The Prisoners of Unbelief

It’s been 2,000 years since Jesus Christ died on the Cross to set the prisoners free. He has released us from of our bondage to sin and He has given us hope and a future.

We have prospered.  We have been protected from harm.  We have been given agile minds to think, discerning ears to hear and spiritual eyes to see the Truth.

Still, some insist on remaining in the Prison of Unbelief.

Escaping Plato’s Prison

The ancient philosopher Plato, in his famous work The Republic, tells the story of a group of prisoners who live their entire lives in a dark cave. They are chained in such a way that they can’t turn around to see the cave’s opening, which leads to a beautiful meadow filled with flowers and bathed in sunlight. Their entire reality consists of the shadows on the cave wall cast by a solitary candle behind them.

One day, a man enters the cave, and releases a prisoner, leading him up into the light.

Thrilled and astonished by all he sees, the prisoner runs back into the cave to tell his fellow prisoners about the joys he experienced outside. 

Not surprisingly, since they have lived in the dark their entire lives, they laugh at him, ridicule him and refuse to believe his message. 

Truth is simply beyond comprehension to prisoners trapped in the shadows. 

The New Message

From 1993 to 2002, the Bible in Contemporary Language was created and translated by Eugene H. Peterson, an American Presbyterian minister, scholar, theologian, author, and poet. 

Called The Message, it was introduced to Peterson’s parishioners who simply weren’t connecting with the real meaning of the words and the relevance of the New Testament for their own lives.  This is one of my favorite passages from the Book of Isaiah:

“God’s Message, the God who created the cosmos, stretched out the skies, laid out the earth and all that grows from it, Who breathes life into earth’s people, makes them alive with his own life: I am God. I have called you to live right and well. I have taken responsibility for you, kept you safe. I have set you among my people to bind them to me, and provided you as a lighthouse to the nations, To make a start at bringing people into the open, into light: opening blind eyes, releasing prisoners from dungeons, emptying the dark prisons. — Isaiah 42: The Message Translation

Not Much Has Changed

Our modern world is still held captive in a prison of unbelief, chained in such a way that it’s difficult to see the truth.

Some of us have been rescued. Some of us have seen the light. And some of us desperately wish to help our fellow prisoners see the light as well.  

We live is a world of illusions–-a mere reflection of reality–and we have an obligation to shine our light of belief into the surrounding darkness.

Perception is Not Reality

Our understanding of reality is based upon our brain’s ability to perceive its surroundings, and perception is not always a reflection of reality.

Contemporary science insists that our universe is 13.7 billion years old, that it came into being instantly in the cosmic Big Bang, is devoid of divine design or purpose, and some scientists strongly suggest that a spiritual explanation is at least misguided, if not outright delusional.

Against this scientific backdrop, 40 percent of Americans still say they believe “God created human beings in their present form within the last 10,000 years,” according to a Gallup poll released July 26th of this year.

Interestingly, another 33 percent believe “human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process.” (Italics mine.)

Finally, another 22 percent – an all-time high – believe “human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process.” (Italics also mine.)

Combined, that’s a total of 95% who have a strong opinion. Unlike many other modern points-of-view on crucial subjects, the dichotomy between faith and science leaves very little room for ambivalence.

A Thought Experiment

Plato had his cave, but another ancient philosopher, Aristotle, had an equally interesting process. Called reductio ad absurdum, it held a theory was refuted if accepting it resulted in an absurd, or patently untenable consequence. 

Let’s test these opposing ideas by conducting a thought experiment. 

Try to imagine you have spent your entire life in Plato’s Prison of Unbelief. You’ve never seen the outside world. You’ve never felt the warmth of sunshine on your face, and your concept of reality is based upon candlelight and shadows. 

One day, a brilliant scientist presents you with the above photograph he calls the Sun.  

“What is real?” he asks.

Intrigued, you look closely at the image as he explains this magnificent light is small enough to fit in your hand. “It’s settled science,” he insists.

“Beware of strangers who tell you the Sun is actually 100 times the size of our Earth,” he confides, “or claim it’s 93 million miles away!”

“Don’t believe their nonsense” he continues. “Seeing is believing.”

“Are you absolutely sure?” you ask incredulously.

“Those are the facts,” he concludes knowingly. 

Just because of some scientific celebrities’ insistence that their beliefs are true, doesn’t make them so.

The famous atheist, Richard Dawkins, was confronted by a questioner recently after a speech he gave criticizing the Christian view of Creation. He was asked, “Can you give me just one example of new DNA information, created by chance, in the human genome? The audience was transfixed, waiting for his powerful, creation-refuting response. Instead, he was unable to give a single example and remained utterly speechless.

Through a Glass, Darkly

Where does this leave us? 

Are scientific facts and deeply-held spiritual truths doomed to circle each other permanently, like hungry lions determined to devour each other?  

Are we destined to argue about God’s existence and his role in Creation ad infinitum, and ad nauseam? 

I think not.

The primary difference between facts and truth is that unless you were there to witness them first hand as they occurred, you must accept them through faith.

Faith has always been essential to Christianity, but it is also essential to atheism. Atheism is not a lack of faith, it is faith in non-belief.

The apostle Paul gave us hope the argument might be settled soon when he spoke of what the Bible calls The End of Time.

“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

— 1 Corinthians 13:12 KJV

Ultimately, we must all accept that facts can be interpreted. Truth cannot.

It’s dark in the prison of unbelief, and cold. Please open your minds to think. Won’t you open your ears to hear and your eyes to see? The walls have tumbled down, won’t you step with me into the light?