Silly Dawkins!

A few weeks ago, I opened the cover of a thick and rather ominous looking book. This book was The God Delusion by none other than everybody's favorite atheist, Richard Dawkins. For many of my readers it will be no surprise that I'm writing on this topic as it is one that's provided great amounts of stimulating conversation around the lounges of Johnson and the lobby of the Grand Theater. I'm not a big fan of the man's principles, but I had decided that it was high time I read up on the atheists' arsenal of practical reasons why God ought not exist. Around a week later I was left wondering if maybe I had picked the wrong book! I'll admit that I didn't actually finish the book or even make it further than the first three or four chapters, largely due to my inability to suffer any further through his plethora of misinformed claims about Christianity and his inability to abstain from snide and often completely bogus jests.

Having given up on this valiant effort, I decided to instead delve into The Language of God, a (so far) astounding book by Francis S. Collins. Collins, the head of the Human Genome Project, was raised agnostic, later nearly became an atheist, yet through the guidance of C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity and a Methodist Minister instead found that God quite truly exists. The Language of God is primarily an attempt at finding some common ground between science and theology on the topics of evolution and the creation of the universe.

I wish not to respond to Collins' work because I haven't yet finished the book. I'm writing instead to comment on one particular section of a chapter on atheism in which he (in my opinion) tears Dawkins' argument to intellectual shreds. I will begin by sharing this quote from Collins:

"Dawkins is a master of setting up a straw man, and then dismantling it with great relish. In face, it is hard to escape the conclusion that such repeated mischaracterizations of faith portray a vitriolic personal agenda rather than a reliance on the rational arguments that Dawkins so cherishes in the scientific realm."

One point that I quickly noticed in reading merely the first few chapters of The God Delusion is that Dawkins assumes that because evolution can account for biological complexity and the origin of man, then there is no need for a God. He has, in making this assumption, failed to offer any reason why God could not have used evolution as a means to bring about the earth He desired. Ultimately, the first pillar of his argument crumbles in light of simple logic, only holding up against "Young Earth Creationism," the school of thought which believes the 6 days of creation to be 24 hours in length.

Dawkins sets up yet another "straw man" argument when he claims that religion is irrational (which he does VERY often). Again he jumps to conclusions and assumes that Christianity is really as basic and outlandish as Hollywood paints it to be (There Will Be Blood or Saved!, anybody?). I'd like to think that you'd agree with me when I say that Dawkins has a pretty watered down representation of the faith to go by. Collins likens it to a schoolboy characterized by Mark Twain who said "Faith is believing in what you know ain't so." On the contrary, the case for belief in God is quite strong. I won't go into detail, but Collins offers the arguments from the universality of both Moral Law and the desire to find God as evidence that has suited scholars from C.S. Lewis to St. Augustine (you can find the details behind both in Mere Christianity).

Collins offers one last objection to Dawkins' brash statements. Dawkins spends a considerable amount of time arguing from religious harms. He states that religion, because of the great amount of evil committed in its name, conveys that religion in itself is a negative and damaging force and ought to be abandoned. However, it seems that religious harms are merely a poor reflection of Christians rather than Christianity. One doesn't doubt the practicality of building houses for shelter simply because houses occasionally collapse or catch fire. Why would one doubt the good of religion on the basis of its imperfect followers?

Ultimately, I think we can agree that Dawkins has little to say against religion that is actually grounded in fact. Instead he relies on hazy misrepresentations of a faith that Collins and I believe can exist in harmony with Darwin's famous and widely accepted theory. I can say no more than that Dawkin's claims go beyond his own evidence. Collins calls upon Christian evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould to summarize his chapter, stating in reference to the large number of fellow Christians in his field:

"Either half my colleagues are enormously stupid, or the science of Darwinism is compatible with conventional religious beliefs -- and equally compatible with atheism."

Richard Dawkins, please open your mouth and kindly insert your foot therein

We live in a pretty messed up world... or do we?

So there I sat, in front of the television watching Rosanne Barr rant about the current way things are in a dreadful display of stand-up comedy. Generally, I would have just shrugged off all the anti-Bush propaganda and tried to smile in spite of myself. However, some of the things she said really hit home with me...

"Half of the world is starving to death while the other half is trying to lose weight."

"We lock up the poor to keep them off illegal drugs while we pump the rich full of every prescription drug you can thing of."

The ironic (and at least partly true) statements kept on coming until she concluded, in reference to a one-liner about anti-depressants, by saying:

"I don't understand why people are so keen on taking drugs to keep themselves from being depressed. Have you looked at the world we live in? Maybe things are so "messed" (I'm censoring right now) up nowadays that we're supposed to be depressed!"

Throughout the following week I was unable to keep from thinking about this. Could Rosanne Barr, the loud mouthed self-proclaimed "queen of all trailer trash", have taken such a startling view on life and been correct in doing so? I worked the entire week at the hospital, covering for a sick coworker. Every day, I witnessed the struggles of countless patients from all walks of life. In addition to this, I watched the news every morning (something I haven't done while trapped in the "Wake bubble") and was blown away by the consistent reports of earthquakes, forest fires, floods, shootings and many other catastrophes. The more I took in, the more I started to think Rosanne may have been right. Things do look pretty bleak... in Dublin, in Pulaski County, in Virginia, in the United States, and most definitely in the world.

