This past May, Martin Gardner, the renowned “recreational mathematics” (an oxymoron if ever one existed) columnist, died. Unfamiliar with his column, I listened with interest to an NPR recount of his life. Known for his enjoyable treatment of mathematical puzzles, paradoxes, and conundrums, he apparently left his mark on popular mathematics. In describing his life, NPR produced footage of someone asking him about matters of faith, given his unusual mind and interest in mathematical puzzles. His response intrigued me. He replied that he counted himself as a “mysterian.”
What in God’s green goodness is a “mysterian?” I mused. He kindly explained. Earth, existence, science, even his beloved mathematics, contained so many mysteries for which he simply found no answer that, in the end, he could dismiss nothing. He found atheism intellectually unsatisfying in light of all the precision of the Universe, Yet, he counted Christianity and all the other religions, at best, unlikely and far fetched. Where did that leave him?
That’s right, it left him a mysterian. He just didn’t know, one way or the other.
Wikepedia defines the “mysterian movement” as a philosophical position proposing that the hard problem of consciousness will never be explained; or at the least cannot be explained by the human mind at its current evolutionary stage. The irresolvable problem is how to explain sentience and qualia and their interaction with consciousness. While not described as mysterian philosophy, per se, I did overhear a scientist once say that the human mind cannot understand itself any more than a lawn mower can understand how it cuts the lawn.
Adherents to the mysterian movement apparently include the likes of Samuel Johnson, Gottfried Leibniz, and Thomas Huxley. Huxley wrote, “How it is that anything so remarkable as a state of consciousness comes about as a result of irritating nervous tissue, is just as unaccountable as the appearance of the Djinn, when Aladdin rubbed his lamp.”
Is this so strange? Albert Einstein mused that the most inexplicable aspect of the Universe was it very “explainability.” Why did physical laws work so well and precisely to explain physical phenomenon.
The philosopher Pascal offers us “Pascal’s Wager.” Bet that Christianity actually provides the “truth.” What do you lose? If wrong, you’ve led a life guided by tested and sound moral principles. You missed out on a bit of debauchery and fun, but perhaps you’ve avoided hurting a lot of your fellows as well. If right, you’ve inherited the kingdom of heaven to boot. Why not take a chance on Christianity?
This may work for some intellectuals, but others will say this makes no more sense, nor presents no more satisfying path for your life, than believing in the Easter Bunny, Santa, and the Great Pumpkin. As Socrates stated over 2400 years ago, “an unexamined life is not worth living,” and this feels pretty unexamined.
As a thoughtful Christian, how difficult is it to say that this whole “rose from the dead” business seems pretty silly? Easier to say something quite out of the ordinary occurred in Jerusalem 2000 years ago with this Jesus fellow, and then quite a franchise followed in his wake. Must we believe that the immutable laws of science took a holiday for the carpenter from Galilee?
Plainly though, something happened. No other explanation explains the rise of Christianity from nothing. It gives me goose bumps that in the 1950’s most astrophysicists and scientists believed that the Universe possessed no “beginning” but always existed. The Bible said emphatically that a beginning occurred. Fast forward 50 years. Science now confirms that the Bible was right; the 1950’s scientists wrong. The “Big Bang” occurred 15.3 billion years ago, and it all started then—just as the Bible states.
How can the ancient (read outdated) Bible ever be more correct than prevailing science? Something fails to fit here. It feels like a paradox. Ditto for humiliating and crucifying another trouble-maker, something done routinely by the Roman Empire, and now we have one of the world’s great religions based, not on the great Roman Empire, but the target of a standard (for the time and place) crucifixion? Not right. Not rational.
Count me a Mysterian. But count me a Christian Mysterian.
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:4-7 (BIBLE, NIV Version)
Copyright 2010—David J. Carr