The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser

Bruce, Would You Believe in God if I PROVED to You that Christianity is True?

Written by

Bruce Gerencser

in

,
good question

If is carrying a lot of weight in this question. How would one go about “proving” Christianity? So far, every argument I have heard from believers allegedly “proving” Christianity comes up short. Quite frankly, many of the arguments Christian apologists use are fantastical or absurd. These arguments may work with people already predisposed to Christianity, but they won’t usually work atheists. Apologists continue to churn out books defending Christianity, but these books aren’t for unbelievers. The target audience is believers, and the goal is to provide them with “evidence” to reinforce and justify their claims, along with settling their nerves after having an atheist eviscerate their beliefs. (Many atheists are former Christians themselves. They know the Bible inside and out.)

Is it possible that someone could convince me that Christianity is true? I would like to say yes, wanting to keep an open mind, but knowing all I do about Christianity, the Bible, and the various arguments used by apologists to defend the faith, I can’t imagine any Christian being able to convince me that I should return to Christianity. If you are a Christian, you are welcome to try to convert me, but I hope you can handle rejection and disappointment; that’s likely what you will experience by trying to put another notch on your gospel six-shooter.

Will this post stop apologists from trying to evangelize me? Of course not. As sure as the sun comes up in the morning, a believer will leave a comment on this site or send me an email detailing their supercalifragilisticexpialidocious argument they are sure will lead me to the light. Sorry, but I was a Christian for most of my life. I spent five decades in the “light.” I was a pastor for twenty-five years. I am confident that I have heard every possible argument for the existence of the Christian deity and the alleged veracity of Christianity. What could you possibly say that I haven’t heard countless times before? Feel free to advance whatever argument you think will reach me, but understand that there is little doubt about whether I have heard it (or used it myself) before.

Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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Comments

13 responses to “Bruce, Would You Believe in God if I PROVED to You that Christianity is True?”

  1. Avatar
    Jeff Bishop

    Objectively posting, and only for myself, WHAT would it take “proof wise” for me to believe?

    Considering I believe in the scientific method – which roughly speaking is repeated and consistent results of “something” – often referred to as experimentation:

    “The God” would manifest itself, not just to me, but to a wide audience. Preferably not as a ‘human being” oh no, not as a man, but in a plain of existence that would leave no doubt and then perform some of the miracles that are claimed in the bible. Say go to a cemetery and reanimate a few hundred corpses and watch them shape shift back to healthy young adults. That would be convincing.

    Or perhaps, immediately cure every cancer person on the planet.

    Or perhaps, have Donald Trump demonstrate empathy to fellow humans and renounce the sins of his past on a Faux news special ……..

    Or perhaps let the Florida gators beat the Georgia Bulldogs 77-0 next Saturday.

    Or perhaps grant every human being the power to levitate 1,000’ off the ground and zip around like Superman.

    Or perhaps gather every charlatan Catholic and Evangelical Priest / Pastor pedophile together for a big bonfire in
    Michigan Stadium.

    Stuff like that.

    Reply
    1. BJW

      Or he could go to the hospital and heal people. BTW, do you ever wonder why faith healers don’t go to hospitals? There are tons of Christians who could be healed, heck, I bet it would glorify God to heal everyone./s

      Reply
      1. Avatar
        Steve

        Or stop people getting sick in the first place… Being a God and all

        Reply
      2. Avatar
        Danny Plumber

        Exactly! If I was a real faith healer the first thing I would do is go directly to the Children’s Shriners Hospital and cure all the sick kids. The fact that they won’t, because they CAN’T, says everything. It’s all so damn fake!

        Reply
  2. Avatar
    GeoffT

    The question is back to front. The first step is to demonstrate in a way that is undeniable that god exists, and then to move forward. Trying to prove that Christianity is true is like trying to invent vaccines before having an understanding of viruses. Obviously if someone could demonstrate the undeniable truth of Christianity then yes, by definition, that would prove god exists, but most attempts to prove Christianity depend on the bible, which is circular reasoning. Gary Habermas has, I understand, produced a massive four volume set of tomes that purport to prove that the resurrection is a historical fact. Talk about a waste of time and effort. No doubt people would argue that I should read the works before dismissing them. Well I’ve listened to someone who has read them and they do not regard them as ‘persuasive’, to use a judge like word. I concur, even though I haven’t, and never will, read them.

