Just because you don’t know some trivial things about God, like his favorite color or movie, that doesn’t mean you don’t have a relationship with him.
Transcript
Original video: “Christianity is not a religion. It’s a relationship with God.” Oh, really? So, what’s God’s favorite color? Does God have a favorite movie? What about pets? Does God have any pets? Does he like football? Basketball? Hockey? You’re telling me you have an intimate and personal relationship with God—who knows everything about you, knows all of your thoughts—and you don’t even know what his favorite color is? You don’t know anything about him.
Tim: This video has three big problems. Let’s look at each together. First, just because you don’t know some trivial things about God, like his favorite color or movie, that doesn’t mean you don’t have a relationship with him. This video is a non-sequitur. That means it just doesn’t follow. Think about the relationship navy seals have towards each other. These men are willing to die for each other. Now, do they know each other’s favorite color? Well, not likely, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a deep and profound relationship. That’s because deep relationships don’t trade in trivialities. They’re based on something else.
Second, just because you don’t know some trivial things about God, that doesn’t mean you don’t know anything about God. Here’s what I do know about God: I know he’s morally perfect, exceedingly merciful, abounding in steadfast love. I know he’s someone worthy of our worship and obedience. I know he’s given me something more valuable than anything imaginable: forgiveness. So, no, I don’t know God’s favorite color or movie or number, but I do know some things that are much more profound than that.
Third, this video seems to confuse propositional knowledge and what we might call experiential knowledge. For example, this is the difference between reading about a sunset in a textbook and experiencing one first hand. Notice what happened in the video. The Christian claims to have a relationship with God, and then the atheist responds by quizzing the Christian on trivial facts about God. How could a Christian have a relationship with God if they don’t even know his favorite color? Granted, I think we should have propositional knowledge about God because it strengthens our relationship. A great book to help you with that is The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W Tozer. Having said that, relationships don’t demand exhaustive propositional knowledge. Pet lovers might appreciate this. My wife and kids have a relationship with our dog, Polly. Now, we could ask, what’s Polly’s favorite color? Well, beats me, but we’re still best friends. By the way, Polly doesn’t know my favorite color, either. If you come to the door, she will cower in fear, but when I go to the door, she wags her tail in excitement. That’s because she knows me and not you. If you don’t like the pet illustration, then think about the relationship between a mother and her baby. The point is, this whole “you can’t name God’s favorite color, therefore you don’t have a relationship with him” absolutely fails.