ApostateAbe

The Oracle

It is the year 3988 CE, the eve of the fifth millennium, and the brain of the human species has evolved and developed information technology far more powerful than foreseen in the year 2000. Human scientists have invented a computer that tracks every elementary particle on the surface of the Earth—with which they can build a complete computerized model of every city, every building within, every forest, every tree within, every river, every fish within, every valley, every blade of grass within, every house, every human inhabitant within, down to the last microbe and its DNA. With this model they can do much more than see the present. It can use the present state of the Earth to see into the future until the space age, and just as interestingly, see the past—the complete history of the planet Earth. They nicknamed their creation “the Oracle.”

As brilliant as the team of scientists behind the Oracle were, they possessed a small variety of beliefs about God. Some were deists who thought that the Creator is present but distant from the lives of humans. Some were atheists who were either certain of God’s non-existence or uncertain of it. And many were Christians, who believed that God cares for human beings and sacrificed his son called Jesus Christ as a human being for the salvation of all human beings, as recorded in the Bible.

Despite their differences, nothing could contain their anticipation and excitement in looking back to the year 30 CE of the Palestine region and seeing if Jesus Christ existed—and if he did exist, whether or not he performed miracles, rose from the grave, and flew to heaven. Some on the team were worried that the Oracle did not consider supernatural acts of God as part of its predictions. But they all agreed that the Oracle would determine that either Jesus Christ never existed, was simply a normal man, or else produce a muddled hole in that region of space-time, representing extraterrestrial intervention.

And so with curious eyes and ears they operated the machine and entered the space-time coordinates: of Palestine in the dawn of the Common Era. The Christians firmly believed that the Oracle would return a logical error. But the machine worked perfectly. The display monitors revealed no important birth in any stable in Bethlehem followed by a massacre of first-born children. It did not reveal any professed Messiah with twelve disciples. It revealed many victims of crucifixions, but none of them fitting the Christ in the gospel accounts, and none of them rising from the grave three days hence. They piloted all about through time and space listening to common talk in big cities for clues that might lead to the person of Jesus. They were all mesmerized by the sights of the ancient societies and the talk they heard in both private and public conversation. The biblically learned scientists offered suggestions on where to find talk about Jesus. But no mention of Jesus the Christ was found anywhere.

The non-Christians on the team concluded that either Jesus Christ never existed or was an unimportant and undiscoverable man. But the Christians on the team seemed unmoved. Some accused their fellow scientists of secretly tampering with the machine and artificially filling in where the logical holes would have been. The non-Christians became angry when they heard this because they knew it wasn’t true, and a broiling argument erupted. But within seconds the Chief scientist stood up on a table and demanded silence, which soon followed. All the scientists respected this man, because he was a brilliant leader and he never revealed his belief about God.

The Chief reasoned that there were ways to tell if the non-Christians tampered with the model of Christian history. He operated the machine to examine the time around 100 CE, and they discovered a sect of Judaism that seemed to resemble early Christianity. The sect worshipped Jesus Christ, but not as a god that became human, but as a strictly spiritual god. They found religious leaders, but there was no apostle Peter, Paul, Matthew, or John. The religious texts seemed to be very different from the popularly known New Testament of the fourth millennium. The scientists then traced the evolution of the Christian doctrine and its sacred writings. Over time, the Christians’ sacred writings accepted new additions and discarded some old components. In time, the Christian followers adopted the belief that Jesus became man instead of remaining a spirit. Their practices were almost indistinguishable from other cult practices of the time. Hoping to find Jesus after all, the scientists traced back the religion in time. But instead of finding Jesus, they discovered that almost every aspect of Jesus is traced back to other mythical stories and beliefs.

The Chief argued that early Christianity had such a rich interaction with the surrounding world that it would be inconceivable to tamper with the computer model so exactly and keep a believable model at the same time. He also pointed out that the structure of the computer program is limited. The only way to tamper with the past model is to tamper with the present model. Tampering with the model of the past exactly as they pleased would require them to change the model of the present with extreme exactitude and perfect judgment of cause and effect. They all knew that to be practically impossible.

When the Chief had made this compelling point, the non-Christian scientists looked at the Christians, expecting that they admit their wrong. But all remained silent.

