Two Favours from God

"O God, I beg two favors from you; let me have them before I did. First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.
"For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, "Who is the Lord?" And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God's holy name."
- Proverbs 30:7-9

Final Thoughts on Dawkins' "The God Delusion"

I’ve been reading Richard Dawkins’ book The God Delusion, and offering my thoughts on chapter three, where he looks at the arguments for God’s existence. Check out the earlier posts if you want to see what I’ve covered so far. Almost there now. Here are the last few “arguments” in the chapter.

The Argument from Admired Religious Scientists: e.g. "Newton was religious, so who are you to say different to him?" Really? Who is using this argument?

Pascal's Wager: "You're better off to choose to believe that God exists, because if you're wrong it won't matter anyway. If you choose not to believe in God and you're wrong, you might end up in hell." Dawkins has some good points to say about this one (which I'm sorry to say I've used before). Choosing God along the lines of this argument (because I'd be better off) is a selfish reason to choose God, and not very honest. Also, there are quite a lot of supposed "gods" out there. Which one are we supposed to choose in order to be safe? I remember a sketch by Rowan Atkinson that referred to this. "Oh I'm sorry Christians. The Jews were right." Not to mention the fact that many atheists have chosen not to believe because they see that religion has had a very bad (even evil) influence in the world's history.

The Bayesian Arguments, using probability, don't seem to work very well in my mind, so we may as well go with Dawkins on that one.

And then he concludes the chapter with The Argument from Improbability, which he says works in his favour. "A designer God cannot be used to explain organized complexity because any God capable of designing anything would have to be complex enough to demand the same kind of explanation in his own right." This sounds to me like "God can't have designed the universe because then someone would have to have designed God." Why does God have to be designed? God is God.

I think the bigger question is, "Why is that such a conclusive argument for Dawkins?" He comes back to it a lot in these chapters. I wonder if the argument behind this one is in reality more like this: "God can't exist because it's irrational to think that God exists."

The next chapter deals with improbability a bit more, but I'll leave that for another post.

So where does all that leave us? Obviously I haven’t been convinced, although it has been a very helpful book to read. It’s great to see things from the other side of the discussion for a change, and I can see how it all works for Richard Dawkins. He’s an intelligent guy, and I respect his thinking. He's got some important things to say about religion, and Christians would do well to listen a bit more.

Summing up...

My conclusion from all of it is this:You can't prove or disprove the existence of God using science, philosophy or logic. My advice is to stop trying. It's the wrong field altogether, although it makes for some interesting, important discussions.

Dawkins proposes that belief in God is the same as if someone postulates that there is a teapot orbiting Jupiter. And this highlights the problem. If you're an atheist, it is the same. God and an orbiting teapot may as well be the same thing. But if you're not an atheist, obviously it's vastly different.

For myself, I'm open to the scientific possibility that God exists. For Dawkins this is irrational. I think the fact that he is closed to that possibility is irrational and unscientific. And that's basically where it all ends up. For me it's God, but for him it's a teapot.

And for that reason, we can't really have a reasonable discussion on these lines.

Think you know your Bible?

I just read a very interesting alternative interpretation of The Parable of the Talents that Jesus tells in Luke 19. Completely different to the way I've always heard it taught.

As the story goes, a nobleman leaves the country to go and be crowned king. (Herod's son Archelaus did this following Herod's death, as the listeners would have known.) Before he goes, the guy divides 10 minas (worth about 3 months wages each) among his servants to invest while he's gone.
When he returns, the first servant has made 10 times the amount given - and receives 10 cities to govern as a reward. The second servant has made 5 times more than he first received, and gets 5 cities as a reward.
But the third servant has made nothing and gives back the original amount. "You wicked servant!" says the king, and takes this amount and gives it to the guy who has 10 cities.

The traditional interpretation is that this parable is about how we are to use what we've been given wisely, because one day Jesus will return and call us to account.

But watch this.

Lloyd Pietersen explains a different way to look at it, and this is very interesting. He points out that whenever Jesus talks about money, it is usually about GIVING IT AWAY, not investing and gaining more. Especially in Luke's gospel, where this is from. Blessed are the poor, Jesus says in Luke 6:20. Zaccheus' story, which is just before this one, ends with Zaccheus giving half his fortune away, and repaying anyone he's cheated four times the amount. One can assume that old Zac ends up with very little at the end. And Jesus says "Salvation has come to this house." The poor widow also gives her last pennies. The rich young ruler, also just a little before this story, is told by Jesus to give everything he has to the poor and come follow. Discipleship, in Luke's gospel, means giving up everything to follow Jesus.

