If you've never heard of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, I envy you. It was invented in 2005 as a mockery of Intelligent Design by someone who didn't understand the difference between ID and Young-Earth Creationism. The "belief" of adherents is that the universe was created by the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM), an invisible and undetectable god who tampers with scientific experiments with his "noodly appendage." They claim to have a church and a Bible. No one takes them seriously and yet skeptics will, with a straight face, claim their "beliefs" are just as valid as Christianity. The original idea was to demand their beliefs about creation get equal time in schools with modern science and any creationist or ID teachings.
It is true that the usual philosophical and scientific arguments for God do not require the God of Christianity. How do we know Zeus, Brahman, or the FSM didn't create the universe? Why do we believe Christianity is true? (To keep this from becoming a book, I'm going to compress what follows by including links to more detailed explanations.)
The ontological argument tells us some kind of deity ought to exist. The cosmological argument shows, since the universe began, it needs a cause, and we can see that cause needs to be personal, powerful, and existing outside time and space. The teleological argument, which looks at the many physical parameters in the universe that have to be precisely what they are for intelligent life — or in some cases, planets — to exist, and the argument from the applicability of mathematics tell us the personal cause needs to be incredibly intelligent. The argument from morality also reveals the character of that cause.
Already we have ruled out some conceptions of God, such as a god who is not personal (as found in most Far Eastern religions). Gods who do not pre-exist the universe or who are not moral (like most pagan pantheons) are excluded. We are really only left with the various conceptions of the Abrahamic God.
That is, until skeptics come along and assert the Flying Spaghetti Monster possesses all those traits as well. How do we determine which of these two options is the true god? For that we have to leave general revelation and turn to special revelation.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. (1Cor 15:3-8)
And the skeptics just rolled their eyes so hard they fell out of their chairs. But this is something to be considered: If God exists, miracles are possible, so the question of whether this miraculous event really happened needs to be taken seriously.
First, this cannot be dismissed as late myth. "The gospels were written more than 40 years after the events they claim to report." Let's say that's true. 1Corinthians was written about 20 years after the crucifixion. Paul says he taught them this when he visited a few years before that. But he says he got this information from others. Even some non-Christian scholars agree that this creed comes from within 2-3 years after the crucifixion. So when the church was still in and around Jerusalem, well within the lifetime of witnesses, this is what they preached. Second, we have good reason to believe the gospel accounts are historically credible.
The best explanation for the historical evidence is that Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead. By whom? YHWH. And now we know Christianity is true, not Judaism or Islam, which both deny this happened.
The creed says "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures." Which scriptures? The Hebrew scriptures, aka the Old Testament. They told us where Jesus would be born, when he would live, what he would do, how he would die, and that he would be raised from the dead hundreds of years in advance. When has the FSM ever predicted the future?
Special revelation doesn't stop there. We can appeal to miracles in the modern day.
I was in the room when the neurosurgeon couldn't find a tumor on the new CAT scan that he'd seen just days before. I went to the church where Duane Miller's voice was returned to him mid-lesson, with doctors unable to find scar tissue that had been there for years. I wasn't present, but I've heard the tape. Craig Keener has collected documented stories of miraculous healings from across the world, including a woman who was blind, paralyzed, and oxygen dependent because of MS who heard a voice say, "My child, get up and walk!" So she did, to the amazement of every doctor who has met her. God still does miracles today.
Some may say, "What about miracles attributed to Allah or Buddha? You have to explain those." No, we don't. We've already knocked those religions out of contention, so that's a topic for another time. We only have to ask one question: What miracles have the Flying Spaghetti Monster been credited with?
It is definitely important that we recognize that not every argument for the existence of a god actually identifies that deity as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That doesn't mean we need to take every "alternative" skeptics offer seriously. We shouldn't be cowed by those who are simply trying to mock Christian beliefs.
Images via Wikimedia Commons
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