Cute cartoon and an excellent comment!!! Many years ago, I smoked very heavily- several packs of Camel cigarettes, at least two packs of tiparillo's and several bowls of pipe, each and every day. Even though I saw the terrible effects in my father (whose smoked five packs of Camels a day and later died of a heart attack) and heard myself cough terribly, I would not change because I enjoyed it. In retrospect, I realize it was stupid, but I was young and no one could tell me anything. Finally, at 21 years of age, I quit and have never regretted it. But, why did it take me so long to accept reality? Enter my newly acquired understanding of the term, "Cognitive Dissonance". And this is found in Scriptures...
Acts 17:15-34 NASB
(15) Now those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left.
(16) Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols.
(17) So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present.
(18) And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, "What would this idle babbler wish to say?" Others, "He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,"--because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
(19) And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming?
(20) "For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean."
(21) (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)
(22) So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.
(23) "For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
(24) "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands;
(25) nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;
(26) and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,
(27) that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
(28) for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.'
(29) "Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.
(30) "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent,
(31) because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."
(32) Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, "We shall hear you again concerning this."
(33) So Paul went out of their midst.
(34) But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
The Greek civilization brought us many fine things, including beautiful architecture (as the above picture shows, outstanding literature and an emphasis on reasoning that is perhaps their most important contribution. But, many still held to the concept of Polytheism and when faced with the fact of the resurrection, rejected it as being nonsense. Yet, was it? Paul writes to another church (1 Corinthians) and says:
1 Corinthians 15:1-8 NASB
(1) Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand,
(2) by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
(3) For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
(4) and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
(5) and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
(6) After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;
(7) then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;
(8) and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.
Just because you have not seen something with your own eyes, does not mean that it did not occur. Notice verse 6 above- five hundred people at one time, now that is a witness!!! And yet some people could actually reject Christianity- AMAZING!!! No, that is not right, its Cognitive Dissonance!!!!