Todd Friel, of Wretched Radio, went to a public college and discussed Christianity with a group.
Grill a Christian (Part 1)
Grill a Christian (Part 2)
Grill a Christian (Part 3)
Categories
Tag: skepticism
Categories
Doubting Dawkins
Atheism has made a huge leap into the public mind. It seems that, ever since 9-11, a new breed of Atheism has come of age. One poem in particular about being an Atheist produces a few questions in my mind:
If you are hungry, I will offer food.
If you are thirsty, I will offer water.
If you are cold, I will offer warmth.
If you are in need, ask and I will give.
If you are in trouble, ask and I will help.
I do not do these things in the hopes of being rewarded, or out of fear of being punished.
I do these things because I know them to be right.
I set my own standards and I alone enforce them.
I am an Atheist
How does an Atheist “know them to be right”? What is right? wrong?
Who is the arbitrator of what is right? The individual person? Society?
What if one society sees everyone else not like them as inferior and decides to pursue all other societies’ destruction? It’s right in one society’s eyes but not others.
What if one society decides to take in and nurture all helpless people, while another decides to end the lives of all the helpless? What makes one society virtuous while another horrendous?
What if a society, at one point in time, pursues justice for all, yet within 1 to 3 generations becomes corrupt and pursues self-interest alone and throws justice out in the street?
What constitutes virtue? horrendous action? justice? injustice? Who gets to define these ideals and why should I follow those ideals?
This way of thinking promotes people doing what is right in their own eyes.
If we are to pursue the full extent of Atheism, then we must follow the natural conclusion provided in the video below.
What hope is there? There is no hope. There is no reason for me to follow any laws or guidelines of society. Because there is no God, I will not be judged by God, even though I will be judged by society, and even then, society’s perception of good will change. And if that is the extent of my judgement, so what? And who cares?
Check the site out: http://www.doubtingdawkins.com/.
Doubt has changed the landscape of (American) Christendom. At one point, it was cool to question everything without trying to find real answers (Emergent anyone?). Although, this is certainly an overstated and simplistic view, the point still stands; I am not saying doubt is not a real issue, though.
Doubts are real
People are truly wrestling with the tension of what they have been taught and what they see and experience in real life.
Our society has moved from Modernism (“This is true”) to Post-Modernism (“Is this true?” “What is true for you is not true for me”) to a Neo-Modernism (“the answers I was given don’t hold enough weight for me to accept them”).
The answers are not failing as answers, however. I believe they are couched in the wrong verbiage. This does not mean we change the answers. We change how the answers are expressed.
I am not advocating the dumbing down of our answers. We are not talking with five year olds. We are talking to adults who have potentially faith-alleviating doubts.
I am advocating the rewording of our answers in a thoughtful, meaningful, and concerned way.
Modernism was a double-edged sword
Modernism was a blessing and a curse. The silver bullet approach to answering skeptics years ago has lost its effectiveness. Those answers are shrugged off like water off a duck’s back.
Many reasons attribute to this. One significant reason is biblical illiteracy. But more to the point, foundations for the “silver bullet” answers of yesteryear have disappeared. The building blocks which establish the answers have been eroding beyond recognition or have been completely dropped out of the collective discussion.
In other words, we are somewhat used to giving a simple answer to a question and people accepting that answer (whatever it is), but that was because the groundwork for the answer was already laid because biblical literacy was more common then than now.
The Solution
The issue is immensely complex. The solutions are even more complexly difficult to implement. But here is a starting point for furthering the discussion:
- Prayer ala Mark 9:14-29 – “Why weren’t our answers to the questions good enough?” 29 And he said to them, “This question cannot be answered by anything but prayer.”
- Time – We need to spend a TON of time with those who have the questions
- Effort – We need to demonstrate our love for others in the difficult process of digging for answers
- Build Biblical Literacy – We need to construct anew the foundation for our answers
What do you have to add?