I used to have a teacher in Bible school. He had a long, crazy history as an evangelist.
One of those people that is passionate about spreading the gospel, and lived his life with no apparent fear. Anytime he approached an atheist he would tell them - "thats impossible, there's no such thing as an atheist." His reasoning was that an atheist believes that there is no god, no anything. That, in and of itself is a belief. Therefore you believe in something, and thus - you cant be an atheist.
Hard to argue with, and very clever. I can just see an atheist who hears this turning their eyes into a stare while they process.
I found a video blog on youtube this week by a guy named Pat. He is an atheist. He really made me think about things. Pat is anti-religion. He believes that all organized religion is nothing but a system of devised values used to entrench people with fear and create a stranglehold of power for the select clergy. Truthfully, its hard to argue with that. Pat has become one of my favorite video blogs to watch because he speaks the truth. I have heard more sense from him recently than I have heard from a lot of Christians.
"But from the mouth of an atheist?"
Yes.
"Are you becoming an atheist Sean?"
Hmmm..
Just kidding, of course not.
In fact, my faith in God is stronger now than ever before. His views seem to re-affirm my faith. The sad thing is that I agree with many of the things he says. He stated quite clearly during one of his very entertaining monologues that "If Jesus really was real, and was as compassionate and caring as he was shown to be like in the bible, if he returned tomorrow he may just be ashamed at the way his followers have acted on his behalf"
If this is not the crying out of a world in desperate pain, I don't know what is.
Of course, many "christians" who watched the blog, responded that week to him with death threats, curse words, threatening scripture verses, fire and brimstone. In fact one guy taped himself on youtube praying for Pat.
Nice.
Do we respond that way because the truth hurts? Why are we so offended if he doesn't believe in God anyway?
I am not by any means remotely close to being a perfect christian - and can someone define what that is anyway? Marci is always telling me I need more compassion and this is true.
I feel compassion for Pat. I feel he is lost. I emailed him and told him I enjoy his blog and that I would really like to have a beer with him one day. He seems like a fun guy, and I'm sure we'd have a great time. I'd like Pat to know who the real Jesus is one day. Not what our "religions" have made him out to be. Jesus simply came to earth and just walked. People were drawn to him, all he ever asked any of his disciples to do is follow and learn. Why can't we as a church be more like that? Where did we lose this along the way? I know some of you may respond that we need to "fight for our rights as believers, defend our faith" and this is all true. But all the "religion" in the world never won a sole except though love, peace and compassion.
If you would like to view Pat's blog, let me know in the comments field, and I will email you the link.
Sean.
2 comments:
Lots of food for thought here Sean.
Well written.
Lots of love,
Mom S
i know this is mostly a family blog – but i enjoyed this post and it prompted a few thoughts of my own... so I hope you don’t mind me posting my ramblings :-)
i might suggest that that your professor friend is playing a semantic trick that doesn't really resonate with the personal experience of the atheist - and certainly doesn't validate it. they do have a faith, but the definition of an atheist is one who believes that God does not exist, or one who rejects theism. so if not "ah-theist", what would your professor friend name as their faith? :-) fwiw: I've noted that atheists’ are fond of engaging us mono-theist with the statement, "I only believe in one less god than you". that is, "you reject all god's but one, correct? i reject just one more". its an interesting point, of commonality, if we can choose to see it that way.
i'm sure you've noticed in the last few years a resurgence of atheist in the limelight - publishing books, and openly debating those theists among us (of all the major religions) who are willing to face them (Reza Aslan, and Islamic scholar, is among my favorites to argue on "our" behalf). listening to their complaints and engaging with them, as I feel called to do, often becomes a humbling experience. many are quite thoughtful and skilled at engaging in dialogue. but some appear to be as fundamentalist as those of any religion - and can be identified as those without a sense of humor. fortunately, we Christians always maintain our sense of humor ;-)
these atheists are coming together and becoming more vocal because, like homosexuals, i think they have been much maligned in this country, by the dominant majority. us. of course we all say & think that we believe in & have religious freedom - but what do you think the odds are of say, electing an Islamic president this year? labeling Barack as a Muslim would be pointless if that wasn't a problem for us. likewise an atheist has no chance of being elected president. i'm not asking you to elect anyone btw, i'm only asking you to try to wear those shoes for a moment. what was that Jesus was saying about the "least of these"? meh, never mind... i'm sure it wasn't anything important ;-)
anyway, I too have been following an atheist blog for some now, "memoirs of an ex Christian". and like you, i've experienced some of most incisive critiques of Christianity (and i guess in particular, critiques of religion or "christian culture") out there - often more honest (with a willingness to "go there") than what we hear from preachers on Sunday morning. my friend lives in South Africa :-), but if he and his wife ever find themselves in the US, you can bet we will offer them a guest speaking opportunity at our service. like you, i find i agree with many of my atheist friends thoughts. they don't destroy my faith at all.
if they did destroy my faith - it wouldn't be faith... it'd be a proof.
which i think is my main point. one of the places i think western religion has gone wrong - is that we place too much stock in knowing facts, or having the right facts, in the right order sometimes, and in the building of logical hierarchy of these facts - until we end up with proofs. and because our religion is founded on this kind of (ummm, modern, scientific) methodology we end up being threatened when we find out... say, that the earth rotates around the sun.... something as ridiculous as that - (what does this possibly have to do with the Gospel / Jesus Redemptive Act???) - yet these points become critical to a certain kind of theology.
now I would argue that ultimately (despite what our head tells us) these facts have nothing to do with our (yours and my) 'faith' because Christianity has survived Copernicus / Galileo quite well. but the initial reactions - those very unChristlike reactions - end up being destructive in the time being. which is not unlike what Islam (which means 'peace') is coping with today.
the question i have is: how do we shore up those among us who have lost the forest for the sake of the tree?? Christians who don't love. (Muslims who are not peaceful). each of us examining the beam in our own eye. ??
grace & peace
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