Doubting...
If you are at either end of the belief spectrum
(see a short reply), I'm sort of stunned you made it
this far. That is, if you KNOW there is no god - or if you know there is
one, true God and know the one correct way to understand the Bible, etc. - why
are you bothering?
If you are not completely closed-minded with
regards to things like the existence of God, the nature of religion, etc., I
would like to respond to Mr. Jager's paragraph:
"The problem I see with religion is that it
passes on information from generation to generation and believed as fact that
does not make any sense. Virgin births, rising from the dead, living in the
belly of a fish for three days and three nights, talking snakes, talking asses,
talking to invisible beings (praying) and the sun standing still in the sky just
does not make any sense -- yet it is believed by millions of Christians. People
who talk to, or hear invisible beings talking to them are delusional and should
be in a mental hospital, yet Christians who talk to, or hear invisible beings
talk to them are sane? What is wrong with this picture?Millions of Christians
constantly beg (pray) for special favors from their invisible friends. Yet, all
that begging has not ended hunger, poverty, wars, or stopped any disasters (man
made, or natural)."
as well as to the kinds of things you are likely to encounter
on atheist or free-thinking sites.
My main observation is that this kind of argument should be
persuasive ONLY if you already have decided there is no god and have no interest
in exploring the issue further. So the paragraph would seem to serve no
purpose. There are four points that the paragraph implies:
- Religion is passed on from generation-to-generation.
Well, so are science, morality, music, etc. I find it analogous to learning
about love - we ask and watch our parents for information, we reject most of
it, we re-learn their lessons, we pass them on. Like love, some of our
parents may have warped views and pass them on - doesn't mean that love
doesn't exist or is evil.
- Miracles are unbelievable. This is what we call
circular logic: God is impossible -> miracles are impossible -> God is
impossible. Once you drop the premise and consider the possibility of a
Creator God - how can you accept that as a possibility and then deny a
specific miracle? But let's consider evolution... Now I tend to
think that science has it right - the world is older than implied by the Old
Testament and man was a relatively recent innovation. You can be (I
am) a Christian and still believe that the Bible has great value - I view
the creation story as a useful analogy. I also have no problem with
someone who believes the story literally - my Creator God is incapable of
creating the world with a created fossil record that helps us learn about
the possibilities of evolution? I see no evidence that Jesus cares
about my beliefs on the literal truth of the Bible, my views on creation, or
any of the miracles Mr. Jager sites. I do know that all of the Bible
stories have things to teach me - if only I am willing to listen.
- Invisible "friends" - This is another use of BAD
logic (someone help me with the Latin term). Johnny exhibits behavior
A and is insane, Mary exhibits behavior A, therefore Mary is insane.
More fundamentally, this drastically misstates the relationship most
Christians have with God. Talking to God is 99% prayer - see
below. Hearing God happens in many, many ways - probably the least
common is actually hearing God speak directly to you. Most people
"hear" God by reading the Bible, by experiencing nature, by
looking at the situation more thoroughly and with thought as to how one's
behavior might contribute to or help diminish a given problem, by
re-examining motives, through dreams, etc. And if you want to say that
it is not God but my subconscious mind that answers me - well, Thank God for
my subconscious mind and for answering me through it!
- Prayer is useless - it does not work. I guess surgery
is worthless - people still die. More importantly, this misunderstands
the nature of prayer. God knows what we want before we do -
prayer is not for His benefit or to suggest what He should do (does Mr.
Jager envision that those who pray are like the nagging spouse -
"Honey, could you pick up... Could you..."?). Prayer does
the following things:
a) Focus our thoughts on what is important and our role in accomplishing it.
("Please let me pass this test" is
answered more frequently when we study!)
b) Provide a moment to slow down and reflect.
c) Open our minds to the possibilities of miracles and answered prayers.
d) Encourages humility.
e) Encourages feeling thankful for what we do have.
f) Reminds us that no matter how bad things get (no matter how many prayers
go unanswered),
there is hope - there are lessons to be learned - we should
prepare for and be ready to accept
the next good thing.
g) Encourages us to be honest with ourselves (and God).
Mr. Jager and others have used events like 9/11 to question
Christians - and think the question is unanswerable. Well, in a sense it
is - Christians are taught that trying to understand God is (understandably!)
difficult / foolish - and that judging God is just plain wrong. But we are
given LOTS of models to help us understand. God may be working through
history to change the world - we see examples of that throughout the Old
Testament. God is available to provide comfort - to those who went through
the experience and to survivors. God allows humans free will - and to
experience the consequences. Christians are called to forgive and to try
to understand how our actions and inactions may have contributed to the evil in
the world. It seems to me that Christians have a much richer framework in
which to understand and react to events like 9/11 than do
atheists...
email me at doug@hardts.net
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