Why do I demand evidence to believe?

You have surely heard it said (and if you haven't heard it said, you should hear it now), extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The claims of Christianity are certainly extraordinary; one might reasonably call them absurd. Therefore, it stands to reason, if reason is your guide, that its claims should be buttressed and proven by overwhelming evidence.

But for me, there is another reason to demand extraordinary evidence. I need such evidence, not merely because Christianity's claims are so preposterous, but because its claims on my life are so total and all-encompassing. Christianity demands that I lay down my life, that I suffer for Christ, that I give up everything for him and for his cause.

I can see why a certain mentality would find this calling attractive. Someone yearning for a purpose and meaning for his life, someone wanting to have his personality subsumed into a larger entity, for example. I was particularly vulnerable to this enticement at 17, with my unformed and uprooted life. Not anymore.

You want me to give my life for something, it had better be true. If you cannot demonstrate conclusively that it is true, I won't waste one minute or one calorie on it.

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