Soul Thoughts

Faith and relevance in the 21st century

Author: soulthoughts (Page 45 of 53)

Hitchens v. Craig debate

May 17, 2009 /

A recent debate on the existence of God between atheist Christopher Hitchens and Christian apologist William Lane Craig is reported with glee in Lee Strobel’s latest newsletter with the headline ‘Hitchens gets spanked!’. I don’t mind Strobel. I have been impressed with the books of his I have read, books such as The Case for Christ and The Case for Faith. He makes his case well by asking questions that a reasonable skeptic and/or seeker would ask. However it comes across as pretty severe gloating to me to say that Hitchens got ‘spanked’. Whilst I acknowledge that an atheist website that reported on the debate also used these terms in describing the debate, I still see a strong sense of gloating on the part of Strobel.

As long as there remains a sense of gloating each time one side wins a battle in this war of beliefs, each side will remain entrenched in its beliefs, and probably become more entrenched. If the Christian side of a debate like this is to show people that God exists and therefore you are invited into a relationship of life with God, I don’t think gloating over winning another debate is going to impress anyone. I am reminded of what Rikk Watts has said about this. He has made the point that some of the early Christians were actually not able to answer some of the philosophical attacks thrown at them by pagans. Yet still they turned the Roman Empire upside down and drew millions into faith in Christ. They did not win the empire by arguments; they won the empire through the quality of their lives. If I won an argument against an atheist and I gloated about it, other atheists would be fully justified in being repelled by the faith that I proclaim. They would be justified in saying “well, he had some great arguments but I sure wouldn’t want to be like him”.

As I stated in my previous post about debates over climate change, it is crucial that we listen with respect to those we disagree with. As St Peter says, let us respond with gentleness and respect to the allegations of people we disagree with. May this be so in our debates with our atheist friends.

Response to Ian Plimer's 'Heaven and Earth'

May 16, 2009 /

Great to see The Australian giving air to a thoughtful and considered response to Ian Plimer’s recently released book, Heaven and Earth. Plimer, a noted climate change sceptic, tries to make the assertion that human emissions of CO2 have not changed the climate. As usual though, his arguments are the same old, tired, worn out arguments that have been refuted again and again by the vast majority of climate scientists.

Photo by Larrie KnightsI really wonder what people such as Plimer are trying to achieve with their assertions. I can only think that there is a another agenda at play. Like Andrew Bolt, Plimer implies, as Ashley says, that “the work of literally thousands of oceanographers, solar physicists, biologists, atmospheric scientists, geologists, and snow and ice researchers during the past 100 years is fundamentally flawed.”

A colleague of mine, Brett Parris, has laid out some useful references, in addition to Ashley’s, that debunk, yet again, the points that Plimer makes. Here they are:

Kurt Lambeck president of the Australian Academy of Science and professor of Geophysics at ANU:
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/current/audioonly/bst_20090427_0752.mp3

Read Prof Barry Brook’s blog review:
http://bravenewclimate.com/2009/04/23/ian-plimer-heaven-and-earth/

Read Ian Enting from Melbourne Uni’s point refutation:
http://bravenewclimate.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/plimer1a1.pdf

Read Tim Lambert’s debunking at Deltoid:
http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2009/04/the_science_is_missing_from_ia.php

In debunking the sceptics, it is crucial that we listen with respect to them as they lay out their claims. As St Peter says, let us respond with gentleness and respect to the allegations of people we disagree with.

Website Review – The BioLogos Foundation

May 16, 2009 /

The BioLogos FoundationIf you are one of those believers with a fascination for science and how God put the universe together, but at the same time you are sick of the constant bickering between Christians and atheists, this website provides welcome relief.

The BioLogos Foundation has been set up by Francis Collins, former Director of the Human Genome project and author of the bestselling The Language of God. |more…|

Book Review – Another Way to Love

May 16, 2009 /

Another Way to LoveOver the last 20 or so years, I have seen an encouraging move towards the church taking a lot more seriously the imperative of social justice as being a core part of the Christian message. Countless books have been written to help people see that social concern is not an optional add-on to the real message of saving souls, but that it lies at the heart of who Jesus is and what God cares about. Another Way to Love is another excellent contribution to this collection.

