来又强化了他们对信仰的坚定性。这同时也是困惑我的地方——理性解释不了的事情，从实际结果来看却又确实是有效的、正确的。

那么，这究竟是信仰本身的力量，还是信仰背后隐藏着一种尚未被理性认识的规律？如果真有这样的规律，它又属于神，还是属于人？

上面讨论这么多理性和信仰之间的冲突，而事实上在整个基督教的教义当中，它的绝大部分内容我是接受的。可能很多人都认为我是一个基督徒，我确实很想成为一个基督徒，很遗憾，我不是一个彻底的基督徒。

我多年参与基督教的生活，仔细阅读不同版本圣经，包括旧约和新约，中文版和英文版，以及大量的辅助材料，参加各种各样的小型大型的讨论。至少从表面上或者实践上来看，我比很多基督徒更加像基督徒。

可是我始终无法摆脱理性和信仰之间的冲突，同时我又不想假装是一个基督徒。这并不意味着其他基督徒就是假装的，我只是说可能他们有能力解化解这种冲突，而我不具备这种能力。