Easter for Athiests

Dear atheist, and agnostic friends. I know this may be one of the most annoying days for you. So on behalf of Christians, I'm sorry for that. It may be simply "curious" or "weird" to you, and if that's the case I'm going to try and break down the background of "He is risen!"

It's been a journey for me to get to a personal acceptance of Jesus beyond just what I was taught growing up. I don't have a problem believing in a "higher power" simply because there is "food chain" that I can accept we are a part of - just like rats don't understand things to the degree of what we understand, to me it's reasonable that we don't understand things to the degree of a "higher power." But Easter is about Jesus which is tougher to comprehend.

There are two things that help me understand the incredible claims of Jesus. 1. God had to "condescend" to our level of understanding - a term for this is "anthropopathism." Basically God could never explain the universe and plan in philosophical, theological or scientific terms that we as finite humans could grasp. God is so far beyond our capacity that this would never work (like humans explaining to rats). The best possible way for God to show us what he is like to give us an example of how to live. This is what he did with Jesus. This is better than trying to "prove" his existence by writing his name in the sky or tattooing "made by God" on every human because God is a relational God and love is his language. Jesus personified love by his life. Also, God gives us free will and God doesn't want to be "in our face" so much that we have a relationship of fear. 2. The second thing that helps me understand why a higher power would communicate to us in a human form is because it's reasonable to believe that the highest truth in the universe is love and relationships.

We're in an a culture where scientific and mathematical knowledge are considered superior forms of knowledge (despite the fact that math is still man made - any coincidence the decimal system is based on 10 and we have 10 fingers?) - but personally I believe science will only answer the "how" questions but not the greatest "why" questions of why we exist. Science can observe, and can re-create, but never will it create. Science will observe God - that's all it can do.

In a world where we are constantly grasping for love and relationships it makes sense to me that God would use love and a relationship to direct us to him, and show us that we don't need to fear death because relationships are soul-deep and don't need these old raggedy bodies forever. With that said - I hope you have a great Son- day (;