In this context, it would be strange for Jesus to follow with a parable promoting accumulation. Pietersen suggests that Jesus is telling this parable to draw attention to the injustice built into the society, where the rich get richer and those with nothing have everything taken away. Sound familiar?

The third servant, which might be representative of a follower of Jesus, refuses to play by these rules (a common theme for Jesus) and is rejected. Not a particularly encouraging end to the parable. But that's just how it is. Though it's difficult, and you might get chewed up and spit out, Jesus still says generosity - not selfish wealth accumulation - is the only way to "the kingdom of heaven."

That interpretation definitely seems to line up better with Jesus' other sayings and actions. Doesn't work well for those churches that have used the parable to promote prosperity though!

Nice to still be surprised by Bible things I thought I knew. I hope that never stops.

Pastor Irene's Manifesto

Here's another part I loved from Eugene Peterson's The Pastor. I post these kinds of things so I can get back to them easily!

Peterson was facilitating a class with a group of soon-to-be-starting pastors. After a few days together, he asked one young lady who'd been quiet what she was thinking. This was her response, which Peterson called Pastor Irene's Manifesto. I want to make it mine too.

"When I get a congregation, I want to be a patient pastor. I want to have eyes to see and ears to hear what God is doing and saying in their lives. I don't want to judge them in terms of what I think they should be doing. I want to be a witness to what God is doing in their lives, not a schoolmistress handing out grades for how well they are doing something for God.

"I think I see something unique about being a pastor that I had never noticed: the pastor is the one person in the community who is free to take men and women seriously just as they are, appreciate them just as they are, give them the dignity that derives from being the 'image of God,' a God-created being who has eternal worth without having to prove usefulness or be good for anything. I know that I will be doing a lot of other things too, but I might be the only person who is free to do this.

"I don't want to be so impatient with the mess that I am not around to see the miracle being formed. I don't want to conceive of my life as pastor so functionally that the mystery gets squeezed out of both me and the congregation."

"We always marry the wrong person"

"Destructive to marriage is the self-fulfillment ethic that assumes marriage and the family are primarily institutions of personal fulfillment, necessary for us to become "whole" and happy. The assumption is that there is someone just right for us to marry and that if we look closely enough we will find the right person. This moral assumption overlooks a crucial aspect to marriage. It fails to appreciate the fact that we always marry the wrong person.

"We never know whom we marry; we just think we do. Or even if we first marry the right person, just give it a while and he or she will change. For marriage, being [the enormous thing it is] means we are not the same person after we have entered it. The primary challenge of marriage is learning how to love and care for the stranger to whom you find yourself married."

- Stanley Hauerwas

Above All Else

"Seek the Kingdom of God above all else,
and he will give you everything you need." - Luke 12:31

"Our Father in heaven,
may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven." - Matthew 6:9-10

School is...

"School is a building that has four walls - with tomorrow inside."
- Lon Watters

Tired? Stressed?

You'll feel better on Swisse.

Or so the ad says. And sure, you probably would feel better. Or if you don't have any Swisse tablets available, you could grab one of the plethora of energy drinks around these days. Red Bull gives you wings? We need to come back to earth.

Is it really a good thing to be able to just take a tablet and keep going? Is it a good thing that these energy drinks are selling so well in our culture? Does that tell us something?

Why do we do this?

Tiredness and stress are warning lights. They're our body telling us "You're doing too much. There's a lot on your plate. You need to rest." You can't just ignore these things, turn off the warning lights and keep going. What if a pilot did that? "Damn, another warning light. Gee that's annoying. I'll just flick that off."

Might not be a pilot for long.

I know it's just a silly metaphor, but the reality is pretty important too. We're not invincible. We're not superman. We can't keep writing cheques our body can't cash.

If you see these warning lights, for goodness sake, have a rest. And make sure you're getting at least a day of rest each week. God knew what he was doing when he designed you.

The lights are not just to annoy you.

[Advent Conspiracy] Enter the Story 2011

Check out this one!

Power and Weakness

Read this slowly....

