Richard Dawkins and the "God Delusion"
I was on the internet today and happened to come across a Bill O'Reilly interview of the famed atheist scientist Richard Dawkins. After watching the interview, I really had to say that in my opinion Mr. Dawkins did a much better job of representing himself and his beliefs than Mr. O'Reilly After watching the clip I was intrigued so I did a search of different interviews with Dawkins and was quite disappointed in what I saw interview after interview. For the most part, it seemed like it was Mr. Dawkins who would conduct himself in a much more "Christian" manner than the religious folks interviewing him. Over and over they were very defensive and rather rude to him while he would calmly and patiently present his case, never really getting flustered.
I actually found myself getting angry as people who considered themselves followers of a religion of love treated this guy with such contempt. Let's face it, is it really that surprising to us that there might be people in the world that have a hard time believing that the Earth was created in 6 days, 8,000 years ago and that mankind was tricked by a talking snake? If we would remove our religious lenses for a moment and look at the story objectively, perhaps as one would look at the stories of Roman or Greek mythology, we might be able to at the very least admit, "Well, okay, I can see why you might have a hard time with this."
I find a certain amount of irony in that we believe in a God that even the Bible itself states pretty clearly can't be "proven". Time and time again the point is made that we must live by "faith." Why? Because He can't be proven! There might be evidence to support His existence, but if solid "proof" existed, then society would not be talking about a "belief" in God as there would be no debate. So, if we believe in a God who can't be proven scientifically to exist, then why are we so worried that science will prove He doesn't exist? Let's be honest, religion doesn't exactly have the greatest track record when going up against science in the past. We were the ones that were persecuting people, even killing them in some instances, for believing the Earth wasn't flat, or that the Earth was the center of the universe, or that it was the sun that revolved around us. For some reason when science attempts to provide theories about existence, religion has historically felt threatened. It's as if the idea that the Sun revolves around the Earth was somehow an attack on the credibility of God.
In the Bible, God is never seen challenging his followers to go about the Earth and prove He exists. No, instead we find the challenge to be to love one another. That was the main objective. The story of God has never really been one of science but rather the story of us as people. It's much more about who we are as humans and how we are to interact with each other than it is about anything else. In some cases we have taken stories that were clearly meant to be allegorical in nature and tried to treat them as scientific fact, and in doing so placed ourselves in some very awkward positions as we find that we have to try to explain some rather fantastic view points. When we allow ourselves to focus on proving something rather than loving someone, then we ultimately lose track of the main point.
I really wish we would spend a lot more effort on learning how to treat each other with forgiveness, dignity, and love rather than trying to prove God exists. When it comes down to it, if God is going to be discovered, it's not going to be in a test tube or by looking through a telescope, He's going to be discovered when he is put on display by the hearts that embrace and share His love.
I actually found myself getting angry as people who considered themselves followers of a religion of love treated this guy with such contempt. Let's face it, is it really that surprising to us that there might be people in the world that have a hard time believing that the Earth was created in 6 days, 8,000 years ago and that mankind was tricked by a talking snake? If we would remove our religious lenses for a moment and look at the story objectively, perhaps as one would look at the stories of Roman or Greek mythology, we might be able to at the very least admit, "Well, okay, I can see why you might have a hard time with this."
I find a certain amount of irony in that we believe in a God that even the Bible itself states pretty clearly can't be "proven". Time and time again the point is made that we must live by "faith." Why? Because He can't be proven! There might be evidence to support His existence, but if solid "proof" existed, then society would not be talking about a "belief" in God as there would be no debate. So, if we believe in a God who can't be proven scientifically to exist, then why are we so worried that science will prove He doesn't exist? Let's be honest, religion doesn't exactly have the greatest track record when going up against science in the past. We were the ones that were persecuting people, even killing them in some instances, for believing the Earth wasn't flat, or that the Earth was the center of the universe, or that it was the sun that revolved around us. For some reason when science attempts to provide theories about existence, religion has historically felt threatened. It's as if the idea that the Sun revolves around the Earth was somehow an attack on the credibility of God.
In the Bible, God is never seen challenging his followers to go about the Earth and prove He exists. No, instead we find the challenge to be to love one another. That was the main objective. The story of God has never really been one of science but rather the story of us as people. It's much more about who we are as humans and how we are to interact with each other than it is about anything else. In some cases we have taken stories that were clearly meant to be allegorical in nature and tried to treat them as scientific fact, and in doing so placed ourselves in some very awkward positions as we find that we have to try to explain some rather fantastic view points. When we allow ourselves to focus on proving something rather than loving someone, then we ultimately lose track of the main point.
I really wish we would spend a lot more effort on learning how to treat each other with forgiveness, dignity, and love rather than trying to prove God exists. When it comes down to it, if God is going to be discovered, it's not going to be in a test tube or by looking through a telescope, He's going to be discovered when he is put on display by the hearts that embrace and share His love.
It is controversial but the thought process directs the reader to the mission of our grace giving father. And Christ ruffled the feathers of the religious leaders. We are too scientific and less faith based than a child, to which we are to liken ourselves. I began the read and thought OMG..Will is flipping out on me...but not so. We somehow have made ourselves judge and jury void of love and forgiveness. We cannot defend our faith so resort to trivial matters. Be examples..last I knew..God did not need defending.
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