The Australian carried an interesting opinion piece, written by Pamela Bone, yesterday.
Pamela is a Melbourne writer who believes that we would all be a lot better off without religion. She makes some good points.
She is tired of being treated like a second class citizen by many people who claim to be religious because she doesn’t hold to their beliefs. “Non-religious people are fed up with all the talk about the emptiness, the barrenness and lack of meaning in “secular society”. It may surprise religious people to learn that our lives are not empty. Some people might need to believe in an afterlife in order to find meaning in this one; others don’t. Some might need to believe in a creator in order to be awed by the majesty of nature; others don’t. Some might believe in something higher than themselves and call it God; others believe in something higher than themselves and call it humanity or nature. It makes no difference to how morally they behave. Everything good in religion can be had without religion.”
I can’t agree with everything Pamela says but she raises an interesting point. Do those of us who call ourselves Christians really believe that everyone, apart from us, lead second rate lives? Do we believe that anyone who doesn’t claim to have a connection with God is morally bankrupt?
I have known Christians who have been morally corrupt and non-religious people who have held to extremely high standards. I’ve also known the reverse to be true in some cases. If you’re someone who has felt the sting of Christians looking down on you for your lack of belief please accept my apology. That’s not the message of Christianity and it’s certainly not what the Bible teaches. I’m no more worthy than any other person on the planet and I’m extremely grateful that God is willing to accept me. I have no right to look down on or accuse others.
Atheism is on the rise.
The God Delusion, a book championing the cause of the new wave of atheism, by Richard Dawkins, is just one of the books mentioned in Pamela’s article. She talks about a range of very popular books promoting an atheistic world view. Atheism is on the rise in the western world and while the majority of people would still claim a belief in God, we need to ask why people are turning away from faith.
My regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Ross Clifford is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales and current President of the Baptist Union of Australia. Each week we chat about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.
Today we tackled the recent resurgence of atheism. Ross talked about the origins of atheism and suggested that the church was largely to blame for turning hearts against God. We also talked about Pamela Bone’s article in the Australian. If you’d like to listen to our discussion you can click here. I highly recommend taking a few minutes to listen to our chat. If you want to download the file and listen to it later just right click the link and save.
In the end, I do believe that God and faith add a dimension to my life that it wouldn’t otherwise have. I believe that we were created by God and operate best when we’re connected with him and seeking to follow his direction for our lives.
I believe that non-religious people can be extremely moral but my preference is to know and adhere to moral absolutes that have been put in place by the one who created this world. That doesn’t make me better than anyone else but it does give me tremendous purpose.
Posted by Rodney Olsen
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Interesting points. I have to confess to being one who has often been turned off various religions by the attitudes of a lot of people within those religions. I tend to think, however, that this really comes back to an old human trait seen in many other areas of our behaviour.
Human nature seems to dictate that when we find something that appeals to us, we feel a need to shout it from the rooftops and try to get as many other people interested as possible (even if they feel differently about it). That desire only really goes away when we realise that popularity corrupts most things, but I digress.
Religious “bigotry” is just another example of the same parochialism that sees people who live in a certain area look down on those who live in another area (and living on the Gold Coast I’ve seen a lot of that). The passions tend to be greater when religion is involved, but ultimately the same core elements of human nature are at work here.
I got the Dawkins book for Christmas (which is quite humorously ironic).
I would tend to think that most people are turning away from the church because of education. Any form of higher education is always going to encourage people to think for themselves – and historically organised religion has tried to prevent such activities.
I find the whole thing a fascinating subject.
By the world’s standards it’s pretty easy to be moral, at least the biggies like don’t steal, murder and what? Is adultery amoral? We know that there is nothing wrong with homosexuality according to the world’s standards. Coveting is OK right? That’s why they make commercials 🙂 The world’s standards are low enough that I’m sure that many could skate by with no problems. So, I don’t doubt that there are nice, moral atheists.
But there is a standard that is much higher that none of us can hope to achieve, a standard that is impossible for man, that’s the standard that we will be judged by. None of us will get a pass.
I agree that Christians sometimes get a a holier than thou attitude and we should watch it or we run the risk of presenting a picture to the world that’s not Christ.
Good post Rodney.
Regarding the statement “Atheism is on the Rise” I’m not so sure this is true. I think there is possibly a resurgence of sprituality worldwide (this is well reported) and consequently the hard core more militant Atheists are reacting to this by being more up-front and aggressive about their stance. They are still far outnumbered by the religious and the agnostic masses. Although they would wish otherwise, atheism is not “on the rise” – it’s just more visible.
Of the few serious Atheists I have encountered I have noticed that they seem to hold their beliefs with a fervour akin to serious religious faith, and will act accordingly to “convert” other people to their point of view. Just like love and hate, faith and atheism are not far from each other. The Atheists would detest the idea, but I think capital “A” Atheism is virtually a religious system of it’s own.
“[Believing] makes no difference to how morally they behave.”
That’s a pretty scathing criticism, and one that really makes me stop and think about if my beliefs and my actions add up.
I was also challenging to read her saying that she’s tired of Christians assume that the lives of people who don’t believe are meaningless or empty. I think so much of our talk as Christians leads towards that assumption. It’s a very good reminder to really think about how what we believe, and especially what we say, comes accross to others.
Thanks for posting. 🙂