This publication is written by people who spend their lives at the coalface of bringing good news to the poor. |more…|

Running to stand still

May 10, 2009 /

Lake Paringa, New ZealandMy wife and I recently returned from a holiday to the south island of New Zealand. As we were travelling around that beautiful country, I started to see how much we always seem to have to ‘fill in’ time, how we always have to be ‘doing’ something.

The first question we often ask someone we haven’t seen for a while is ‘Are you busy?’ as if busyness is a virtue, and that if you’re not busy you’re not contributing to society.

On our holiday we were always thinking of the next thing to do. But when we stopped off at a little place called Lake Paringa, on the west coast of the south island, it looked as though it was a place where time could stand still. |more…|

Gifts, motives & ego

May 7, 2009 /

A million young poets screaming out their words, to a world full of people just living to be heard…maybe some day those words will be heard.

These words of John Mellencamp from his classic Lonesome Jubilee album are the cry of a generation of bloggers, twitters and citizen journalists. Everyone wants everyone to read their piece, their opinion, their take on the world. And the best way to do this is to promote yourself to get the most readers possible. It’s a ‘look at me…pleeease!’ world, and we all fall for it. Insecurity abounds as we clamour over each other for the affection of the masses.

Mark Sayers has written a post about his self-promotion conundrum. I too struggle with this tempation. I struggle with the fantasy of having millions reading this website and marveling at what a brilliant writer I am. My ego gets in the way of a simple desire to communicate what I think is some life to a world that is dying.

But then I look at the Gospels, and I see that Jesus never promoted himself. He never said “I’m preaching at the temple tonight. Come along and hear me”. People came to him. The common people heard him gladly. As one of the characters in Ben Hur said, “He speaks words of life”.

Jesus’ motive was always to do what was right. My pastor has said that we have nothing we have not been given. Everyone has a gift. We are all equal. What we have are gifts that have been given to us. So no one is better than anyone else. That means my gift is not to be used for my ego, as if it is something I have developed from scratch all by myself. It is a gift. I have done nothing to earn it. It has been given to me by God to be used for God.

Therefore, if it is a gift, I need to use it, to consider it a ministry. In my case, I feel strongly that the world needs to know the true message of Jesus. This website is a humble attempt to do this. But I need to constantly examine my motives. If I am doing this for my own ego I may as well stop now, but if I am doing it for the kingdom, then it is life-giving.

Sermon – Free to Love!

May 1, 2009 /

Photo by Jerzy MüllerCheck out the latest sermon I preached at my church last Sunday. In it I talk about what it means to be loved unconditionally, how that is completely foreign to a culture in which we are forever having to prove ourselves, and what repentance means in light of that.

The word ‘repent’ has terrible connotations, but I’ll try to explain what Jesus really meant by it and how attractive it can be when seen in comparison to those things that promise the world but fail to come up trumps. The analogy of Odysseus and the sirens may leave you surprised as to the attraction of true repentance.

Fighting the plague of consumer Christianity

April 23, 2009 /

A growing number of people are disturbed by the values exhibited by the contemporary church. Worship has become entertainment, the church has become a shopping mall, and God has become a consumable product.

divine_commodity1The above quote is from Skye Jethani on his new book, The Divine Commodity. In the last year or so, more and more Christians have been expressing their concerns about the rabid onslaught of consumer Christianity – the idea that if you come to God everything will be great and you will be blessed and prosper.

I have been in churches – as I’m sure you have too – where ‘worship’ is definitely entertainment. The band has started playing a song, I’m ready to sing, and next minute there are all these dancers on the stage swinging streamers around their heads and stepping around each other in beautifully choreographed harmony. I wasn’t sure whether I should sing or watch. It definitely wasn’t worship for me.

