There have been a couple of high profile discussions between christians and athiests of late. I doubt they'll be the last.
I'm always wary of making much of a deal of these. Peter writes in one of his letters:Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
Yet 1 Timothy 1:4 and Titus 3:9 also warn us about spending our time on controversies of little gain. Paul talks of those at the Areopagus in Acts 17:21 who 'spent their time doing nothing but talking and listening to the latest ideas'.
So, for all of that, take a look at these. The first is a conversation between an athiest, Richard Dawkins (who wrote a book called the God Delusion) and a christian, Alistair Dawkins (who countered with The Dawkins Delusion). Much to everyone's surprise they had a conversation together.
The second is a moderated conversation between another athiest (these guys should start a denomination), Sam Harris, and Rick Warren, Senior Pastor at Saddleback (and author of a couple of books). Take a look at the conversation here.
A couple of months ago I was at Careforce Church in Mount Evelyn, Victoria. Senior Pastor, Allan Myer announced that he'd be debating one of Victoria's leading athiest (seems somehow tautological, but anyway) later this year. So, yeah, all the cool kids are into it.
Take a look. You may tune out quickly, you may have thoughts on the purpose and product of these conversations or they may completely float your boat.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Answering the big questions...or spitting in the wind
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a couple of years ago, I was avoiding participating in a pretty passionate discussion (online) about religion. I pretty much hate debates about creation and the like. They are rarely of lasting significance, in my experience.
Eventually, two friends gave me personal invitations to join the conversation. They needed to hear from a Christian. The discussion had been dominated by atheists, people who'd had awful experiences of Christians (eg at school), and others.
I decided to join the conversation, but not in the way expected. I got some moving responses.
If you're interested, my initial post and a few of the responses are recorded here:
http://graciousenterprises.blogspot.com/2007/04/conversation-about-religion.html
http://chanelcole.cc/forum/index.php?showtopic=885&st=80&p=111369&#entry111369
Take 3
Wish I was a cool kid and could debate athiests! Most of the time I just end up buying them a drink and making friends. It's not a formal interaction, but I don't really care for sharing my faith in that way.
Whenever differeneces in theology arise, it's always a casual conversation. Most of my 'atheist' friends find out that they are, in fact, agnostic. That's always a fun moment.
one step closer on the engels scale, eh?
two maxim's by which i live:
1. tellin' ain't sellin'
2. ABC: always be closing
amen.
Yeah, I'm with Clare (at least in terms of my choice of beverages). I think a discussion with an athiest and a thiest is generally going to come down to who has read more and who can debate better. That's pretty much a point scoring deal.
The bigger deal is what connects you.
I was having a coffee with someone up the left hand end of the engel scale the other day. He'd been gaving a rough time emotionally...struggling with depression and generally doing it tough. The genuine question I wanted to know was where his hope came from. That became the nature of our conversation. Not, 'what do you believe', but where is hope in the confusion? He expressed an envy for those with faith. 'You have so much more reason to be hopeful' was one of his lines I think.
Those are the kinds of conversations I want to have with athiests... they can go somewhere - in the short and long term.
Yet, for those that make apologetics their deal (Ravi Z, for example) I say, do you thing, do it well, and bring glory to God through that.
The Age has an article today about the Allan Meyer debate. Enjoy!
http://www.theage.com.au/news/in-depth/against-god/2007/04/14/1175971410059.html
For those living in Perth who are interested, Allan Myer will be at Riverview Church on April 29 (6pm service) speaking on the gear that he used in the debate a couple of weeks back. (1 Thorogood Street, Burswood)
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