I have attempted to find a tasteful way to state something about myself. However, I can’t. So, I am simply going to say it: I read in the bathroom.
I believe this habit (which many of you will find disgusting and a sign of my admittedly coarse manners) traces itself back to my parent’s subscription to Reader’s Digest. A great part of my formal education came from that magazine and I am deeply indebted to its editors.
Recently I finished a book which I began two years ago. The length of time required to complete the book could be related to several factors… all of which I refuse to go into in this public format. However, it is sufficient to say that the book has been a good companion.
Philosophy for Beginners by Richard Osborne, started out well, but ended in a rather confused state. This probably has something to do with the content itself. Philosophy back in the day of Heraclitus (“You cannot step into the same river twice”), Socrates and Plato may have been mistaken but it was understandable. By the time you get to Roland Barthes (“All reality is myth, a form of narrative”), Jacques Derrida and Jean-Paul Sartre, philosophy became a bit dense for my limited capabilities.
Still, even for me, it has been easy to understand that one of the biggest mega-trends of secular philosophy of the last two centuries has been the idea that God is no longer the source of truth. During my travels last year I was amazed at how many popular books about Atheism were for sale in airports throughout the world. Through best-sellers by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens the world was informed that God hasn't made Himself known because, according to them, there is no one there to be made known.
Even though these popular books are currently jumping off the airport bookstands, the “Golden Age of Atheism” really took place over two hundred years ago with the French Revolution. Around that time Voltaire suggested the attractiveness of Atheism was in direct relation to the corruption of the major Christian institutions. I wonder if he wasn’t right. Popular interest in Atheism today probably has more to do with a general failure by Christians to live as real disciples than any innate desire by people to become “frothing-at-the-mouth-atheists.”
Even though Marx is generally thought of in the political and economic realm, he was primarily a philosopher. Marx felt that ideas and values are determined by the material realities of life. He also felt that religion eases pain by creating a fantasy world where people can hide from their sorrows.
I don’t know about you, but I do not believe Christianity is a place where I can lose myself in my fantasies and experience no difficulties. In fact, when I think about it, a lot of the pain I have experienced in life is a direct result of being a Christian. I have been forced to face difficult and hard issues in my own life through my walk with Jesus. If I hadn’t been a Christian I would have experienced other problems. However, I cannot agree with Marx (even if he did have a great hair style) that Christianity is a free pass from reality.
Freud was a philosopher disguised as a psychiatrist. For him religion was an illusion that draws its strength from our instinctual desires. Also, as an atheist, he felt that religion was dangerous. While he was alive many accepted Freud’s criticisms of religion because they seemed scientific. My guess is that acceptance of Freud’s thoughts had more to do with people wanting to escape the reality of their own sinfulness than their sudden embrace of science as their favorite subject in school.
Now, having said all this, I have to confront a painful reality about myself… once again.
It seems to me that in some deep, dark part of my life I wish the atheists were right. I would feel more shame about this confession except that I believe the same is true for all of us.
Every time I decide to follow my own will rather than submit to God’s I have shown myself to be a practical atheist. Every time I choose not to trust Him with my needs, I prove the weakness of my faith. In the moment I hide in my room with my un-confessed sin, like Adam in the garden, and hope that He will not come calling my name, I am no different from non-believers who have come before me.
The fact is, it would be easy for me to look down my rather prominent nose at authors like Dawkins and Hitchens except for the fact that they are open about the disbelief that I often try to disguise in my sin.
Fortunately, the reality of God’s existence has nothing to do with my beliefs, non-belief or propensity to sin. He exists in His own right. He always has and He always will.
In His interactions with His own creation, God has made a career out of dealing with practical “non-believers” like me.
Back in a day when His people had mixed true belief about God with other religions and philosophies, He told the prophet Amos, “If they dig deep into the earth or climb to the sky, I'll reach out and get them. If they escape to the peaks of Mount Carmel, I'll search and find them. And if they hide from me at the bottom of the ocean, I'll command a sea monster to bite them… When the LORD God All-Powerful touches the earth, it melts, and its people mourn.” (Amos 9)
It seems to me that if my last name was Dawkins or Hitchens or even Roland, it might be worthwhile to look over the shoulder for what could bite us in the seat of our pants. There is no place to hide from a God who really exists no matter what we might have read in our more private moments.
