I think it was sometime during either my senior year as a Theology major or during my year in the seminary that I first thought about one of the greatest challenges that face someone who is beginning to doubt Christianity, especially in its more conservative forms. This is that it has built into itself a system to answer just about everything. Biblical Scholar Jaco Gericke, PhD, on Conversations from the Pale Blue Dot compared this issue to the Matrix. That really is a great way to put it since for those trapped in the Matrix they have a system that explains everything they experience such that it seems like reality, but those who leave the Matrix are able to see that it is all an illusion.

Let’s look at a few examples of the “Matrix” of Christianity a bit:

• Something bolsters your faith, then it’s from God.
• Something challenges your faith, then it’s from Satan.
• Something good happens to you, then it’s from God.
• Something bad happens to you, then it’s from Satan.
• Your pastor supports your faith, then he’s God’s instrument.
• A godless blogger challenges your faith, then he’s Satan’s instrument.
• Fossils show an old earth and common descent, then it’s because Satan set them up that way to challenge your faith.
• A Christian does something horrible, then it’s because he’s not really a Christian and is actually under Satan’s control.
• Your life sucks, don’t worry something better is coming.
• A loved one dies, don’t worry you’ll see her soon.
• You get a horrible illness, then it’s from Satan.
• You recover from the same illness, then it’s God’s work that healed you.
• Thousands of people die from a disaster but the few that survived did so because God worked a miracle.
• Something improbable happens that benefits you, then it’s a miracle.
• Something probable happens that benefits you, then it’s still God’s work.
• Something amazing happens that was due to the hard work of very smart people, then they were God’s agents to work a miracle.
• Faith is good.
• Doubt is bad.

This is a system that praises faith and condemns doubt, assigns credit for all good things to a hero and all bad things to his arch-nemesis, and promises riches and glory in a future life. It has everything covered.

From experience, I know how much of a challenge this can be. While I was in the process of deconversion, I would think that God had a plan for me that Satan was trying to stop by putting doubts into my head. Throughout just about my entire undergraduate experience, with the exception of a few moments of clarity, I can say that this caused me to doubt my rational faculties that pondered the doubt, even though these were the same faculties that allowed me to study scripture. Eventually I finally started to consider that perhaps my mind was trapped in the matrix.

You may be wondering where the problem is. It’s actually pretty simple. If faith and belief is valued over reason and doubt then there can be no progress. Having a stock default answer without evidence or critical thinking stops all inquiry. This certainly applies to science, but definitely extends to all areas of life.

It’s amazing how much clarity you get from leaving the matrix. Unfortunately there are probably those like Cypher in the movie who don’t like reality and would rather return to a fictitious, yet comforting world. Of course most of us would never trade reality for a dream.

Jaco also called the writers and bloggers (himself included) of the atheist movement on doing a disservice for challenging people’s faith without doing anything to help them through the process. With that in mind I’m going to pause the series on arguments for and against the existence of God to do a “Guide to Losing Your Faith.”