This troubled me. It couldn't be that things were as bad as the news media made them out to be. I recalled my mother telling me over and over again "You know, nobody publishes the good news. It's the bad that people will pay for." Maybe this was more accurate, maybe not. That's aside from the point I'm trying to make. Even if things are as terrible as television would have us to believe, the words of Martin Luther's famous 1500's hymn still ring true today:

"A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing. Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing."

and, from the lesser known third stanza (not verse... Justin):

"And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us."

THIS IS IT!!! (remember that all caps and bold marks importance) We have nothing to fear no matter what the world can muster up to try and shake us. God still remains in spite of fire and flood and even death. What's more is that, in my opinion, these tragedies heighten our awareness of that voice inside that cries out in need of a God. God allows such tragic events to occur, not as punishment for disobedience, but as a means to reveal his greatness and his capacity to deliver us mortals from our current state and elevate us to a higher existence. Through disasters, followers of Christ are called to recognize that God is still in control of the universe and, because He is still in control, greater and more powerful than we can comprehend. Through trying times, we realize the greatness of our Creator, who is able to produce tremendous good and still inspire us to worship Him in spite of what seems to be overwhelming evil.

Agape,
Joe

Some quotes...

I'm not writing this particular post in the sense that it will not contain any of my original thoughts. All that comprises this post comes from a book called Patches of Godlight, the journal of a fictional pastor. The journal is made up of quotes from the likes of C.S. Lewis, Wordsworth, Martin Luther King Jr., John Wesley, and many other famous authors, theologians, etc. I may come back to some of these quotes in some later writings, but for now I want to let them stand as what they are. I won't add any interpretations or relate them to any personal anecdotes. They will serve only to convey the meanings intended by their authors and the God who ordered their thoughts. I hope you find them insightful and enjoyable. There will probably be more to come...

We -- or at least I -- shall not be able to adore God on the highest occasions if we have learned no habit of doing so on the lowest. At best, our faith and reason will tell us that He is adorable, but we shall not have found Him so, not have "tasted and seen." Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are "patches of godlight" in the woods of experience. -C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

"The Bible without the Holy Spirit is a sundial by moonlight." -Dwight L. Moody

"I have been tortured with longing to believe... and the yearning grows stronger the more cogent the intellectual difficulties stand in the way." -Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Let the Stable Still Astonish

Let the stable still astonish:

Straw-dirt floor, dull eyes,

Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;

Crumbling, crooked walls;

No bed to carry that pain,

And then, the child,

Rag-wrapped, laid to cry

In a trough.

Who would have chosen this?

Who would have said: "Yes,

Let the God of all the heavens and earth

Be born here, in this place"?

Who but the same God

Who stands in the darker, fouler rooms of our hearts

And says, "Yes,

Let the God of Heaven and Earth

Be born here --

In this place."

--Leslie Leyland Fields

"Were there no God, we would be in this glorious world with grateful hearts, and no one to thank." -Christina Rossetti

"It is not a question of our equipment but of our poverty, not of what we bring with us, but of what God puts into us." -Oswald Chambers

Lessons in Humility

So grades were posted on the Wake Forest website a week or two ago. This has generally been something I've been okay with. I've never really had a reason to worry about a grade in any particular class because I've been blessed with a mind that, so far, has been able to handle most classes I've taken and dedication that's enabled me to continue when my intelligence fails. However, I feel that this sense of security I had built up during high school and the first semester at Wake produced some ill effects. The biggest of these is undoubtedly the misleading feeling that I could not and would not fail. I'm sure if you talk to me you might not be aware that I have this problem. Heck, I wasn't aware of it 90% of the time! But, nevertheless, my feelings of "invincibility" (maybe I shouldn't use that severe of a term, but I think you get what I mean) have been shattered and I thank God for it!!!

This past semester I've struggled with my hardest class yet, organic chemistry. I realized throughout my experiences in this class that God was constantly challenging me to rise above my old expectations perform on the level I thought capable of and reach the goal which I believed He had set for me of excelling in the class. I was faced with a fair amount of disappointment, however, as I consistently failed in living up to my own expectations for my success in the class and, so I thought, God's expectations for my future in medicine. It seemed like every time I tried, I failed. Not only this, but I was surprised to find that every time I tried harder, the work got that much more demanding and I failed even more. Bummer, right?

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! It was not until I had finished the final exam and waited two and a half long weeks for my grades to arrive (I didn't fail, but I did considerably worse than I had thought) that I was struck with a glorious revelation about what had really been happening in my life throughout the second semester. God was breaking me down; chipping away at the secure, confident shell that I'd built up as a means to show me that, no matter what, I'm an imperfect human being in every sense. God was taking a part of my life that I'd felt very sure of my ability to succeed in and making it difficult just to break me into a state of submission. In that moment of revelation I realized that it really is when we are in our weakest and most vulnerable states that we are most receptive to God's grace. I knew then and there that I couldn't make it without Him... whether the task at hand was spiritual, physical, or even intellectual. God was showing me that my gifts were only because of Him and that I ought to be prayerfully seeking His guidance in using them.