Books like The Divine Commodity however represent a sign of hope. I have already written a review of Mark Sayers’ The Trouble with Paris. Just in the last week I have also come across another book called Enough! by Will Samson. This book looks at the question, “What would it be like to be formed by communities consumed by God and God’s vision for the world?” Smatterings of N.T. Wright and his oft-quoted question, “What would the world look like if God was running the show?” This book seems a lot like The Trouble with Paris, in that it

include[s] cultural, sociological and theological analysis of the dilemmas of consumption and contrasts them with the writer’s vision of God’s call to abundant life in Christ. In the second part, Samson offers detailed, practical ideas on how believers can make lifestyle changes aimed at embracing wholeness in connecting belief and practice as the people of God.

enough!Isn’t it refreshing that many Christians seem to have had enough of the heresy of health, wealth and happiness that a cultural Christianity has foisted upon us, from those of us in the rich west to the poor in Africa? In the latter case, lives have been ruined by the false hope of a Christianity that promises much materially but then fails to deliver, leaving the victim blaming him/herself for a lack of faith.

I wonder if this push to rid the church of such false teaching is a result, at least in part, of the global economic meltdown. Good can come out of anything, and maybe the good in this is that many Christians are waking up to the unreality of a Gospel that never promises the good life, but does promise life in all its fullness – a fullness that one can only have when fully sold out to Jesus. John Smith said years ago that if there is anything we can be obsessed about in life, it is Jesus. Plead with God to show you more of Jesus, to have your life reflect his, that you be sent as he was sent, to the poor, the vulnerable, the ostracised and the victim. This is the life that is true life, the abundant life in all its beautiful fullness.

50 ways to love your neighbour

April 16, 2009 /

becomingtheanswer_coverIn a nice little play on the old Paul Simon song, ’50 Ways to Leave Your Lover’, Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove have released a book on 50 ways to love your neighbour.

Some of their ideas are listed below. You may be doing some of them already. I think they’re brilliant, and many of them are so simple.

  • Mow your neighbor’s grass.
  • Ask the next person who asks you to spare some change to join you for dinner.
  • Leave a random tip for someone who’s cleaning the streets or a public restroom.
  • Write only paper letters (by hand) for a month. Try writing someone who needs encouragement or who you should say “I’m sorry” to.
  • Go down a line of parked cars and pay for the meters that are expired. Leave a little note of niceness.
  • Write to one social justice organizer or leader each month just to encourage them.
  • Go through a local op-shop and drop $1 coins in random pockets of the clothing being sold.
  • Become a pen-pal with someone in prison.
  • Buy only used clothes for a year.
  • Cover up all brand names, or at least the ones that do not reflect the upside-down economics of God’s Kingdom. Commit to only being branded by the cross.
  • Confess something you have done wrong to someone and ask them to pray for you.

In a world of ungrace, selfishness and random acts of violence, some of the above will further the advance of the kingdom of God. As someone else has said, some of these could be called random acts of kindness.

Kids on Divorce

April 14, 2009 /

I just watched a brilliant episode of Insight which focused on the attitudes of children to their parents getting divorced. As a child of divorced parents, I felt a strong sense of connection with the kids interviewed for this show. It made me realise that my parents’ divorce was pretty ‘normal’ in terms of divorces. It wasn’t absolutely terrible and it wasn’t at all pleasant either. You could see the pain in the children as they discussed their attitudes and how it has affected them. Some of the issues that many readers will probably be able to relate to were:

  • Being the ‘meat in the sandwich’ in terms of having to relay messages from one parent to the other. There was a feeling of being used and manipulated.
  • While alot of parents think kids are very resilient, the truth is that they are deeply affected by divorce.
  • It has put some kids off getting married themselves. This can only be detrimental to a functional society. When kids lose hope, it is not a good sign.
  • Those whose parents parted amicably had a better relationship with them.

It was interesting that it was mostly girls who expressed themselves during the hour-long program. This goes with the trend of males not being able to express themselves as well. Divorce only contributes to a sense of abandonment and behavioural problems later in life.

Well done to SBS for another valuable look into issues facing too many children today.

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