18 April 2024 John 6:44-51
Brett Weinstein is an evolutionary biologist who says that religion is literally false, but metaphorically true. By this he means that if we pretend that religious truth claims are true, we are more likely to adopt behaviors that make us and make society more fit, and so more likely to survive.
How would that work?
“Love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). If that is a metaphor, and not literally true, that can only mean that we wind up loving and praying less. Calling love and prayer a metaphor means we don’t really have to will the good of the other, we don’t really have to commend to a real God the person who means us harm. We don’t have to really risk anything by not seeking vengeance. Metaphorical love is an attractive word picture of appealing attitudes, but it doesn’t mean we actually have to do anything.
In other words, “I love you metaphorically” means “I don’t love you.”
“God is love metaphorically” means “There is no God, and there is no love.”
“Metaphorically True” means “Really False.” It is very hard to see how people could ever be persuaded to pretend not to think about the “Really False” bit.
Brett Weinstein, and others like him, can’t bring themselves to accept that the benefits of religion and the truth of religion go together.
The most important things we Christians do are not metaphors at all. They are literally true, or they are completely without meaning.
Jesus wasn’t being a bit metaphorical when he said, “The bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world” (John 6:51). In the same way that parents give living bits of themselves to beget their children, Jesus gives us living bits of His life to make us Sons and Daughters of God. We have life, but Jesus is life. He is Being itself, and for that reason the life He gives us is eternal. When we receive His life, we are being taken up into the mystery of Being itself.
In other words, it is literally true that when we receive the life of Christ in Holy Communion, heaven is touching earth. Eternal life is touching us. Brett Weinstein, and others like him, want the transformations that religion talks about. They want people to be just, kind, patient, merciful, and forgiving. They want people to be reasonable, responsible, reliable, and redeemable. They can have that, but only if they believe it is literally true that eternal life is accessible in Jesus.
“My Flesh for the life of the world” is not a metaphor. It is literally true, or completely meaningless.
Imagine how the world would be different if every Catholic parish were filled with people who believed that heaven was touching earth, heaven was touching them, every day when Mass was celebrated. Imagine how the world would be different if every Catholic parish were filled with people who believed that eternal life had already started. What good would they not attempt? What evil would intimidate them? Who, in the end, would be able to resist them? Indeed, pretty much all of the efforts that have improved life, made us wiser, deeper, kinder, more just, more useful, have been accomplished by people who believed exactly that. The end of slavery, the emergence of democracy, the development of science, and the discovery of human rights were all accomplished by people who believed that Jesus is the power of “to be” itself, and He touches earth with His eternity daily.
And nothing has improved life that starts with, “Let’s pretend.”
Kommentarer