Pastor Who Spent A Year Living Without God No Longer Believes
Well I can top that, I spent more than a decade as an agnostic who didn't think about God much at all and I started believing just after I lost my fear of my consciouness disappearing at death. And I would expect I read a hell of a lot more atheist advocacy than this guy did. I would guess I did in the past two year, alone. And I find the more of it I read the less impressed I am with it.
Oh well, that's the difference between an interest group that considers Sam Harris a great scientist, Daniel Dennett a great philosopher, Christopher Hitchens a great humanitarian and political genius and Bill Maher funny and the wide world of religious belief. Among the religious folk I hang with it generally takes years of study and having something to say to get that kind of gig.
Update: Uh, Sims, I've decided to only post about you at my blog for lightwight topics. That's why I put up the Dave Clark Five over there for you and the other Eschatots.
Saw that story this morning. Interesting, as far as it goes; which is only as far as the individual himself.
ReplyDeleteTake that story and reverse the direction, and you have me. Everything he found so much simpler without the concept of "God," I found simpler and clearer with the concept of "God."
Interestingly, if it means anything, his concept of God seems to have been forged in very conservative terms. I find people confronted with complexity, after having been raised on religious simplicity (Francis Schaeffer's son is a fine example) often find complexity provides their God with too much to cope with.
Jesuits, on the other hand (and just to pick a counterexample of extremely well-trained minds).....
So the story carries no further than the person telling it about himself. Generalize it to a population, you get nowhere; or no further than you get with my story. Or the Pope's. Or George LeMaitre. Soren Kierkegaard. Thomas Merton. Dorothy Day. Will Campbell. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Reinhold Niebuhr.....
You get the idea.
I would like to know more about the guy's education. He didn't strike me as being especially bright, which does surprise me as most of the ministers I've met have been quite well educated.
ReplyDeleteAnd if he's defecting to the atheists c. 2014-15, on the basis that religion is intellectually wanting, what does that tell you about how silly he is. I mean, he should go read the Alternet-Salon atheists who are about the stupidest people who are a burden to what gets called "the left" these days. I mean, look at the rump community at Baby Blue. I'm shocked that the approximately six people who aren't totally stupid can stand it.
His move is his move.
DeleteIt doesn't say anything about anybody but him.
And honestly, his explanation sounds to me like: "Well, it's easier than thinking!"
Sounds like something that could inspire a limerick.
Delete