“But what we suffer from to-day is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be.

A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt — the Divine Reason. …

The old humility was a spur that prevented a man from stopping; not a nail in his boot that prevented him from going on. For the old humility made a man doubtful about his efforts, which might make him work harder. But the new humility makes a man doubtful about his aims, which will make him stop working altogether.

At any street corner we may meet a man who utters the frantic and blasphemous statement that he may be wrong. Every day one comes across somebody who says that of course his view may not be the right one. Of course his view must be the right one, or it is not his view. We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table. We are in danger of seeing philosophers who doubt the law of gravity as being a mere fancy of their own.

Scoffers of old time were too proud to be convinced; but these are too humble to be convinced. The meek do inherit the earth; but the modern sceptics are too meek even to claim their inheritance.”

G.K. Chesterton in Orthodoxy

There is a case against religion that goes like this: someone born in the U.S. is more likely to be a Christian, someone in India is more likely to be a Hindu, someone in Saudi Arabia, a Muslim.  How can someone say that their religion is true when there are dozens of other major religions that people adhere to because of where they were born?

Now it is true that where you are born will determine how you see the world, and the family you are born into will greatly influence religious beliefs.  However, you almost certainly wouldn’t be an atheist if you were born in Saudi Arabia.  You wouldn’t believe in human rights if you were born in many places in China.  Does that make human rights untrue?  I hope not.

Truth is not disproved by diversity of beliefs.   Ultimately, religion is not just moral rules and rituals but a series of beliefs about how to see the world.  Just like atheism and just like issues of human rights.  And in the same way, Christianity is not true because it is a global religion, but it’s not disproved either.

Recently a firefighter in our church was told by one of his colleagues that belief in Jesus was for weak people.  I found that ironic coming from a firefighter.

I have a fire hydrant  in our side yard.  I have never looked at the fire hydrant and felt any shame.  I drive by a firehouse everyday.  I never think, “If this community didn’t have weak people than we would never have firehouses.”  Every month when I pay my property taxes, that go towards financing fire departments, I never get angry at myself, thinking, “if I could just handle fire myself I wouldn’t have to write this check.”

Imagine a person whose house was on fire.  The fire is raging out of control and the fire truck pulls up, sirens blaring.  The person runs out of his house in a rage and says, “How dare you come to my house and think that I can’t handle this fire myself! Firefighters are for weak people, not for me.”

What would you think of someone like that? Insane.

We know that fire departments are for “weak” people because a power exists that we simply can’t deal with on our own: fire.  Actually, we admire firefighters because they are people who have committed themselves to take on the power of fire at personal expense.

A Christian is weak in the same sense that a community is “weak” for having fire departments.  They are people who acknowledge that a power exists that they can’t confront and live — the holiness of God.  This, however, is not cause for shame, because there was one man who dealt with that power at personal expense, on a cross.  And, as every firefighter can admit, when someone is rescued from the flames, they’re not thinking about their weakness; they’re overjoyed that someone would risk it all to save them.