Good will to all men? Not from the grumpy atheists! (Thank God not all atheists are grumpy but there sure seems to be a lot of them)
Why is it that so many in the atheist community cannot bring themselves to get past their anger whenever they engage in discussions? The language of many of their contributions in public debate is laced with invective and dripping with sarcasm and bile. There are exceptions of course, but they tend to fall more into the category of being the 'exception that proves the rule' when compared to the hostility of many of today's atheist posters. Comment offered by the theists in the public square is often depicted as being 'malicious' or 'venomous' and intended to enslave the 'feeble minded and weak' by those who post. Nothing could be further from the truth. Venom is something that is oriented to death. Christians are oriented in a 180 degree different direction. We speak not to the culture of death that grips our world but rather for the culture of life and light which ends with the gift of eternal life. For example, the Catholic Church in its hum...
Both Science and Religion view mysteries as central to their raison d'etre.
ReplyDeleteThe most exciting moment in science is not the Archimedian shout of Eureaka but the quizical "that's strange"; meaning new fodder for exploration and explanation.
In Religion it's more like the Philip Henslowe character in Tom Stoppard's Shakespeare in Love. When faced with events he can't understand, shrugs his shoulders and says "It's a mystery".
A mystery is not a sop for solace but a irritant for inquiry.
God was used to explain the weather, the crops, the trembling of the earth, sickness and health etc...
ReplyDeleteWe now have meteorology, agronomy, geology, medicine etc...and few civilized people seriously suggest that a God or Satan is still needed to explain any of these things.
God's role has been downsized - but theists still offer up their God to fill in the cracks about what we still don't know...things like - Where do we come from? or Where do we go when we finish this life? That is pretty much it for the BIG questions still left unanswered.
The existence of god is essentially reduced to an argument from ignorance (you can substitute "awe" for "ignorance", but the effect is pretty much the same).
This article is just an elaborate appeal to ignorance. Yawn.
Cheers...Martin