    Reply
    1. Avatar
      Bruce Gerencser

      Far too often, apologists make generic arguments for the existence of God. I surprise them by saying, “I’ll grant you your “God” argument. Drum 🥁roll, please. 🤣❤️ Now show me the evidentiary line between this generic God (which you really don’t believe in) and the Christian deity or the God of the Bible. 17 years in, no one has done so. I see no possible way to build a bridge between philosophical arguments for God and the deity Christians actually worship.

      Reply
    2. Avatar
      leez

      Somewhere I read that vaccination against smallpox was begun when milkmaids got cowpox from the cattle, but never got smallpox. Local people (not in Europe tried it, it worked). Since that was several centuries before bacteria were identified — and much longer before viruses were identified — your example falls apart!

      Reply
      1. Avatar
        GeoffT

        I can see your point and agree it sort of undermines my analogy but, then again, what you describe is an observation of something that can seemingly cure an ailment we didn’t understand at the time (from memory I think the prevailing theory at the time was that smallpox was caused by smell). The result was that an apparent cure was present and Edward Jenner found that it worked as a vaccine (derived from the French word for cow ‘vacca’) for smallpox. It didn’t, however, solve the problem of viruses, which weren’t discovered until much later. Until viruses were discovered and studied there was no science of virology, with no real understanding of immunisation and the corresponding development of vaccines.

        Reply
  3. Avatar
    Asphalt-Type Person

    If Christianity were true, so what? What good would it do, anyway? There’s no afterlife worth the crap you and I, to name two, have had to deal with in this life.

    Reply
  4. Avatar
    Kevin E Pitt

    Truth is there is no evidence that would convince a non-believer that the God of the bible is real. Belief is all by faith and seeing what God has done in your own life. Truth is if a person does not believe the bible is the word of God, then he will not see a miracle to convince him that the bible is true. The only evidence will be that moment the unbeliever awakens to eternity after he or she leaves this world. Praying for you.

    Reply
    1. Avatar
      GeoffT

      Of course there are ways of convincing a non believer that god exists (note I’m referring to ANY version of god, not just the one you happen to believe in) but it’s not for me to say what that evidence is. If god exists and wants me to be convinced then it must, surely, know what would convince me but, pending that time, I’m left with what is the evidence thus far provided. I’ll tell you how much; zero, zilch, diddly squat. In fact, the evidence for the existence of a god of any flavour is so bad that it provides reasons not to believe. Your suggestion that I tell myself that every aspect of my life (yours too if you’re honest) that depends on evidence is okay but that it doesn’t work in one respect, that of religious belief, and that I suspend my rational faculties in regard to this one aspect of my life….it doesn’t sound good when you actually spell it out, now does it!

      Reply
  5. Avatar
    ObstacleChick

    At this point in my life, I would only believe a god existed if it showed itself to multitudes of people, allowed itself to be filmed, questioned, and tested, and if it could perform great feats like curing all illnesses, regrow limbs, restore sight, hearing, etc, could “poof” things into existence, and could cause Vanderbilt to win the national championship in football AND baseball in the same year. And help the Yankees win the World Series and help me win multiple obstacle course racing championships. Ok I am joking about all the sports stuff. Would I believe it’s a deity, or would I just believe it’s a being with highly advanced technology? Probably the latter.

    As for believing that being was a deity of Christianity and that all tenets of Christianoty are true – well, then we’re getting into needing to define which aspects of Christianity – there’s so much variation out there. I’ve read too much scholarship to believe that any version of the Bible is inspired, inerrant, or literally true, so that’s out.

    Reply
    1. Avatar
      Steve

      I would want to hear him justify the genocides released by various of his people over the ages. That would be enlightening

      Reply

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