At The God Question, we critically examine religious truth claims using reason, evidence, and a deep awareness of psychological and cultural conditioning. This ongoing blog series is responding section by section to Mark Clark’s The Problem of God. Clark writes from an evangelical Christian perspective, seeking to answer modern skeptics. We read with both care and scrutiny. In this post, we explore the final portion of Chapter 4, “The Christ Myth,” specifically the concluding section titled The True Myth.
📘 Summary of Clark’s Argument
In this final section, Mark Clark shifts from defensive rebuttal to theological interpretation. He attempts to explain the myth-like structure of Christianity not as a problem—but as its beauty. Drawing on C.S. Lewis’s notion of Christianity as “the true myth,” Clark argues that the Christian story fulfills the deepest longings of humanity found in other myths and belief systems. He quotes Romans 2:14–16 to assert that God has written a moral law on every heart, and he appeals to the inner resonance of the gospel narrative to justify its truth.
In short: myths point to something real. Christianity is the myth that became fact.
🎯 The Core Claim: Myth Doesn’t Undermine Truth—It Reveals It
Clark asks us to consider that mythic parallels between Jesus and earlier pagan gods aren’t evidence that Christianity borrowed or evolved from these stories—but rather, that God “seeded” the world with these myths to prepare the human heart for the gospel. He frames Christianity as the fulfillment of every ancient human story about dying and rising gods, redemption, sacrifice, and divine intervention.
This argument hinges on the assumption that resonance equals reality—that because the story of Jesus feels meaningful and archetypal, it must be grounded in historical fact.
🧠 Critical Response: Resonance Is Not Evidence
From The God Question’s perspective, this is precisely where the shift from thoughtful investigation to theological rationalization occurs.
- Emotional appeal ≠ objective truth. That a story resonates with our longings—our desire for justice, love, sacrifice, and eternal life—does not mean it is historically or metaphysically true. Fairy tales, legends, and Marvel movies also resonate.
- The Lewisian move collapses the line between myth and fact. C.S. Lewis argued that Christianity was a myth that happened to be true. But this is not an argument for its truth; it’s a poetic restatement of belief. It’s beautiful theology, but not persuasive evidence.
- The moral law argument is culturally shallow. Quoting Romans 2 about a “law written on the heart” ignores the enormous diversity of moral systems across cultures and history. Evolutionary psychology and social anthropology offer far better explanations for shared ethics than divine inscription.
🔍 What’s Missing in Clark’s Conclusion?
Clark ends this chapter with what feels good, what sounds grand, and what echoes C.S. Lewis’s literary mysticism. But he does not offer:
- Historical evidence for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus (that’s postponed to later chapters).
- A rigorous response to the most obvious and natural conclusion of the evidence: Christianity is part of the myth-making human project, not its fulfillment.
- Acknowledgment of non-Christian perspectives—the millions who feel deep emotional resonance in Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, or even atheism.
In essence, Clark offers a grand “what if?” to close the chapter:
“What if nothing could be more natural in the plan of God than the existence of such stories?”
To which we at The God Question respond:
What if the far more natural explanation is that humans make stories that reflect their fears and longings—and Christianity is simply the most dominant version in the Western world?
🪙 Concluding Thought
Clark’s closing argument reveals a critical shift—from evidence to affirmation. It is not a conclusion grounded in history, philosophy, or science. It is a conclusion rooted in faith seeking literary beauty. And while that beauty is powerful, it is not proof.
This is not the problem of God.
It is the problem of wanting something so badly to be true that we mistake the ache for the answer.
God or Delusion? 