Why I "was" angry at atheists

As a Christian I'm getting upset.  Really really upset.  So upset I'm blocking some people on my Facebook. That's how crazy upset I am.

Why?

Because of images like this:

Not pictured: Mr Christian is not impressed

Every time I see these kinds of pictures floating around the internet - conclusive, simplistic proof that religion generally is a bunch of malarkey.  Boom! Religion bested in one quick round.

So of course every time I see these kinds of pics/memes/etc show up the internet I immediately feel defeated and throw away my bible, denounce my God and go do something useful, like binge watch Game of Thrones on Netflix.

Wait! no actually I feel something else.

I feel angry.

Really angry.  Not because I'm threatened by their argument.  Not because I feel the need to defend God.  But because you fundamentally belittle me, by taking the most fundamental belief I have and reducing it to a glib image byte.

Actually the image probably doesn't annoy me as much as the 10.2k comments and likes of people who readily agree and use it as their "take that" to religious people.

And really that is quite disheartening.  I don't like the school yard bullying of those that seem to be able to shout the loudest.  Their gloating and flippant argument sound loudly over everyone else.  Like an unruly mob everyone joins in and the shouting gets louder.

If there was a real discussion going on - thoughtful, insightful, then lets discuss it.  Bring it on.  I'm always open for discussion.

But don't treat me like an indoctrinated sheep, dumb and dogmatic.  That's not who I am.  I'm not leaning blindly on what I've been taught, through kindergarten, or through by religious teachers feeding me deliberate misinformation, desperately hiding the truth at every turn.

In fact throughout my whole life I've been schooled by people who are in the very essence, searching for truth themselves.  They have found it.  In the God of the Bible.  These are not clergy growing fat in an outdated institution. Far from it.  They are men and women, of independent mind and will.  They have discovered the beauty of God and the revelation of His word.

I’m not an idiot.  Don’t treat me like one. So why do your arguments sound like your treating me like one?  I suppose on one level it’s easy to join in the taunts.  And we seem to be hung up the creation of the universe argument right now.  Which as I said before, I admit we are missing the point with. But I continue to take it in my stride.  The daily snarky comments and memes.  And the more I try to ignore it, to put it aside, the more it bothers me for some reason.  As I think about it.  Study it, watch it bombard me, I’ve changed from being angry like I once was.  Slowly my righteous anger changes to a quiet pity. What I see is a daily rejection of God and a group reassurance that your off doing your own thing, your own way and nothing can stop you.  The more I see it, the more it feels like children rejecting their parents.  “I don’t need a helmet Dad!” I’ve grown up in a Christian family all my life.  I have no idea what it must be like to be without God.  Without knowing His truth, and His plan. Is that scary for you guys?  Being out in the world on your own?  We argue creation forever, but while we debate about the how it happened, are we too afraid to contemplate the why? ·        Why are we here?
·        What is our purpose?
·        Where are we going?
 These are fundamental questions that nobody seems to be asking.  I feel the standard man on the street answers are: ·        “Nobody knows/By chance”
·        “To get as much “enjoyment” out of life”
·        “There is nothing after this life so live it up while we can”
 If we can’t reasonably answer the first question, then the rest of the questions lack any conviction in their answer.

Joe Biden is quick with a equally strong retort

The Exodus

One thing that I always thought was a little weird in the bible was God's continued, reminder of his power by bringing the Israelite's out of Egypt (see link, hint there's lots of them). While it's amazing and worth mentioning the real centre of the bible is Jesus and his death and resurrection.

I've been thinking about Easter a lot lately (being that time) and the numerous parallels between Jesus and the Passover itself (hint there's loads). Even trying to note them all as an exercise for myself to do.

Thinking about both things today, it struct me God keeps pointing out this event as a high point of saving His people from slavery. I just didn't realise he was talking about me too.

Reddit has an great askreddit question:

Atheist of Reddit, if you had to say something positive about a religion what would it be?

I found some of the answers very interesting.

Most of the comments were are around the great architecture of the churches and mosques.  The many magnificent buildings.  Some commented on the excellent charitable work done by Christianity.  Christian's impact in this area is probably vastly underrated.

What I found intriguing was the number of people who identified the firm sense of family/community in churches.  It's long been said that it is grace that attracts people to God.  Certainly the warm of His grace through the congregation of the church is something many people identified.  Even if they could not get past the teaching itself.

Hopefully this helps to inspire all of us to continue to draw everyone to God's grace, as we treat each other as God has called us too.

Why I believe

It seems to me that lately Christians have entered into a bit of a no win argument with Atheists.  The debate of science vs Christianity, creationism vs Darwinism has been at the forefront of the news lately.  To be honest, scientists, atheists, generally people who seem to arguing from a fairly strong and reasoned point seemed to have been coming out on top.  I don't think Christians are really getting anywhere in this debate.  And frankly we just don't seem to be rational, logical and reasoned thinkers in these kinds of debates.

It's a difficult game to play.  While not trying to simplify the argument, Christians would seeem to start the wrong way around on the argument.  Gensis is the answer.  So we start at a position based on the beginning bible and then we see how what sceience seems to agree and hold onto that.  Anything that we don't think fits into the biblical narrative, we conveniently leave out, ignore or disregard as incorrect.  It doesn't really seem like the reasonable way to approach a proof.

