http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dostoyevsky/d72b/chapter35.html
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dostoyevsky/d72b/chapter36.html
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dostoyevsky/d72b/chapter40.html
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dostoyevsky/d72b/chapter41.html
Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky is one of the finest things ever written by human hands. It is, to me, religious scripture in it's own right. It contains within it what I think are the best arguments anywhere both for and against Christian faith. The first two chapters above are the against, the last two are the for. Something to think about: both arguments are to some degree compelling. If you can read Ivan's diatribe and not be moved at least in an atheistic direction, then I don't understand you. It isn't that I'm smart and you aren't it just seems obvious to me that Ivan has a good case. Further, if you can read Father Zossima's story and description of the world and not at least be moved in the direction of theism, then I don't understand you. It seems clear to me that Zossima is on to something here.
In the end, which argument is better? It seems to me that Zossima wins, in the end. Different people will evaluate the evidence differently, but if I'm honest, that is how I see it. In the end, one of the hardest things Brothers K calls us to is a new understanding of selfhood and sin. Dostoevsky's book is a call to live as if I am responsible for the sins of all men. All men responsible for the sins of each man, and each man responsible for the sins of all men. If I can do that I will, paradoxically, find myself freed from the bondage of sin, for I will find union with God. Dostoevsky convinced me that theism without the Son of God, without the Incarnate, living Jesus Christ, is untenable. But with Christ as the center belief in God makes the most sense of the fullest range of human experience. Dostoevsky was truly one of the greatest thinkers, writers, men, of all time.
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