Saturday, May 17, 2008

The Aslan Delusion


I had a great conversation tonight with a guy from work who I just met and found out that he was a believer in Jesus of Nazareth. He shared with me how two weeks ago God healed his knee and he has walked without a limp since that day. I sat that there just amazed at how faithful God is to His people. How incredible He is to those whom He calls. Now I just wish I always believed it.

There is a book out called The God Delusion and the author sets out lay blame for many of the worlds problem in people's belief in God. While an interesting, unprovable premise, the author is rather entertaining and makes his points in a seemingly convincing manner. Either way, I can probably imagine that he wasn't going to be seeing Narnia this weekend.

Before I went an saw Prince Caspian yesterday I watched The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and started laughing when Lucy is in Mr. Tumnus's house looking at his book shelf with titles such as "Is Man a Myth". I could almost imagine a book there entitled The Aslan Delusion: Why Belief in Aslan Spoils Everything.

There is no doubt when reading Lewis' work that he has an agenda towards those who would call religious folk "delusional" unequivocally. Lewis had to face such accusations all the time. How can you believe in something that is not empirical? How can you ask someone to believe in something that we cannot see? We are dancing to our DNA. We are products of chance plus time. There are many Miraz's out there, the question then is where are the Caspians.

It may seem lame to even use a child's story like this and many people will view it like that. Just because it is a child's tale does not make it devoid of meaning for adults. Maybe we have overcomplicated things and we need to remember that simple lesson. It is the belief in the supernatural which brings about the best world. It is the belief in a all loving God who invaded this earth 2,000 years ago and continues to invade in the people He calls His bride. I think back to the scene in the movie and it was very telling: "I just wish he would prove Himself to me" Peter said. Lucy replied: "Maybe He is just waiting for us to prove ourselves to Him?"

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"Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." Matthew 7:13-14