For those outside the church it would seem like a slam dunk, home run win.  Reasonable logical conclusions win.  Closed minded, unmoving, dogmatic thinking lose, and is put back in it's place next to the flat earth society.  Those inside the church lament.  We aren't about to change our view on God.  We believe he exists but how do we "prove" that to everyone else.  Do we need too?  Clearly following blindly doesn't seem like a smart choice. 

One argument is to point out that we all place "faith" somewhere.  Some put faith in a religious text and teachers. Others in science.  Not everyone has done the research, or understood the papers, or checked the facts so in some sense we have to trust what we read.  Ahh that's faith too!  We must all be the same!

Another argument to "soften" the bible and it's creation science is to suggest we don't take the first part of Genesis literally.  While many wouldn't agree, I think this is bad way to start looking at things.  If we take parts of the bible as not meant for literal interpretation, then how do we know what's literal and what's allegorical?  Do we get to start picking and choosing what we feel comfortable including in our world view.  Sounds like a slippery slope.  

In some respects it sounds like an easy way out.  A way to explain away difficult concepts.  6 day creationism?  oh that's allegorical.  Noah building an ark and having 2 of every animal, massive global flood...hmm sounds implausible.  Let's call that allegorical too.

Can someone really believe in this day and age that everything that happens in the bible is historical?  A lot of crazy sounding stuff happens.  Angels, demons, people turning into pillars of salt, chariots of fire, Philistine giants fighting children, men whose strength is contained by long hair and beards. It all sounds crazy.  

The Old Testament has some weird things in it.  Can we really believe all of it?  Any of it?  Maybe just the bits that are less crazy.  Should we just stick to the New Testament.  Just Jesus and some disciples.  It's a lot safer.  Far fewer angels and demons.  Just the occasional healing of someone with leprosy.  Sounds much easier to believe.

What about teaching?  Do we do the same thing?  Just pick and choose what's easy and leave out what's hard?  It's a nice idea.  All that love your neighbour, and turn the other cheek stuff gets left where it belongs.  You can probably leave out the bit about giving money to the poor as well.  Now the bible starts to sound comfy and nice.

So what about it then.  Why do Christians believe this stuff?  Are we ignorant?  Do we just believe what we heard as children and then spout it back as adults, never questioning it?  Do we use it as a crutch to shelter us from the harsh realities of the world?  Lots of people would agree.  But I wouldn't.

The crux of the issue really comes down to Jesus.  And the most critical part of His life.  Was the resurrection real?  Most people would agree that Jesus existed and that he was executed.  But did He really rise 3 days later?  If he did then I think you have to believe everything in bible as being true.  If there is no resurrection, through the book out and don't worry about it.

This is exactly what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 15:17

"And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith"

He puts it pretty bluntly.

So the real question I think we need to get back to is not a question of how was the world created.  It's a question of whether or not Jesus rose from the dead.  Did he really appear to over 500 people over 40 days and then ascend into heaven?  If it's true then that's something truly remarkable.  No one else can claim that.  Some have tried, all but one unsuccessfully.

I don't want to go through the arguments for an against Jesus' resurrection.  Much better scholars than me have written volumes about it.  Probably one of the most famous is C S Lewis of Narnia fame.  An atheist turned Christian, has written excellent books on the proof of the resurrection and Jesus.  Go read Mere Christianity then come back.  I'll wait.

If we continue the argument that Christ did rise on the third day, then I believe it validates all His claims and actions.  Including His divinity, and His continual reference to Old Testament writers.  Jesus constantly refers to the Old Testament during His ministry, from multiple books, by author, never suggesting any of these writers was allegorical or anything but inspired and to be taken literally.

So if we take Jesus seriously, we need to take what He says seriously.  Jesus claims the bible is legit, so I make the same claim.  Do I find it hard to believe it sometimes.  Well yes.  It's sometimes hard to seriously suggest that every thing in the bible is true.  Was Jonah really inside a whale?  Well it was a big fish actually, and yes I believe it happened.  Jesus says it happened in Matthew 12.  He even tells everyone that Jonah in the fish for 3 days and nights is important because it points to Jesus in the tomb for 3 days and nights.

And that's the other thing that makes me believe.  The Old Testament constantly and I mean constantly talks about Jesus.  It has incident after incident which point to Jesus' life, death and resurrection.  It's no coincidence that Passover and Easter always around the same time of year.  We get Easter wrong, the orthodox church gets it right.  It's supposed to be on the same day.  Why?  Because Passover is all about Jesus.  He is our Passover lamb.  He rescues us, not out of the bondage of servitude to Egypt, but out of our bondage of sin.  

A father goes up to a mountain to sacrifice his only son. I'm confused, is this about God and Jesus, or Abraham or Issac.  The whole things sounds familiar.  As if God needs to be any more obvious, the events happen in the same spot.

The whole bible is about Jesus.  He completes it.  The rest of the New Testament is really people trying to explain what just happened if you weren't watching carefully enough.

So if Jesus is risen, it proves His power over death and confirms His divinity. Who am I to argue about the authenticity of the rest of the bible.

So while we argue about the creation of the universe, we should instead be discussing the resurrection.  That's the key issue.  The only real answer to the most important question in life.  If that tomb was really empty, if it's occupant really conquered death then the question of the creation of the universe becomes a moot point because we already have the answer.  He tells us at the start 

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."