There is a God: Flew

Time Magazine in April of 1980 wrote

"In a quiet revolution in thought and argument that hardly anyone would have foreseen only two decades ago, God is making a comeback. Most intriguingly this is happening... in the crisp intellectual circles of academic philosophers."

Katharine Tait (Bertrand Russell's daughter) writes in 'My Father, Bertrand Russell':

"I would have liked to convince my father that I had found what he had been looking for, the ineffable something he had longed for all his life. I would have liked to persuade him that the search for God does not have to be vain. But it was hopeless. He had known too many blind Christians, bleak moralists who sucked the joy from life and persecuted their opponents; he would never have been able to see the truth they were hiding."

She goes on to say:

"My father's whole life was a search for God... Somewhere at the back of my father's mind, at the bottom of his heart, in the depths of his soul, there was an empty space that had once been filled by God, and he never found anything else to put in it. He had the ghost like feeling of not belonging, of having no home in this world."

In a poignant passage, Russell once said:

"Nothing can penetrate the loneliness of the human heart except the highest intensity of the sort of love the religious teachers have preached."

The excesses and atrocities of organized religion have no bearing whatsoever on the existence of God, just as the threat of nuclear proliferation has no bearing on the question of whether E=mc2

Socrates in the Republic is quoted by Plato as saying

'We must follow the argument wherever it may lead.'

Why God Won't Go Away: quotes from New Atheists

The Economist which had been 'so confident of the Almighty's demise that we published his obituary in our milliennium issue', rather inconveniently found itself bliged to issue a correction in 2007. Religion is back in public life and public debate.

the term New Atheism was invented in 2006

Michael Shermer, executive director of Skeptics Society affirms that religion has been implicated in some dreadful human tragedies 'however for every one of these grand tragedies there are ten thousand acts of personal kindness and social good that go unreported... Religion, like all social institutions of such historical depth and cultural impact, cannot be reduced to an unambiguous good or evil.'

If evolution is indeed a random process how can we speak of 'accidental' or 'inintended' outcomes?


Sam Harris:

The first chapter of Sam Harris' book makes clear that he dislikes certain forms of religion intensely, sadly what follows it reveal that he doesnt really know very much about them. And by the end of the book you have to wonder if the plausibility of his argument depends largely on his readers sharing his abhorrence and lack of understanding.

He says 'some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them.'
-McGrath 'The Inquisition, the Gestapo, the Taliban and the KGB could not have put it better.'

Richard Dawkins:
Four days after the 9/11 attackes dawkins wrote: 'To fill a world with religion, or religions of the Abrahamic kind, is like littering the streets with loaded guns. Don't be surprised if they're used.'

'Faith is blind trust, in the abscence of evidence, even in the teeth of evidence.'

Religion is a 'brilliantly successful virus' that contiminates even the best minds. (called 'memes' by Dawkins)

-McGrath 'since there's no evidence for memes, does that mean there's a meme that causes us to believe in them?'

'A claim to knowledge needs to be substantiated; ignorance need only be confessed.'

Christopher Hitchens

The meta-narrative of Hitchens is essentially 'those who entertain religious belief are deluded and hence potentially dangerous to society at large.'

Jonathan Edwards died of Small Pox, such was his commitment to trying to use scientific methods to cure disease.

Schaeffer: The God who is there

'Only Christianity of all the world's religions has produced a real interest in man. Buddhism, Islam or Hinduism could never have produced idealistic communism because they do not have a sufficient interest in the individual.

Christianity is not romantic it is realistic

We should be pleased that the romanticism of yesterday has been destroyed. In many ways this makes our task of presenting Christianity to modern man easier than it was for our forefathers.

To fail that we we take truth seriously at those points where there is a cost in our doing so, is to push the next generation into the relative, dialectical millstream that surrounds us. (push the next generation into quagmire of relativity?)

We should not only have a concern and genuine compassion for the lost people among whom we live but also a concern for our God. We are his people, and if we get caught up in the other methodology, we have really blasphemed, discredited and dishonoured him - for the greatest antithesis of all is that God exists as opposed to his not existing; he the God who is there.

To say that God communicates truly does not mean that God communicates exhaustively.

The Dilemma of man:

Modern man is desperately struggling with the concept of man in his dilemma. Most of the paintings of the crucifixion today, (1968) Salvador Dali's for example, are not of Christ dying on the cross in history. They are using the Christ-symbol to exhibit man in agony.
Of course, it is possible to try not to get involved in man's dilemma; but the only way not to get involved in the dilemma of man is by being young enough, having money enough, and being egotistic enough to care nothing about other human beings.

