Math, marriage and the 'one fewer god' argument

A recent Facebook challenge to me echoed what has become one of the most popular memes against Christianity bouncing around the atheism vs faith region of the internet. I’ve seen this so frequently that the comment deserves a post as a reply.

Let me paraphrase the argument:

“You Christians are ‘virtually’ atheists. While we atheists have rejected Zeus, Vishnu and all of the other 4,000 or so proposed deities of the world’s religions, Christians have rejected all of them except one. All you need to do is get over your superstitions and admit that that last god doesn’t exist either.”

This ‘one fewer god’ argument has been very popular lately, which is confusing because the argument is, I believe, quite weak. Three reasons why.

First, let’s imagine a class in advanced mathematics. In the final exam, class members are given a single complex problem to solve. Some of the students work the problem and settle on a single solution. Others become convinced that this math problem is such that there are several correct answers, so they turn in the test with several answers. A third group looks at the problem and concludes that the professor has indulged her well-known fondness for whimsy and given a problem for which there are no correct answers. So they signed a blank sheet of paper and turned it in.

In the end there was a single correct answer. When the grades come out, the people who submitted blank pages complained about their low scores. “After all,” they say, “the people who turned in a single answer only rejected one fewer possible solution than we did!”

Do they have a point? No.

A second picture involves a true account with a hypothetical one after it. Here is the true part. I took a girl to the junior prom and married her about six years later. We have now been married for 34 years so far. 

Now let’s imagine that I have an acquaintance who has observed a life of complete celibacy. “You and I are really just the same,” he might try to say to me. “I have chosen to reject intimacy with all the women in the world — let’s say, three billion of them. But you have rejected intimate relationships with three billion minus one. We are virtually the same, more than 99.9999 percent similar!”

Yet there is a tremendous distinction between us: I get to have a wife. And that makes all the difference in the world.

This illustration is particularly important because it underscores that Christianity is more than a set of religious commitments. At its core, it is a relationship, built not on my own performance but one built on what was accomplished on the Cross that I could never hope to deserve on my own merit.

This leads to my third objection to the ‘one fewer god’ argument. It is built around a deeply flawed, unspoken assumption, really a form of neopaganism. If Christians are nearly irreligious because of accepting only one god, then the most deeply religious people would be those who accept the greatest number of deities. 

That idea fails on two fronts. Anecdotally, people who take too many plates at the cafeteria of faith tend to be restless souls — a Buddhist last year, a New Ager the next. (Or, for that matter, a nominal Christian along the way.) The depth of their commitment only lasts until the next shiny god shows up. 

On a more conceptual level, the whole idea is appalling to a Christian — or any monotheist. Our God will never be just another pelt on a wall of religious trophies. Rejecting other gods is step one of faithfulness, not one step removed from atheism.