The evidence of the heart

“What the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies.” Thomas Cranmer

After watching the first of the three conversations between Lawrence Krauss and William Lane Craig, this quote jumped into my mind. It jumped into my mind when I was reading Krauss’ book A Universe From Nothing, where he gives an account of his inspiration: “The true inspiration for this book comes not so much from a desire to dispel myths or attack beliefs, as from my desire to celebrate knowledge and, along with it, the absolutely surprising and fascinating universe that ours has turned out to be.” It’s an honourable pursuit, and it carries with it an air that most scientific (and/or atheist) writings hold: the motivation of scientific pursuit being motivated by intellect, and intellect alone. He echoed a similar sentiment in his opening address in Brisbane.

I’ll be the first to admit, as much as I believe it to be a rational and justifiable belief: I want God to exist. It seems possible to me that atheists may not want God to exist. We may want to subconsciously convince ourselves that our analysis of the facts is objective. But we would be dangerously close to claiming to have a mind that is preeminent in all thought processes. At this point we all need humility.

Jesus made a habit of pointing this out. When people doubted him, he not only pointed out true, empirical realities around them, but the state of the listeners’ hearts as well. The religious leaders had seen the empirical evidence of Jesus of Jesus’ power but had rejected him. His disciples also couldn’t grasp him despite the evidence. And Jesus points out the reason for this, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?” (Mark 8:16). He had shown them his power through the miracle, but he knew the real issue. He saw, and spoke of, their hardness of heart.

Tim Keller, the author of Reason for God, points out that nobody makes decisions with their mind alone. He identifies three factors as central: intellectual reasons (reason, logic), personal reasons (experiences, upbringing) and social reasons (conformity with people we respect). He uses two examples of people who rejected God honestly: NYU philosopher Thomas Nagel, from his book The Last Word, where he admitted that despite his efforts to be objective, he didn’t want to believe in God because he didn’t want to be told what to do. He also uses the example of Aldous Huxley, who famously confessed that he didn’t want God to exist, so that his sexual freedom could remain uninhibited.

But these things don’t just apply to those who deny the existence of God. Jesus rebuked the most religious people of his days with as sharp a scalpel as he used on anyone. All of us are capable of hiding from the truths we don’t want to hear with a heart that doesn’t want healing from its Creator.

And when we recognise that we can start thinking not just deeply, but truly.

A guest post from Phil McGann