Billy,
I completely follow your logic about reading atheist books that have views that are antithetical to yours. I respect your active efforts to challenge yourself intellectually and spiritually. Happy New Year, Chris From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Billy Rojas Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2018 9:15 PM To: Centroids Discussions <[email protected]> Cc: Billy Rojas <[email protected]> Subject: [RC] Conundrum Conundrum Recently it became important to me to re-read two books by Atheist authors which I had studied closely several years ago. Each, as I remembered them, attacked Christian faith with various arguments that, by any large, were fallacious unless you took the view that the only kind of Christian faith that counts, or even exists, is the Evangelical version, or maybe some form of traditionalist Catholicism. I also remembered that these were pretty much "good reads," that is, written clearly, with a sense of style, and mostly were well informed even if there were a variety of factual errors or excessive generalizations. My memory of these books, one by Richard Dawkins and the other by Christopher Hitchens, was essentially on target. Another book, by Sam Harris, might have been re-read simply because it is so well written, but he did not make the kinds of illustrative mistakes one finds in Dawkins or Hitchens and, for that reason, was not useful for my present purposes. That is, sometimes books written by Atheists are very useful inasmuch as -if you are well-informed about the issues they raise- it becomes obvious that their weaknesses may well reflect Christian strengths, or expose the limitations of the irreligious mindset of the political Left. I mean, speaking of Dawkins especially, it isn't that he is always wrong, heck, his observations are correct more often than not, but that when he does make mistakes they tend to be serious blunders that, if you think about the implications, discredit Atheism. Regardless, I very much like to read "Atheist books." Why? Because they challenge me to think critically about my own faith, or about my own doubts. They provoke me to think hard about the reasons I have for my views about religion generally and Christian faith specifically. Sometimes their objections simply cannot be ignored and sometimes there is no choice but to re-think some of my beliefs in the process. But it always happens, precisely because of their 'unorthodox' views, that Atheists may educate you about truths you had not known until then, and allow you to better to arrive at new conclusions that make Christian faith more relevant and more important to you than before, Such books make you aware that you need to think about new insights, sometimes from very unorthodox sources, but that nonetheless, can contribute to your faith. When all is said, however, and despite the fact that there are serious problems in the worldview of most Evangelicals, I almost invariably find myself defending Evangelical Christianity. I would like it if Evangelicals were more open-minded, more ecumenical, more educated to something like Comparative Religion, more tolerant of non-traditional faiths in America, from Buddhism to Hinduism to various forms of New Age spirituality, but there is no question whatsoever that America would not exist except for Christians and the values of Christian faith. It may be, in fact I think it is necessary, vital for Christianity in America to undergo a "new Reformation," but, like the original Reformation of 500+ years ago, the result would necessarily still be a religion that is Christian, although radically ecumenical, yet decidedly Biblical. My understanding of these terms is not how Evangelicals understand them, however, but it isn't that far from how Albert Schweitzer used these words, or E. Stanley Jones, or Reinhold Niebuhr. What also is altogether true is that I whole-heartedly agree with Evangelicals on the issue of sodomy. Indeed, I am more "hard line" on the subject than any Evangelical anyone has ever heard of. And I agree with Thomas Jefferson and all the Founding Fathers who expressed an opinion on the matter, that sodomy is completely unacceptable and should not be tolerated either informally in our culture, or legally. For which I not only have strong opinions, but the benefit of approximately 25 years worth of scholarly empirical research to draw upon to make my case, scientific journals, historical studies, psychological literature, etc, plus a knowledge of the Bible's views on the issue that simply is miles ahead of anything I have ever heard of on the part of any Evangelical, anywhere. All of this said, there is a problem. Here is the conundrum: Here is what a hypothetical Evangelical might say about Atheist books; feel free to re-read my remarks about why I like to read such books- " I very much hate to read "Atheist books." Why? Because they challenge me to think critically about my own faith, or about my own doubts. They provoke me to think hard about the reasons I have for my views about religion generally and Christian faith specifically. Sometimes their objections simply cannot be ignored and sometimes there is no choice but to re-think some of my beliefs in the process." You can see the problem. B Rojas -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> . For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. 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