The rest of the story is not told. If you are a Christian, I would like you to imagine that you are one of the scientists. Imagine that you discover that everything about Christianity is wrong with absolute certainty. What do you do? I am not asking you to admit that Christianity is wrong. I am only asking you to imagine an absurd circumstance where Christianity is proven wrong, and I am asking you what you would do. Do you give up your belief? Or do you hold on? If you hold on, then why? If you answer that Christianity cannot be wrong, then that is evading the question. Simply IMAGINE that Christianity is wrong despite everything you think you know. Then give me your answer.

ApostateAbe

seebs

I'd probably stop believing that some of these things were literal facts. As to the moral teachings, and the belief in God? I don't see why it would change.

This is an interesting puzzle. I'm curious as to what people would do in other hypotheticals.

* What if one religion turned out to have verifiable miracles in the past?
* What if several did?
* What if the machine mysteriously couldn't show certain places or times when we might *think* miracles occurred?

ApostateAbe

Thank you for your input seebs. Many christians I direct the question to can't even imagine that Christianity is all wrong. Or they will not answer the question at all by arguing how Christianity is real.

If the puzzle were reversed, and Christianity were proved true after all, then I would waste little in accepting it. Unless I am more closed-minded than I believe I am.

seebs

Seems to me that misses the point of hypotheticals.

I know a lot of people, including atheists, Christians, and anything else, who simply can't do "big" hypotheticals.

I think it would be very hard not to assume that *something* were still being faked.

I'm most curious about the case where *all* the reported miracles turn out, not just one branch. What would *THAT* tell you?

ApostateAbe

If all miracles in question are proved to occur, then I would believe it. If that implies that the whole doctrine of Christianity is true, then I would gladly accept it, even if I reserve a small nugget of doubt in my mind that it may be fake.

seebs

No, I mean *ALL* the miracles. Christian miracles. Muslim miracles. Buddhist miracles. Wiccan miracles. Shinto. *ALL* of 'em.

What would you think then?

(Me? I'd stare blankly, going "huh?".)

ApostateAbe

Oh, sorry I misunderstood. If all miracles from every religion were proven true, and I wasn't insane, then I would somehow make the best of living in Wonderland, where everything you wish becomes true, and every lie becomes reality just because you say so. Maybe I would try to experiment and determine how to become a miracle-working prophet myself.

The scenario would also be home to logical contradictions, like the Hindu world has been around for billions of years filled with miracles of reincarnation, but the Christian miracle of creation supposedly a few thousand years ago, whcich would mean that the world hasnt been around for billions of years before.

This is kind of like saying, what if you are on acid and everything you see becomes true. It is just too wierd.

parkdalian

What would I do?

I'd believe in God but my heart wouldn't be in it. I would not view God as a He or having any other human-like quality except intelligence and consciousness. I'd regard God as a thing. If I prayed (which I doubt I would bother with, since God is said to be omniscient), it would be for selfish reasons such as fear of hell, and not to worship out of love. I would be confused about what God wants. I'd support a worldwide movement for God to show itself, so a real dialogue might reveal those true intentions. If several religions had proof, I would be at a loss to choose a religion and just go it alone. I would wonder how the mechanisms of miracles might work, even simple ones. If a particular religion that proved true supported bizarre concepts such as free will, precise requirements for going to heaven, and morality based on personal reward or vengeful punishment in an afterlife, I'd be obsessed with studying those--as opposed to my personal morality based on instinct, empathy and understanding.

Don't get me wrong though, I wouldn't hate God, I just wouldn't love God and certainly not understand God. I'd still have no empathy for God, no instinct either. In both an emotional and intellectual sense, God would still be inaccessible to me.

Maybe my problem with God is that I'm not creative enough to invent or imagine a personal God I can love.

Asha'man

Well, if it was verifiable that Christianity produced verifiable miracles and no other religion did? I would convert to Satanism.

From my reading of the Bible, Yahweh seems to be in favor of genocide, rape, terrorism, slavery, human sacrifice, cannibalism, and a great deal of other unjust behavior. Clearly, he is evil, and therefore anyone that opposes him must be a good guy. I would be morally obligated to support any opposition, which clearly implies Satan.

Then I would become a wizard. I would conclude that miracles were actually created by people, not gods, which would mean that I myself would be capable of performing them.

I would probably leave my opinions unchanged. Clearly, something does not want us to know the truth. Whatever that force is, it cannot be good, so I would not look to start worshiping it.