Wholly broken,
Joe

Only two weeks into summer...

... and I'm already rather tired of the slow lifestyle of Southwest Virginia. Even though this place is my home, I feel more at home on the beautiful campus of Wake Forest. This is not to say that I am not enjoying myself, for I have missed my family tremendously and words cannot describe how great it is to be back with them. It's just strange to have such an extreme change in scenery. I mean, honestly people, when have you known Joe (keeping in mind his unusually slow reading skills) to have already read three substantial works of literature (and two Harry Potter books) in less than a month! This brief lament, however, is not my primary purpose in writing this particular post.

Having recently attended the Commencement and Baccalaureate ceremonies for the WFU class of 2008, I have been pondering a conversation I had rather early on the morning of graduation with one of my very dear senior friends. After discussing the interesting happenings of the Baptist Student Union and Wesley senior banquets and expressing both of our feelings of uncertainty about the future, the conversation took a turn down the spiritual road, as many conversations tend to do at 1:00 in the morning.

My friend, a proponent of the Episcopalian faith and a devout scholar of church music, and I have always enjoyed debating theology as we have very different opinions on a number of issues. That night we managed to work our way into previously uncharted territory: the division among denominations over the importance of grace vs. doctrine. It really was interesting to consider the importance of both of these components in the life of a Christian. Our discussion has led me to a greater respect for the principles of church doctrine found in creed, in ritual and in song. Yet I am still sold beyond the shadow of a doubt that no Christian life can ever last unless it is firmly rooted in salvation through grace (in case you didn't catch that from my previous post!). However, I have come to one major conclusion that I wish to share with the 5 or 6 people who might just read this...

The debate between theologically liberal and conservative denominations within the church over the importance of doctrine and ritual within worship is held as much too great of a problem. It appears to me that there is no need to question whether one of these principles (salvation or doctrine) is any more important than the other. I believe that the two concepts are mutually dependent; one cannot be fully appreciated without the other. All the songs, all the signs of the cross, all the Holy Communions, baptisms and confirmations are perfectly meaningless without some real evidence of grace to make them worthwhile and representative of some deeper meaning and sanctification. However, doctrine cannot be ignored, lest our relationships with Christ be reduced to solely emotional whims and expectations for Christ to meet us where we are without us moving (through conforming our lives and thoughts to His will) closer to Him. There is much to be gained through the ages worth of rituals passed down from the Holy Catholic Church and of doctrine and hymns developed through years of reformation. However, it all becomes dim and worldly without Christ's inspiration and fulfillment.

Blogging... Why?

I sit in front of my computer screen.

I think...

I think...

I think...

Why am I doing this? Why am I writing? There has to be some deeper reason than "because three of my closest friends did so and won't stop nagging until I start one for myself". I don't think I'm writing to share my feelings with the world. That seems far too trivial and 99.999999999% of the world probably won't ever know this blog exists. I'm not writing to prove anything about myself. There are much better ways and I'm not convinced that I need to be proven (I'll probably delve into this last statement later... we'll see). I must be writing to convey a message. This message is greater than words, however, and will probably take my entire life to even get across just a tiny shred of its worth and relevance.

This message is GRACE!!! (generally three exclamation points means "IMPORTANT", just so you'll know)

Yes, grace. God's never ending grace which He has bestowed upon all of humanity through the sacrifice of His son Jesus. This brings me to the relevance of the title of my blog, which may have confused a reader or two, as Barabbas is certainly not as familiar a Biblical entity as Moses, Peter, or Paul. Barabbas was important nonetheless and is perhaps one of the most relatable characters I've found in all of the Bible. Barabbas was a thief, a criminal held prisoner by the Roman Empire, a sinful man. When Pilate had found no fault with Christ, he offered to free one prisoner in hopes that the people might choose to release Jesus, a man innocent beyond all doubt. The crowd would not have this, however, and instead chose to release Barabbas instead.

THIS IS GRACE. The idea that we were freed by Christ's sacrifice. We wretched, sinful, unworthy people were reestablished as worthy heirs of God's kingdom through the death and resurrection of the one perfect being that has ever walked the earth.

This is why I write. There can be no greater message to convey than our salvation and our chance to live eternally. No wealth of man can compare. No idea can rival in importance. The grace given through Christ is everything.

Well, when I say "everything" I think you understand what I mean. But to make sure, I mean that grace must essentially be understood and accepted first before anything else can truly be of value. My blogging venture will examine some important, challenging questions I've had about theology, philosophy, and just life in general, but also whatever random thoughts come to mind that I find interesting and worth writing. Expect poetry at times, as sappy as it sounds. Also expect seemingly incoherent rants (it happens). But always remember, that whatever I say and whatever you think about what I say, it is nowhere near as important as God's grace and cannot truly be appreciated without being viewed in its light.

I pray that God's blessings may be upon this blog and all who read it.

Agape,
Joe