“There are four lights!” Why coming to religious truth can be like an episode of Star Trek. [VIDEO]
By Brooks On January 31st, 2012Geeks will remember this episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Captain Picard is captured during a covert mission. This captor, a Cardassian (no not Kim Kardasian) doesn’t try extract information from him about the nature and purpose of his mission. Instead he points to the four lights on the ceiling and asks Captain Picard “how many lights do you see?” The captain replies, “four.” Displeased with his answer, from that point on, day after day, the Captain is dehumanized, stressed and tortured by his captor and continually asked the number of lights he saw. If the answer wasn’t “five lights,” he was pressured though mind games and torture again to keep breaking his will. Eventually he’s finally rescued. And tells the staff that though he didn’t admit it to his captor, it got to the point he believed his saw an additional light, though he never actually saw it there.
I took Bible study with people going through college. Didn’t really stick. But that was my experience with their efforts of showing me the truth of Bible.
I’d see something that doesn’t make sense. Logical sense. But rather than deal with what I saw. You’re asked to go back (and look at the Bible) until you see if differently. In the case of Star Trek, it was until you broke down and convinced yourself what you see if not what you see. And I think that also the method of Bible instruction. For some, coming to the Bible is more like surrendering to reality as you understand it.
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