Albert Camus' book 'The Plague'. The story is about a plague brought by rats into the city of Oran at the beginning of the second world war. Camus confronts the reader with a serious choice: either he must join the doctor and fight the plague, in which case, says Camus, he will then also be fighting God; or he can join with the priest and not fight the plague, and thus be antihumanitarian.

Men turn away in order not to bow before the God who is there. This is the scandal of the cross.

Modern theology uses the term 'guilt' but because it is not orientated in a true moral framework, it turns out to be no more than guilt-feelings.

There is an opposite danger: that the orthodox Christian will fail to realize that at times guilt-feelings are present when no true guilt exists. Let us remember that the Fall resulted in division not only between God and man, and man and man but between man and himself.

Christianity says that man is now abnormal - he is seperated from his Creator, who is his only sufficient reference point - not by a metaphysical limitation, but by true moral guilt.

God's answer to man's dilemma:

The standards of morality are determined by what conforms to his character, while those things which do not conform are immoral.

Nobody has ever discovered a way of having real 'morals' without a moral absolute. If there is no moral absolute, we are left with hedonsim (doing what I like) or some form of the social contract theory (what is best for society as a whole is right). However, neither or these alternatives corresponds to the moral motions that men have. Talk to people long enough and deeply enough, and you will find that they consider some things are really right and some things are really wrong.

A Christian can fight what is wrong in the world with compassion and know that he hates these things, God hates them too. God hates them to the high price of the death of Christ.

If it is true that evil is evil, that God hates it to the point of the cross, and that there is a moral law fixed in what God is in himself, then Christians should be the first in the field against what is wrong - including man's inhumanity to man.

Euangelion: News or Advice?

Euangelion. (u-an-gell-eon)

It's the word the Bible writers' used to described the Christian message. It's a Greek word, they spoke Greek. It means 'Good news'.

Have you ever thought (or understood) that Christianity is essentially news. It isn't advice, it's a report of something that's happenned. Advice tells you 'do this and you'll be happier' or 'try this and you can be better.' ADVICE is offered and rejected, ADVICE can be taken or left, news is different. NEWS is static, NEWS reports, NEWS isn't concerned primarily with your response but with the facts of what's happened.

Here's some Bible quotes that back that up:

Peter talking to the crowd on Pentecost 'You handed him over to be crucified but on the third day God raised him to life.' NEWS

Paul tells his closest friend 'Christ Jesus died for sinner's of whom I'm the worst' NEWS

John tells the religious leaders 'There is no other name under heaven given to men by which they must be saved' NEWS

Paul writes to a church 'Jesus defeated the powers of darkness and triumphed over them at the cross.' NEWS

NEWS, NEWS, NEWS... Our world is full of news. We have 24hr news channels, daily newspapers, news apps. on our phones and news bulletins on the radio.

Some pieces of news lasts for only a day (like the fact that George McCullen won first place in the school cake baking contest), some pieces lasts for a few weeks (like the suicide of a prominent politician), whilst some pieces of news dominates our papers for years (like the death of Princess Diana). It is BIG news this week that Osama Bin Laden is dead and we're told it'll change the world quite considerably. News plays a big part in our lives. Good news travels especially fast:

'It's a boy!'

'She said yes!'

When Riley arrived in the world I delivered the news to my family and friends and my life has never been the same since. The event of his birth has set my life in a new direction. I have a new routine, a new priority and even a new name 'dad'.

The Christian piece of news that has been talked about throughout history, the world over is this:

'Jesus has beaten death, our shortcomings have been forgiven, God is offering friendship and new life to all who want it.'

The event of Jesus' resurrection is one of the most historically verifiable events of all time. The implications of that event are innumerable; life, the history of the world, the purpose of our lives have been set in an entirely new direction.

That's the difference that news can make.

The next time you're tempted to think that Christianity is basically about behaving well or living right or that the church exists to tell people what to do, stop and remember:

Christianity is good news, not good advice.

Do Hard Things: C3 Failure to Launch

Proverbs 20:29 'The glory of young men is their strength.'
1 Corinthians 9:24-25 'Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that won't last but we do it to get a crown that will.'

2005 Time magazine coined the term 'Kidults' to refer to adolescents in their mid to late twenties and beyond. These are full grown men and women who still live with their parents, who dress and talk and party like they did when they were in their teen years, hopping from job to job, date to date, having fun but seemingly going nowhere.

