Marginal Christianity

Thursday, January 5, 2017 — Adam Kotsko There are three varieties of atheism. Only one of them is actually interesting. “Matter of course” atheism — this is the position that belief in God is clearly superfluous, both for explaining the natural world and for developing a coherent moral code. It’s not a matter of deep conviction, hence not very interesting in itself. “Smarter than you” atheism — this is the worst kind, represented by the New Atheists. It goes beyond “matter of course” atheism by supposing that atheism can be a positive doctrine that must combat benighted religious doctrines. It always threatens to veer toward racism, because when they notice societies where atheism has failed to make major inroads, they start to wonder if there’s something… intrinsically wrong with them, you know, as a group . Protest atheism — this is the only kind worth discussing, because it calls the God of monotheism to account for the injustice and suffering in the world. Interestingl...

The Book of the Twelve for Lent 2016 The Problem with Idols – Habakkuk (3) “What use is an idol once its maker has shaped it— a cast image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in what has been made, though the product is only an idol that cannot speak! Alas for you who say to the wood, “Wake up!” to silent stone, “Rouse yourself!” Can it teach? See, it is gold and silver plated, and there is no breath in it at all. But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!”                                        (Habakkuk 2:18-20)             The inimitable and late-lamented David Foster Wallace glosses Habakkuk’s analysis with his own luminous insight. “Because here's something else that's weird...

Posted by W. Travis McMaken Kimlyn J. Bender, Confessing Christ for Church and World: Studies in Modern Theology (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2014). The first “word” is “The Word of God in Jesus Christ” (p. 272). This has to do with Christian particularity. Bender reminds his readers – by way of Barth – that any Christian response to atheism must be properly Christian, and not vaguely theist: “Theism may appear as a proper response to a growing atheistic secularism, but for Barth, such was fool’s gold. Theism may be an appealing alternative to a generic secularism for those who lament the loss of so-called Christian culture, but generic theism is helpless before a true idolatry” (p. 273). The second “word” is “A Word of Judgment” (p. 273). Here Bender draws on Barth’s criticism of religion to make the point that atheism is “but a new form of religion, which is itself a very old form of idolatry” (p. 273). This is...

Dwight Longenecker     From American Atheistic Materialism…Good Lord Deliver Us.   And the plea is appropriate because prayers for deliverance are a kind of exorcism, and if any society needs exorcism it is the American Atheistic Materialistic society.   Pope St. John Paul II said there were two atheistic materialistic societies: Communist Russia and the Unrestrained Capitalism of America. The philosopher pope asserted this not because he hated America or was against capitalism per se , but because he was against the kind of unrestrained capitalism which is a form of atheistic materialism.   “Materialism” is a popular nickname for greedy consumerism. We say a woman is “materialistic” if she does nothing but go to the mall and shop until she drops. We call a man “materialistic” if all he cares about is his financial success, his career and the prosperity, power and pleasure his success will buy him. These forms of materialism are symptom...

Eugene McCarraher ▪ Fall 2014     Culture and the Death of God by Terry Eagleton Yale University Press, 2014, 248 pp.   God has been through a very rough patch over the last 500 years. Once the Creator and Ruler of the universe, He fell into a long and precipitous decline with the advent of modernity. Dethroned as Ruler in the North Atlantic by religious tolerance and democracy, the Almighty watched helplessly as science refuted His claim to be the Creator. Historians, archeologists, and literary scholars broke the spell of His holy books, impugning their inerrancy and exposing them as riven by myths, errors, and contradictions. Add popular education, material prosperity, and longevity extended by better diet and medicine, and God’s hold on the moral and metaphysical imagination grew ever more attenuated.   Secular intellectuals have been of two minds about the Heavenly Father’s demise. Hoping that the last king would be strangled with the entrails o...

http://nblo.gs/11R7mL If you want to critique organized religion, it helps to know what you’re talking about. by Matthew Facciani   I’m an atheist who engages in secular activism and is active within the atheist community. I’m also doing doctoral work in the cognitive science of religion, and I’m sad to see so many atheists who have misguided and ignorant views about religion. Here are five things I wish more atheists knew. 1. Religion is not the sole cause of violence. This view, endorsed by well-known atheists such as Sam Harris and Bill Maher , is often justified by referencing terrorist acts done in the name of Islam. But blaming religion for violence prevents us from seeing all that drives violent behavior, including social, psychological, and political factors. Atheists who think religion causes violence could use an education in social identity theory and the process of radicalization . The process of how one’s beliefs (whether they are religious...

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2014/03/18/3965697.htm Tomas Halik ABC Religion and Ethics 18 Mar 2014 The struggle between faith and atheism is not between two teams. Rather, it runs through the heart of every human being. Believers wrestle with doubt, and unbelievers often nurture profound belief. I Christians, Jews, Muslims and atheists have one thing in common: they don't believe in gods . Indeed, as Cardinal Tomas Spidlik liked to say, "Christians were atheists for the first 400 years." What he meant was that, for the Roman and Greek pagans, the Jews and the Christians of the first centuries were pagans. They had no God whose name others recognized. They were "without" gods. Even now, we Christians may seem like atheists in the eyes of people of other religions. It is very important to recognize that our God is not merely one exemplar of a group of beings called "gods." He is a great Mystery . Sometimes I find myself agree...