The quote comes from Ryan Bell, the high profile Adventist pastor (now ex-Adventist) who lived a "year without God", in his review of James Lindsay's new book Everybody Is Wrong About God. It's a book for those of us who are uncomfortable with the rigidity of both 'atheist' and 'theist' positions as they are usually presented. If you're somewhere in the borderlands between the two camps and looking for a third option, post-theism - "moving on to a post-theistic conversation about life itself", may resonate.Lindsay "claims that atheism and theism exist in a kind of symbiosis, one enabling the existence of the other. Atheism is a not-thing; a negation. It exists as a counterpoint to theism and can only continue to be a distinct idea if the notion of theism is still a credible set of ideas. Escaping from this vortex is essential if we are to move to the important issues facing humanity and the planet. We do this, Lindsay argues, by calling the question on theism, pronouncing it dead, and then moving on to a post-theistic conversation about life itself—the actual psychological and social issues that are the very real issues keeping the idea of “God” alive."
Yet another worthless pursuit in nonscientific thinking. Scripture claims that faith is the gift of God -- therefore, according to the Bible, you can't believe in God unless He wants you to. There is no other absolute "proof" that God even exists except faith -- none.
ReplyDeleteAtheists simply don't believe that there is any real evidence that shows God's existence. It isn't a belief system, per se. Certainly, with the exploration here of the validity of the Bible, it seems that using the Bible as any kind of guide to know who and what God is, is an exercise in futility. There seems to be major fails in simple things like prophecy, there are massive inconsistencies and, worst of all, many of the books seem to have been forged.
Theologists, particularly those who use the Bible as their reference guide to spew their nonsensical opinions as high priests of intellectual hubris, don't seem to have any worth at all, outside of an intellectual academic exercise. "Everybody is Wrong About God" isn't helpful, since it may well be that if the atheists are correct, then they are right about God.
As for actual psychological and social issues, one need only look to The Journal to know what flawed reasoning it is that theology, particularly in the form of Armstrongism can keep the idea of "God" alive, when the false prophets of the cult are driving people away from even a concept of God, since they are factually wrong about their religion (as in British Israelism is a crock which has been debunked) and people notice. If they can't be trusted, why would anyone want to follow them and since they have so fouled up their little messy nest so badly, preserving their alcoholic delusional society just isn't an option.
More useful would be a book titled, "When Are You Going to Admit Your Religion is Useless?".