Becoming a Christian

Combining Prior Belief, Evidence, and Will

Hossjer

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781498246323
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

What influences the decision to become a Christian? In the seventeenth century the famous scientist Blaise Pascal viewed this as a game, with truth our adversary. Pascal argued that we are in the game whether we like it or not. Christianity is either true or not, and we have to weigh the two alternatives. According to Pascal's Wager we have everything to win and nothing to lose by taking a leap of faith and becoming a Christian. In this book Ola Hossjer extends Pascal's Wager and argues that we respond to the Christian message very differently. There are three main attitudes among people: the first group follows Pascal's advice, even if evidence before the decision is incomplete; the second group requires convincing evidence at first; and members of the third group will not become Christians regardless of evidence. Hossjer contends that the decision consists of three components: a religious disposition from birth, evidence, and a willingness to act. Although we weigh evidence and will differently, our priorities may change after a life crisis so that we either reevaluate evidence or become more positive toward Christianity. This is illustrated by a number of people who became Christians.

Part I

Modeling the Decision to Become a Christian

1

Introduction

1.1 Decisions in Life

Life is full of small decisions that we make each day, like how to dress, what to choose for breakfast, and which route to take to work. Some decisions are of intermediate importance, like choice of hobby, and these we make less often. Some of them are big, like choice of education, job, and which person to marry. Typically we only make one or a few of them during our lifetime.

The biggest decisions of all are those that relate to our very existence; such as the meaning, purpose, and destiny of life. They are so big that we actively make them perhaps only once in life. But very often we don’t even know what to decide. The American philosopher Thomas Morris (1952–) writes:

Looking around, it seems that your are equipped for a journey of some kind, but you realize to your utter astonishment that you have no idea where you came from, how you got here, where in the world you are, or where you’re going. You have no map or compass. And your surroundings seem, in various ways, very strange, even dangerous. If someone else were to appear on the scene who seemed to understand your situation and to have answers for all your questions, you’d listen. At least if I were in such a position, I certainly would.1

Christians among many others want to offer such a map, and this book is all about describing the map and how to respond to the offer. This boils down to a decision for or against Christianity. Later on we will formalize it, using ideas from a branch of mathematics called decision theory.

Even though we all face the same decision regarding Christianity, our routes to it differ a lot. Was it good or bad evidence from childhood that formed our decision? Or was it a testimony of a Christian friend? Maybe misconduct of some Christian influenced us negatively. Did university studies have a big impact on our decision? Was it a life crisis that made us question the meaning or purpose of life and urged us to start reading the Bible? Perhaps we only know some elusive parts of the Christian map, not enough to make an active decision. In any case, there are few things that interest us as much as the life stories of others, and to hear about the map they decided to use and what compass they followed. We tend to identify ourselves with what they tell and hope it will help us on our own journey through life.

Indeed, the history of the church is full of testimonies of people whose lives changed after their conversion to Christianity. For some people this conversion was very radical. In the book of Acts in the New Testament we read about Saul. He was a Pharisee and a persecutor of the early Christian church when he suddenly experienced an extraordinary event:

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.2

After three days Saul regained his sight, got baptized, and was renamed Paul by God, with a special mission to spread the gospel to Gentiles in present Turkey, Greece, and Italy. Today he is often regarded as the most important Christian missionary of all time.

Blaise Pascal (1623–62) was a scientist, writer, and inventor, born in the French provincial capital city of Clermont.3 Already at the age of three he lost his mother, and after this tragic event his father, a lawyer and amateur mathematician, decided to leave his job and move to Paris with Blaise and his two sisters. He wanted to give the children cultural stimulation and proper education, and started to home school them. The family engaged in the social life of Paris, meeting many of the most influential people of the day. It was soon discovered that Blaise was a prodigy with a very broad range of talents. He is perhaps most famous for having constructed the first mechanical calculator, and in mathematics he made profound contributions to projective geometry, combinatorics, probability theory, and philosophy of mathematics. In physics his work in hydrodynamics is especially well known. Although Pascal grew up in a Catholic environment he was mostly occupied with science, and not very interested in religion. In the 1640s things changed gradually. When Blaise’s health started to impair he was recommended by doctors to decrease the intensity of his scientific work. As a substitute he engaged socially. This did not seem to increase his happiness though, and at this...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Part I: Modeling the Decision to 
Become a Christian
• Part II: Penetrating the Evidence
• Part III: Crossing the Line
• Appendices
• Bibliography