"The power of God, says St Paul in 1 Corinthians 1, is therefore revealed in human weakness, supremely in the weakness of Jesus. At the heart of the Christian gospel stands the ridiculous paradox that true power is found in the apparent failure, and the shameful death, of a young Jew at the hands of a ruthless empire. Why? Because there are more dimensions to reality than just the ones we see and know in our own space and time. Heaven, God's space, is the present but unseen reality. And, in that all-important dimension, the crucifixion was not a defeat but a victory; in the death of Jesus... the powers of evil were themselves being judged, were being put to shame, were being decisively rebuked for their arrogance. Instead, the generous self-giving love of Jesus, giving himself for the sins of the world, has been vindicated and exalted as the supreme principle of the universe. More: Jesus himself, no abstract principle, but a human person, is now exalted as the still loving, still giving, still generous Lord, to whom one day every knee shall bow, and whom we are today summoned to follow."

- from Following Jesus, by N T Wright

Psalm 146:3-9

Don’t put your confidence in powerful people;
      there is no help for you there.
When they breathe their last, they return to the earth,
      and all their plans die with them.
But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper,
      whose hope is in the Lord their God.
He made heaven and earth,
      the sea, and everything in them.
      He keeps every promise forever.
He gives justice to the oppressed
      and food to the hungry.
   The Lord frees the prisoners.
The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
   The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down.
      The Lord loves the godly.
The Lord protects the foreigners [or refugees?] among us.
      He cares for the orphans and widows,
      but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.

Sunsets

It is better to be...

"One goes more quickly to heaven from a hut than from a palace."

My favourite quote, attributed to St Francis of Assisi. I love the simplicity, and the upside-down perspective. It's so unlike what the rest of the world screams at us. But it's so true. THIS is real life. Not palaces, Porsches and playstations (although there's nothing wrong with those) - that's what we're told it's all about. But it's not.

I'm convinced the good life has more to do with great friendships, simplicity, enjoying your work, love, faith, hope and grace.

It is better to be godly and have little
      than to be evil and rich.
For the strength of the wicked will be shattered,
      but the Lord takes care of the godly.
Day by day the Lord takes care of the innocent,
      and they will receive an inheritance that lasts forever.
They will not be disgraced in hard times;
      even in famine they will have more than enough....

The Lord directs the steps of the godly.
      He delights in every detail of their lives.
Though they stumble, they will never fall,
      for the Lord holds them by the hand.

- Psalm 37:16-19, 23-24

Jesus Manifesto

Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola wrote Jesus Manifesto in order to correct the "Jesus Deficit Disorder" they see in many Christians and churches today. There seem to be many Christians for whom Jesus is really not the centre of their lives, as he should be.

As Paul writes in Colossians,

"[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together...."

Contemplate that for a bit! Jesus is our life, the only truth, and the only way to live, but too often he's just brought in as an interesting side-point. So when I saw this book, I thought, "Brilliant. This will be a great book to recommend. That's exactly what people need to hear."

But as it turned out, that message was exactly what I needed to hear as well. The writing is wonderfully simple, honest and direct, and the point was clearly driven home again and again. I actually started to get a little annoyed at the book, as it seemed like it was saying the same thing over and over. "Ok I've got it already," I thought. "Give me some new insights."

But I hadn't got it. As I read more and more about Jesus, it slowly started to get under my skin, and it was weeks before I even noticed the change. I started to feel more uncomfortable with where Jesus was in my own life. I began to realise that Jesus was too often just a side-point even for me, a pastor - like the interesting analogy that illustrates the real point (or even worse: a footnote).

So here I am in one of those infrequent moments of greater clarity, and I hope and pray this fragile seedling of faith continues to grow.

I would love for my life to be more centred around Jesus, but more than that, I would love for Jesus to live more in me. Not my life but his. Not my ways but his. Not my thoughts, insights, or perspectives, but his.... Christ in me, the hope of glory.

The Story of Cap & Trade

Check out this great video. Especially if you're the kind of person who cares about horses, or V8s, or gelati, or... well, anything. Also, if you found this interesting, check out "The Story of Stuff" at www.thestoryofstuff.org. It's brilliant. And then share it with someone else.


The Story of Cap & Trade from Story of Stuff Project on Vimeo.

Wisdom

Ecclesiastes 9:7-10

"So go ahead. Eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this! Wear fine clothes, with a splash of cologne! Live happily with the woman you love through all the meaningless days of life that God has given you under the sun. The wife God gives you is your reward for all your earthly toil.

"Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom."

I'm still reading through the Bible in a Year, and have just got to Ecclesiastes - one of my favourite books in the Bible. So much wisdom in there, and I love that it's not philosophy apart from God, like so much thinking these days. This is real wisdom, with God firmly in the picture.

I wonder what amazing wisdom Solomon might have come up with if he'd had a little more of a concept of heaven? He's certainly one person I'd love to chat to sometime. Or more likely: sit at his feet and listen quietly while my mind is blown!