The Little Friar

A friend recently -- and honestly -- asked on Facebook: "The question is not whether or not there is a god. The question is, why do we care?" I think his question deserves an honest Christian response -- which, sadly, would be more than a Facebook comment might allow.  So here goes. First, it's important to recognize something essential about atheism:   Christians, Jews, Muslims and atheists have one thing in common.  They don't believe in gods .   Indeed, Christians were atheists for the first 400 years .  For the Roman and Greek pagans, the Jews and the Christians of the first centuries were pagans.  They had no God whose name others recognized.  They were "without" gods.  Even now, we Christians may seem like atheists in the eyes of people of other religions. It's very important to recognize that when Christians use the word God , we're not describing merely the exemplary among a class of things.  God isn't the apex of pantheon...

I was lamenting last night that the Church has become a dissected body, between enchanted and disenchanted folks. The enchanted world is the world of spirits, demons and moral forces our predecessors acknowledged.  Which is to say that the the enchanted world is often described as "the premodern world", as in "before the Enlightenment" and the technological and scientific revolutions that have resulted from it.  We've radically remolded the world and our relationship to it in ways that leave so little room for spirits, demons and miracles. The premodern, enchanted world was spooky.  Filled with occult forces, spirits, spells, superstitions and things that go bump in the night.  Ghosts, witches, demons, devils and monsters. By contrast, the modern world, especially in the West, is experienced as disenchanted.  Due to the amazing advances in science and technology over the last 500 years, instead of a spooky, spirit-filled world we've come to view th...

This image made its rounds on Facebook, particularly on pages that purport to defend the "New Atheism". I spend a lot of my time engaging in the ideas that these New Atheists put forward because, frankly, so much of what they have to say assumes Christianity to be of a particular sort.  Namely, Christian fundamentalism. Let me establish yet again:  I do not believe in the Bible.  I believe in the God of the Bible. That's not to say I think the Bible is unimportant.  The Bible is the unique prophetic and apostolic testimony of God in Jesus Christ.  As a testimony, the Bible therefore demands a great deal of study.  When I was ordained, I was asked:  "Will you be diligent in the reading and study of the Holy Scriptures, and in seeking the knowledge of such things as may make you a stronger and more able minister of Christ?"  I answered:  "I will".  And the rest of my life has been spent keeping that promise. Anyone who listens...

I suppose when Christians think about atheists -- if Christians think about atheists -- the face that comes to mind is someone more like Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkins or Peter Singer .  Men whose unbelief is -- at Dawkins himself once said -- "militant".  That, after all, is the image we get from movies like God's Not Dead .  This "New Atheism", though, is far from the faces of disbelief that I've seen over the years. Now, I have to admit that I'm probably an odd one.  I take guys like Freud and Nietzsche seriously.  Freud, for example, is famous ( infamous would be more accurate, at least among those Christians who've read him) for claiming that religious faith was the result of wishful thinking, a craving for consolation and solace.  That assessment has proved to be very potent.  Especially as honest people know there is evidence backing up the claim.  If it's true that "there's no atheist in foxholes", then ...

I've seen not a few Facebook posts over recent days about atheists -- how they're wrong, how to confront them in truth, how to defend against their "assaults".  And, each time, I'm tempted to ask:  Which God don't they believe in? Because, let's be honest:  To some folks I'm an atheist.  In much the same way that early Christians were called atheists by their Roman neighbors.  They refused to worship the deity of the emperor.  (How I wish the Religious Right still had that problem.)  Jurgen Moltmann once said, "It takes a faithful Christian to make a good atheist".  And he's right! A lot of my best friends are atheists, too. And for good reason.  This tends to be something lots of Christian apologists -- particularly conservatives -- miss.  All sorts of people refuse to believe in all sorts of gods for all sorts of reasons.  Theology, in many cases, comes down to biography  -- to the lives we live -- more so than to logic....

I've been seeing posts on Facebook over the past few weeks that attempt to deal, rather disturbingly I should add, with the New Atheism of guys like Richard Dawkins, Hitchins and others.  I tend not to say much about them because it's hard for me -- yes, I've read them -- to take them any more seriously than one takes a petulant six-grader who's made up his mind that he hates broccoli.  Without ever even given broccoli a fair chance.   But , since it seems important enough for Christians to say something about this New Atheism (as it brands itself), let me give this a try.  1.  These New Atheists don't like Christians.  They like Muslims even less.  They view us a people who like leprechauns, only worse.  Because people who like leprechauns are just ignoramuses.  We're warmongers and violent to the core.  We're terrorists.  (I guess that makes Presbyterians doubly a problem.  And, yes, that a Scottish joke.) That makes New Athe...

1.  Atheist:  "Your faith is unreasonable". Me:  " Your reason is unreasonable -- and you have such faith in your skepticism".   2.  Atheist:  "So, you've had a religious experience?" Me:  "What's that?  And what's it got to do with God?" 3.  Atheist:  "The Gospels contain inconsistencies A, B, and C". Me:  "You forgot X, Y, and Z". 4.  Atheist:  "Darwin made the argument for Design unintelligible". Me:  "Hume beat him to it". 5.  Atheist:  "Creationists are morons". Me:  "You're that smart?  I guess you want to add that I have blue eyes". 6.  Atheist:  "Theodicies are invariably unconvincing". Me:  "Worse than that -- theodicies are evil". 7.  Atheist:  "Prayer plainly doesn't work". Me:  "Thank God!" 8.  Atheist:  "Religion is the opium of the people; it's a crutch". Me:  "Science and technology are the cra...