EA Essential - engaging young people with biblical truth

Response

This is a question that is often asked when religion is being discussed. However, you never hear it when people are talking about the horrors of Auschwitz. Hitler was undoubtedly sincere in his hatred of the Jewish people, but everyone would admit that he was wrong. The massacre of six million Jews in the Second World War was deliberate, ruthless, and the product of a very clear and sincerely held belief. Hitler was sincere but terribly wrong.

An example such as this should make us very cautious about claiming that is does not matter what you believe as along as you are sincere. For centuries people sincerely believed that thunder was caused by the gods at war. We now know that this sincerely held belief was superstitious rubbish. They were sincere but wrong. For centuries people sincerely believed that the sun went around the earth. They were sincere but wrong.

Now, of course, sincerity is vitally important. But sincerity is not enough. I may sincerely believe that lots of cream and chocolate is the best way to recuperate after a heart attack, but I would be wrong.

If the notion that sincerity is all you need is clearly ridiculous why is it so often stated when the subject of religion is being discussed? There may be several reasons.

For one thing, people may simply not want to get drawn into a religious argument. Therefore they try to end the discussion before it begins by claiming that it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.

Others make the claim, I think, because they have never really stopped to think. They would never say it about a historical topic like World War Two: you may sincerely believe Hitler won, but you would be mistaken. They would never apply it to mathematics: nobody in their right mind imagines that if only they believe hard enough that two and two equals five, they would make it so. However great your sincerity, you would be wrong. No, it is only in the area of religion that people talk like this, perhaps because it is hard to achieve certainty in religion. The topic is as slippery as soap in water, so people try and duck out of the subject altogether by suggesting that it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.

Another reason may be this, at least in the UK and USA: we are practical people. We are not famous for our philosophical thinking. If something works, it is OK, no matter who invented it of what he intended. Most people are concerned with actions, not with theories. So it is not difficult to carry that attitude a bit further and maintain, “It does not matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.”

But I think there is a deeper reason. Religion is about the fundamental issues of life and death, and there is something in us that does not want to look at them. They feel rather spooky and uncomfortable. We would rather live for the here and now and shut our eyes to complex matters like life and death, heaven and hell. It’s much easier to rely on sincerity and living a reasonably decent life, in the hope that this will be enough.

Where does all this leave us?
We cannot escape into “sincerity”. Sincerity is absolutely essential but, by itself, absolutely insufficient. We would never apply that argument to any other area of life so it is madness to apply it to religion.

Further Reading

But don’t all religions lead to God, Michael Green (Sovereign/IVP 2002)

FAQ Disclaimer:

FAQ responses are designed to promote clear biblical thinking about subjects that are often difficult and confusing. The responses are all considered to be compatible with the Evangelical Alliance’s basis of faith but beyond that should not be assumed to represent the Evangelical Alliance’s ‘official standpoint’ on any particular doctrine or issue.