I believe this habit (which many of you will find disgusting and a sign of my admittedly coarse manners) traces itself back to my parent’s subscription to Reader’s Digest. A great part of my formal education came from that magazine and I am deeply indebted to its editors.
Recently I finished a book which I began two years ago. The length of time required to complete the book could be related to several factors… all of which I refuse to go into in this public format. However, it is sufficient to say that the book has been a good companion.
Philosophy for Beginners by Richard Osborne, started out well, but ended in a rather confused state. This probably has something to do with the content itself. Philosophy back in the day of Heraclitus (“You cannot step into the same river twice”), Socrates and Plato may have been mistaken but it was understandable. By the time you get to Roland Barthes (“All reality is myth, a form of narrative”), Jacques Derrida and Jean-Paul Sartre, philosophy became a bit dense for my limited capabilities.
Still, even for me, it has been easy to understand that one of the biggest mega-trends of secular philosophy of the last two centuries has been the idea that God is no longer the source of truth. During my travels last year I was amazed at how many popular books about Atheism were for sale in airports throughout the world. Through best-sellers by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens the world was informed that God hasn't made Himself known because, according to them, there is no one there to be made known.
Even though these popular books are currently jumping off the airport bookstands, the “Golden Age of Atheism” really took place over two hundred years ago with the French Revolution. Around that time Voltaire suggested the attractiveness of Atheism was in direct relation to the corruption of the major Christian institutions. I wonder if he wasn’t right. Popular interest in Atheism today probably has more to do with a general failure by Christians to live as real disciples than any innate desire by people to become “frothing-at-the-mouth-atheists.”
Even though Marx is generally thought of in the political and economic realm, he was primarily a philosopher. Marx felt that ideas and values are determined by the material realities of life. He also felt that religion eases pain by creating a fantasy world where people can hide from their sorrows.
I don’t know about you, but I do not believe Christianity is a place where I can lose myself in my fantasies and experience no difficulties. In fact, when I think about it, a lot of the pain I have experienced in life is a direct result of being a Christian. I have been forced to face difficult and hard issues in my own life through my walk with Jesus. If I hadn’t been a Christian I would have experienced other problems. However, I cannot agree with Marx (even if he did have a great hair style) that Christianity is a free pass from reality.
Freud was a philosopher disguised as a psychiatrist. For him religion was an illusion that draws its strength from our instinctual desires. Also, as an atheist, he felt that religion was dangerous. While he was alive many accepted Freud’s criticisms of religion because they seemed scientific. My guess is that acceptance of Freud’s thoughts had more to do with people wanting to escape the reality of their own sinfulness than their sudden embrace of science as their favorite subject in school.
Now, having said all this, I have to confront a painful reality about myself… once again.
It seems to me that in some deep, dark part of my life I wish the atheists were right. I would feel more shame about this confession except that I believe the same is true for all of us.
Every time I decide to follow my own will rather than submit to God’s I have shown myself to be a practical atheist. Every time I choose not to trust Him with my needs, I prove the weakness of my faith. In the moment I hide in my room with my un-confessed sin, like Adam in the garden, and hope that He will not come calling my name, I am no different from non-believers who have come before me.
The fact is, it would be easy for me to look down my rather prominent nose at authors like Dawkins and Hitchens except for the fact that they are open about the disbelief that I often try to disguise in my sin.
Fortunately, the reality of God’s existence has nothing to do with my beliefs, non-belief or propensity to sin. He exists in His own right. He always has and He always will.
In His interactions with His own creation, God has made a career out of dealing with practical “non-believers” like me.
Back in a day when His people had mixed true belief about God with other religions and philosophies, He told the prophet Amos, “If they dig deep into the earth or climb to the sky, I'll reach out and get them. If they escape to the peaks of Mount Carmel, I'll search and find them. And if they hide from me at the bottom of the ocean, I'll command a sea monster to bite them… When the LORD God All-Powerful touches the earth, it melts, and its people mourn.” (Amos 9)
It seems to me that if my last name was Dawkins or Hitchens or even Roland, it might be worthwhile to look over the shoulder for what could bite us in the seat of our pants. There is no place to hide from a God who really exists no matter what we might have read in our more private moments.
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