My first article in the Crossring “Mark Marathon” has been published. It is entitled “Is Jesus Calling You Today?” and may be read here. The passage is Mark 1:14-20, although I spend most of the time dealing with the first couple of verses!
… Crossring’s coming back!
A few years ago I was involved with a site called Crossring, started up by a friend of mine called Simon. It was undoubtedly one of the best Christian websites around for young-ish people (I think it started off being aimed towards students, but we reached a lot of different people).
Anyway, due to no-one having the time to maintain it the website shut down, but come September 1st it will be back up again at the old address! Simon has asked me to write a few articles over the next few months – the initial series will be on Mark’s gospel. I’ve been busy writing the first one over the past week or so.
So, if you’re interested in Christian things, come 1st September do check it out – but in the meantime, if you’re a Twitter user you can follow the Crossring Twitter account for updates.
I’m currently watching Torchwood “Children of Earth” day four. It’s very interesting… but note that spoilers are contained within. So if you haven’t seen it yet, now would be a good time to stop reading ;)
The story so far: the 456 (or four-five-six, the aliens) have demanded 10% of the world’s children. It seems that they’re running some sort of protection racket: give us what we want, or we’ll wipe out your species. What I don’t quite understand is… if they want children so badly, why don’t they just wipe out the population and take them? If they do indeed have the power to wipe out everyone on the planet, why don’t they just do it?
I think they’re bluffing. But we’ll see!
One other thing about Torchwood I forgot to mention the other day which annoyed me. When Gwen was interviewing the doctor who wanted to join Torchwood, he said that one of the reasons he was interested was because of a woman who committed suicide. Apparently she was a devout Christian, and when she found out that aliens were real she couldn’t take it… “science had won”, she said. She realised that her place in the universe was, well, tiny. This annoyed me, because even if there were aliens, that would say nothing about the relationship between science and Christianity. It seemed bizarre – it was just perpetuating the myth that science and religion are in conflict. Lazy writing, in my opinion! Anyway, just a little rant.
I blame all this on Richard Dawkins and the so-called “new atheists”, they have a lot to answer for. Anyway, I’ll stop rambling on about Torchwood and science and stuff ;)
I’ve been having a discussion in the comments thread of Caity’s blog post on Kindness. The discussion revolves around the concept of morality: can we be ‘moral’ if there is no God?
My contention is that without the concept of God, there can be no absolute morals. By that I mean, no morals which would apply the world over. So, to take a topical example, suicide bombers could not be said to be acting immorally because they believe that it is right and moral for them to do so. There is no ultimate standard by which we can make value judgements on morality, therefore claiming that someone else’s action is immoral is actually illogical because you are only making judgements based on your own standard.
All of this hasn’t yet reached the point of Christian morality: all I’m doing is pointing out what I perceive to be inconsistencies in atheistic morals, and not defending Christianity as such.
However, Caity pointed out this quiz on Biblical morals, and I suggested that the writers of the quiz have got their theology wrong. She invited me to follow up this comment with something more detailed, so as a result that’s what I’m going to try and do.
… Now stop worrying and enjoy life. This is the slogan from the atheist bus campaign – although it’s been in the news for a while, it is starting today. It was brought to my attention my Anne-Marie’s excellent blog post earlier today.
I always found this statement to be quite funny. “Probably” no God? Most atheists I’ve talked with on the matter are more convinced than that. Although I believe the original wording was supposed to say something like ‘almost certainly’ but for some reason they had to change it. The other thing is, it implies that people who do hold religious conviction are worrying and not enjoying life. That doesn’t seem to be my experience – but maybe I’ll come onto that.
It does seem ironic that the bus campaign should be starting now, when we are in the midst of a financial crisis. The slogan brings to mind the parable of the rich fool. This parable tells the story of a man who was rich in this life, but spiritually poor. He selfishly stored up goods for himself, and didn’t worry about God.
Does this sound familiar? I think a lot of the problems we’re in have come from greed. Too many individuals and companies have acted greedily, trying to make as much money as possible. Storing up goods for themselves. The thing is, I think this is a consequence of not believing in God and “enjoying life”, as the bus campaign puts it. OK, so the financial crisis is a very exaggerated version of it, but it still remains that if there is no God and no accountability then people can pretty much behave exactly as they want and there are no repercussions other than what you might have in this life. So, really, if you’re the right kind of person you can get away with murder (sometimes literally), and there will be no justice.
I don’t think a message like that is going to go down too well in the current climate. And it certainly doesn’t provide a reason for us not to worry and enjoy life! But this is what I found interesting: immediately after the parable of the rich fool, Jesus says these famous words:
Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
…
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.”
That’s strange! People of religion are apparently worriers and don’t enjoy life. But Christians are told not to worry! That God will provide! (Surely a much more appropriate message given the financial situation). Of course, we are not promised riches, or lots of material goods – but we do at least have the hope of heaven, and that justice will be done (“will not the God of all the earth do right?”).
