23 Oct 06 Arguments

Boing Boing: Dawkins: Why There Almost Certainly Is No God

I grow weary of continual “he said, she said” rhetoric.  It’s a major part of why I’ve more or less tuned out politics, why I’ve even, to some extent, tuned out of religious and philosophical discussion recently.  This is more of the same. 

It’s interesting to me that the religious say this nation was founded on Christian principles and that secularists say it was founded on secularism.  In truth, this nation was founded, in part, on religious freedom, granting each citizen the right to worship as they see fit.  So it’s increasingly ironic that Christians and secularists alike continue to try to force their way of thinking on others via politics and strong-arm techniques rather than through the power of persuasion and one-on-one discourse.  Regardless of who is right and who is wrong, I don’t believe there is any room for anger, hatred, bitterness, and strife in the mutual pursuit of truth.  And let’s face it – aren’t both sides looking for truth?  Naturally, different people are going to arrive at different conclusions.  People are going to disagree, sometimes even violently so.  That, unfortunately, is the nature of humanity.  It doesn’t make it right, of course.

I guess what bugs me the most when I hear this kind of dialogue being spouted in a public forum is the fact that so much of it is laced with anger and bitterness.  I can understand, to an extent; frankly, I find my hackles going up everytime I hear someone harshly criticizing my own beliefs.  It’s a natural reaction; no one likes to be told they’re stupid and foolish for believing a certain way.  No one likes to be made fun of.  But just because those emotional reactions rise up does not mean that we should allow them to rule us and govern our reactions.  Just because I’m angry and hurt at what someone said about me, whether directly or indirectly, does not give me the right to respond with anger of my own.  Don’t you see?  That just makes the problem worse. 

“A soft answer turns away wrath…” Words to live by, folks.  Do you hear me?

Tags: atheism, beliefs, boing-boing, criticism, god, richard-dawkins, Science

29 Apr 05 Not the Day To Hold Strong Beliefs

I was scanning through radio stations this afternoon and caught a moment of Rush Limbaugh’s daily broadcast. At that particular moment, he was describing a phenomenon in the political world that we are seeing all to often in our society in general. It seems that anyone who holds strong, firm beliefs in, well, just about anything and who isn’t afraid to speak up about them is viewed as being abusive, narrow-minded, critical, etc. Our society has literally become so caught up in trying to not offend anyone that no one is allowed to hold an opinion about much of anything at all.

This same trend has infiltrated Christian circles to an alarming degree. I can’t count the number of Christians who criticize other Christians for holding firm beliefs about Biblical truth. Christians who know what they believe and why and who are willing to tell that to others are condemned outright, are viewed as dangerous, and considered naive and foolish for thinking that their beliefs are the right ones. How in the world did we ever get to this point? Are we not allowed to believe in absolute truth? Are we not allowed to belief that we can actually know what truth is? I just find it so sad and frustrating that I can come to conclusion about something, based on facts and actual data (God forbid!), and then be criticized because I’m not being sensitive to
someone else who might happen to hold a different view. It just seems so strange to me that we can’t agree to disagree, that we can’t share good, constructive fellowship in spite of our differences, and that we almost seem to be working harder at disunity than at creating a wholesome, loving, and single Body. It’s no wonder that churches in America aren’t accomplishing much anymore. I think we’ve lost sight of our Goal.

Tags: christianity, criticism, culture, politics, rush-limbaugh, society, strong-beliefs, truth