“I do not see the value of belief systems that consistently
devalue others by telling them they're bad people for not believing the same
things or having some sort of moral superiority. Also the amount of hatred from
these groups that manifest into violence turns people away.”
So says Brandon Phinney who is a state representative in New
Hampshire. He is writing in
response to an article in a New Hampshire newspaper which notes New Hampshire
is the most secular state in the United States.
His screed goes on to make the usual arguments about separation of
church and state and how science has disproved religion and so forth. His
arguments are mostly clichés and show that, like many who trample on religion,
he actually knows very little about Christianity and religion in general.
First, Christianity does not devalue anyone.
Christianity doesn’t condemn anyone because they don’t believe the “same
things.” Christianity starts from the proposition that all of us are in
the same boat – we are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God.
There is a completely level playing field. Moreover, Christians
understand they’re not special because they follow certain rules or have
attained some sort of moral “superiority.” Quite the contrary, Christians
recognize their depravity and are joyful because of what God has done for them,
not because of any merit on their part. Christians
find their solace in the glory of God through the redemption found in repenting
of that sin and accepting that Jesus took on the sins of the world through his
sacrifice on the cross at Calvary. Finally, I defy Mr. Phinney to show
the violence Christians “manifest.” Specifically, I’m referring to actual
violence, not the faux violence of being “offensive” by saying words that
people don’t want to hear. Christians don’t commit acts of violence
because it violates the very core of what it means to love neighbor.
Those who act violently and claim they’re doing God’s work have no understanding
of the very clear words of Scripture. Worse, Mr. Phinney’s hypocritical
resort to stereotypes is precisely the very kind of verbal “violence” of which
he and others accuse Christians.
Finally, does it not “devalue” Christians to make the kinds of claims
you are making, Mr. Phinney? Yes, I so
enjoy the irony – atheists just can’t help themselves!
Phinney also argues “In an age of information, scientific
progress and exploration and the understanding of the workings of our world, it
is difficult and to be frank, rather foolish, to hold onto archaic beliefs that
deny reality.” (DEEP SIGH). First,
I’m unaware of Christians routinely “denying reality.” Christians know that the world operates
according to principles of physics and chemistry and biology. Gravity exists; whales inhabit the oceans;
termites eat wood; light has peculiar properties of both particles and waves. Mr. Phinney ought to spend a few hours at the
Creation Museum in Kentucky. What he
would find is that Ken Hamm isn’t denying that things happen, mostly he points
out the facts are equivocal, not that they aren’t facts. So when a Christian sees how certain birds
are made such that they are able to pull seeds out of pine cones, eating some
and dispersing others, he or she says “look how God made this work.” The secular-materialist, like Mr. Phinney,
can only say, gosh look how as a result of cosmic accidents and time these
things happen. Both parties agree on the
reality – the question is how that reality got to be the reality.
By the way, Mr. Phinney, using the word “archaic” to describe
Christian beliefs doesn’t make them incorrect.
Guess what Mr. Phinney, people long before Isaac Newton understood
gravity – you didn’t need to tell people in Jesus’ time that if they threw a
rock into the air it would come back down.
But even more astounding, Mr. Phinney, people in Jesus’ time knew that
sexual intercourse was required to have children. Shockingly, they also knew that when people
died, they didn’t come back to life.
These are reasons why Jesus’ story is so unique and unusual – he defied
what people waaaaaaay back then, those “archaic” morons back then, KNEW was the
norm for human beings. The truth is
that those archaic beliefs (that sex creates children, that dead people stay
dead, that rocks thrown up do fall down) are the same beliefs that you, Mr.
Phinney, also accept as true.
You deny Jesus was born of a virgin mother and that he was
bodily resurrected. I understand that’s
what you mean by archaic foolishness.
However, I don’t believe that those things are normal, Mr. Phinney. They happened ONCE for all time. Not even in the Bible does anyone ever get
resurrected and stay alive forever. Yes,
Jesus performed miracles, including raising his friend, Lazarus, from the
dead. But it was temporary. Lazarus later died. I don’t conclude this stuff happens all the
time – but I guess even once is too many times for you. That seems awfully odd coming from someone
who believes that with time + chance just about anything can happen . . . but
what does a silly Christian like me know?
What I guess I find most bizarre is that Mr. Phinney, as an
atheist, seems to think it matters that he believes what he believes. There cannot be any objective absolutes in
your system of belief, Mr. Phinney, just educated guesses because nothing
remains stable in your system – you said it yourself – our “understanding of the workings of our world”
is somehow different than it used to be.
I don’t agree this is true – our understanding is not much different, we
just know more facts. Our understanding
is still pretty much the same as it was even 3,000 years ago when Solomon wrote
the following: the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor
bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the men of
skill; but time and chance happen to them all.
For man does not know his time. (Ecclesiastes 9:11-12). Two thousand years ago, Paul wrote in Romans
11:33 that God’s ways are inscrutable.
The truth is we don’t have control of our reality, Mr. Phinney, God
does. As a result, our feeble efforts to
control reality fall flat every time.
There’s an amazing irony that the Brandon Phinney’s of this
world claim they only believe in facts and rational thinking, but then seem to
claim they somehow can control reality while those of us who believe in God
recognize we aren’t in control. Who is
the truly rational one here?
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