Jesus came not to make us feel guilty and force us to do things we don’t want to do. He came to liberate us, to give us hope. I think the Christian message is the most powerful message in the world, and it’s more relevant than ever. Hope is a powerful thing, and I think the atheist bus campaign is rather underestimating it.
Hmmm, this blog post has ended up being a tad different to how I envisioned it. Guess that’s why it’s a bit rambling and incoherent… like every other one of my blog posts :p Apologies to Anne-Marie for nicking her idea.
It’s been my experience that a lot of people who work in the IT and general technology sector are atheists. For example, The Register seems to adopt a fairly passive anti-religious tone in its articles (and a lot of the commenters follow suit, except they are usually less passive).
In technological circles particularly, bashing religion seems to be de rigeur. However, I’ve come across a lot of Christian people – some in fairly influential positions – who work in the field of IT and Computer Science. It is my contention that there are actually just as many Christians in IT as there are in other disciplines.
Here are a few people I’ve found. Some of them you may have heard of, some of them I’ve just sort of stumbled upon because I’ve been searching for something computer-related and browsed through the rest of their website, only to find out they were Christian!
I have found many such examples when searching the internet for help on computer-related problems, or browsing the biographies of famous programming people. Just goes to show, God loves everyone – even computer scientists!
I mentioned in a previous post the debate held between Christopher Hitchens and Alister McGrath. To be completely honest, I think Christopher Hitchens presented the more persuasive arguments – I think McGrath is more of a preacher and a writer than a debater! I just came across a series of letters (well, emails) between Christopher Hitchens and a theologian called Douglas Wilson.
In my opinion Douglas Wilson does a much better job of defending Christianity against Christopher Hitchen’s accusations!
I have yet to actually write a response to any of the atheist debates / articles I’ve read – mainly because there are so many already written! I might still get around to it someday, though…
Sam Harris is requesting people complete surveys on his website. You are requested to complete a survey (there’s more than one of them) if you are either (a) an atheist, (b) a dedicated Christian.
The reason I’m posting this here is because I think with a lot of these surveys, the only people who bother responding are (a) atheists, (b) Christians who I wouldn’t agree with on a lot of things.
I know there are a few Christians who read this blog who I do agree with on a lot of things, hopefully by filling out the surveys it will give them a more balanced view :-)
No, not me — I know I’m not normal! I’m talking about the program “Am I Normal” which aired on BBC2 last night. I managed to catch about the last two thirds of it. This is a brief synopsis of the programme:
Dr Tanya Byron explores what some consider the fine line between religious devotion and psychiatric disorder. She sees what happens when rational scientists try to analyse religious phenomena like Speaking in Tongues and Hearing Voices. And she considers the beliefs of faith healers who claim miracles happen, and those who believe they can cast out the malevolent spirits of the dead from within the living. (Source)
Now, although I didn’t see the entire programme, it did annoy me somewhat. The problem with these shows is the assumed atheism. The whole feeling I got from the show was, “let’s investigate these nutcases who call themselves Christians and show how unscientific and ridiculous it all is.” It was quite clear that the woman presenting the programme was highly skeptical of religion, and it came across.
The problem with these programmes, though, is not so much that they pick on Christianity – it’s more that they don’t present anyone making a good case for it. In what I saw of “Am I Normal” last night, they had a few examples of people talking about their experiences – but not one of them made anything like a case for why belief is rational. So, in other words, if someone was watching who was curious about Christianity, they’d probably be left with the feeling that we’re all a bunch of idiots with absolutely no rational grounds for belief whatsoever.
I feel particularly strong about this because of the talk we went to on Sunday night about the evidence for Jesus!
*sigh*
Ah well, if people want to find out about what Christianity actually is, there are plenty of options: Christianity Explored, for one.
The saddest part of the programme for me was the people hearing voices in their heads. She spoke to one who seemed to have a demonic voice in his head – he had been diagnosed as a schizophrenic. What saddened me was that he probably could have had help if he’d gone to a Christian counsellor. Sometimes problems of this nature are not purely mental – I believe there is a spiritual realm as well. I wish I could find a quote about this, it’s in one of my books, I might try and dig it out later!
Anyway, I think that’s enough ranting for now.
There’s been a bit of a debate recently about the blasphemy laws in this country. Various people have weighed in on both sides, with MPs wanting the law abolished but certain members of the Christian community wanting the ban to remain.
My opinion is that the law should be repealed. I think it’s pointless: who is it protecting? People who are not Christians have absolutely no obligation to abide by Christian rules. Of course, I believe that in a perfect world everybody would be Christian, but we’re not living in a perfect world and forcing people to not ‘blaspheme’ would do very little to help the reputation Christians already have!
The law these days seems to accomplish nothing except curtailing freedom of speech and should be abolished. If Christianity is so weak that we feel we need to defend it in the courts of this country, we have already lost. What we Christians need to be doing is showing people the grace and love of God, not hounding the BBC for showing the Jerry Springer opera!
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