A light summer read…..
24 August 2010
I’ve just started reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. At University I remember that some of his books were recommended reading as part of my course, and I recall a degree of indignation on my part that someone was daring to disagree with, in fact actively criticise, my faith. Yet now I think about it, I believe that Richard Dawkins could be the most important writer for followers of Jesus to read. How can we deepen our faith in anything without at least considering alternatives? Can we fully understand the animal kingdom by studying only elephants? Does the success of Manchester United mean anything unless we compare it to the unrewarding trudge of supporting Sheffield Wednesday?
However, I am conscious of the fact that I’m approaching this book with an attitude similar to the ‘fundamentalists’ that Dawkins criticises in the book. If I set out in the mindset that this book will only serve to help me argue with atheists, and refute the possibility of an alternative viewpoint before I’ve begun, then I’m doing the very thing that he finds so objectionable. Am I right to take this stance? Or should I actually be prepared to be converted to atheism, unlikely though this is? I guess it all comes back to the fact that we cannot have true faith without doubt……
I’ll be interested to see what he has to say about the value of ‘religious experience’ ie: how people of faith have interacted personally with God. My guess is that he has no experience of God’s presence, and his encounters with Christians are limited to those focused on the ‘religious’ aspects and on militantly defending their viewpoint on some issue or other (Dawkins seems particularly keen to argue against Creationism – I suppose that’s natural for a scientist….). I find myself agreeing with him to some extent – rigorously defending something like creationism seems to me to be a waste of energy on the part of the Christian. Why aren’t we focusing on the commands of Jesus? The Bible says that we can’t fathom God, so why are we worrying about producing tons of evidence to fly in the face of evolutionary theory? And more importantly, why are people so angrily defending their stance on ‘issues’? There’s no wonder people are put off religion (for want of a better phrase).
I think it’s vital that anyone who really wants to live as a disciple of Jesus seeks to understand where we’ve gone wrong over the years in portraying out faith, because that is a large part of the reason why people like Richard Dawkins feel like they do (that, and a load of scientific evidence…..). Shutting out other viewpoints makes us narrow-minded and less able to relate to others effectively. One-to-one relationships are, in my view, the way forward in making Jesus known. I love the church (by which I mean the people), but I agree with Dawkins – organised religion is responsible for a lot of crap. I propose to comment more on The God Delusion as I read it, as I think we can gain valuable insight from such books. Obviously I’ll be offsetting all this heathen-ery by reading plenty of the Bible (I’m looking at John at the moment, trying to make more sense of Jesus…..).
In other news, I’m excited about letting everyone hear the new Responding with Tea songs. If you’re on Facebook then there’s a RwT page on which I intend to post the songs for download (some other tracks are there at the moment). There are also plans afoot for some CD artwork to accompany the music. On the writing front, I’m going to put the next part of The Weight of a Voice in a separate post to this one. I had another agent rejection the other day. This summer was supposed to be the time when I made a big push to get an agent, but that hasn’t happened. My efforts have gone into music. And camping…..
1 Response to A light summer read…..:
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Hi Jon. Glad to hear you’re giving Dawkins a proper reading – I’ll be interested to hear more when you’ve completed the book. I am intrigued to hear what you will make of someone who seems himself ‘narrow minded’ when it comes to considering the wider views of creationists (many scientists among them) who take a path other than that one he seems to assume all creationists hold.. Not all creationist views follow his narrow understanding – so even Dawkins needs to dare to delve further into areas that might challenge his theories. Isn’t it amazing though that both Christians and athieists can be equally narrow minded and lose the ability either to hear each other or hold a civilised debate. Good point though about Christians needing to hear what militant atheists put forward as key issues for the argument against God. Here am I banging on about creation when all along, you,re right, the best Christian witness comes in 1/1 relationships where a proper apologetic can be shared in a relationship of mutual respect of the individual.
Looking forward to your next blog