Diving boards have a sweet spot. Hit it and it will propel you into the pool effortlessley. The trouble is too many of us think we're sitting by the poolside relaxing, waiting until we reach some magic age that will propel us, waiting until something to change us. We are in fact on the diving board and our future is fast becoming our present.

J.C Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men 'Youth is the seed-time of full age, the molding season in the little space of human life, the turning-point in the history of man's mind.

It has been said of George Washington that he 'became the man he strove to be.' The trouble is that very few of us strive to be anything very much.

FIVE HARD THINGS:
1) Things that are outside your comfort zone.
2) Things that go beyond what is expected or required.
3) Things that are too big to accomplish alone.
4) Things that don't earn an immediate payoff.
5) Things that challenge the cultural norm.

Psalm 66: Misc. comments

v1 God shall show himself to be the God not of Jews oly but of Gentiles also; these shall as well cry Christ as those 'Jesus'; these say 'Father' as those 'Abba'. And as there was great joy in Samaria when the gospel was there received so shall there be the like in all other parts of the earth. John Trapp

v3 Say something. There is more required than to think of God. Consideration, meditation, contemplation upon God and divine objects, have their place and their season; but this is more than that and mroe than admiration too; for all these may come to an end in ecstasies, and in stupidities, and in useless and frivolous imaginations. John Donne.

Psalm 66: Thanking God for yesterday, today and tomorrow
yesterday - 5-7
Today - 8-9
Future - 4

Psalm 66: Spurgeon

v1 the languages of the lands are many, but their praises should be one, addressed to one only God.

v2 to honour God should be our subject, and to honour him our object when we sing. To give glory to God is but to restore to him his own.

Heart worship and spiritual joy render praise more glorious than vestments, incense, and music could do.

v3 Until we see God in Christ, the terrible predominates in all our apprehensions of him.

Power brings a man to his knee, but love alone wins his heart.

v4 Acceptable worship not only praises God as the mysterious Lord, but it is rendered fragrant by some measure of knowledge of his name or character.

...expected by the writer of this psalm; and indeed, throughout all Old Testmanet writings, there are intimations of the future general spread of the worship of God.

Perverted Judasim may be exclusive, but the religion of Moses and David and Isaiah was not so.

v5 such glorious events, as the cleaving of the Red Sea and the overthrow of Pharaoh, are standing wonders, and throughout all time a voice sounds forth concerning them 'come and see.'

..this same God liveth and is to be worshipped with trembling reverence.

v6 it is to be remarked that Israel's joy was in her God and there let ours be. It is not so much what he has done, as what he is, that should excite in us a sacred rejoicing.

v7 he has not deceased, nor abdicated, nor suffered defeat. The prowess displayed at the Red Sea is undiminished: the divine dominion endures throughout eternity.

After a survey of the Red Sea and Jordan, rebels, if they were in their senses, would have no more stomach for the fight but would humble themselves at the Conqueror's feet.

v9 at any time the preservation of life and especilly the soul's life is a great reason for gratitude but much more when we are called to undergo extreme trials whici of themselves would crush our being.

v10 God has one son without sin but he never had a son without trial.

Since trial is sanctified to so desirable an end, ought we not to submit to it with abounding resignation.

v11 As in Egypt every Israelite was a burden bearer, so is every believer while he in in this foreign land.

We too often forget that God lays our afflictions upon us; if we remembered this fact, we should more patiently submit to the pressure which now pains us.

v12 Many an heir of heaven has had a dire experience of tribulation; the fire through which he has passed has been more terrible than that which chars the bones, for it has fed upon the marrow of his spirit, and burned into the core of his heart; while the waterfloods of affliction have been even more to be feared than the remorseless sea, for they have gone in even unto the soul, and carried the inner nature down into deeps horrible, and not to be imagined without trembling. Yet each saint has been more than conqueror hitherto, and, as it has been, so it shall be.

v13 The child of God is so sensible of his own personal indebtedness to grace that he feels that he must utter a song of his own.

v15 he who is miserly with God is a wretch indeed

In these three verses we have gratitude in action, not content with words, but proving its own sincerity by deeds of obedient sacrifice.

v16 Before they were bidden to come and see. Hearing is faith's seeing.

v17 Since the Lord's answers so frequently follow close at the heels of our petitions, and even overtake them, it becomes us to let our grateful praises keep pace with our humbles prayers.

Those who are least fluent with their tongues are often the most eloquent with their hearts.

v18 If you refuse to hear God's commands, he will surely refuse to hear they prayers.