"A realistic humanism will take into account both our capacity for doing wonderful, amazing things as well as our corresponding ability to do things which are despicable."
I responded:
Thanks for your very positive article (in the midst of so much negative, demeaning, even grievously, harmful media, books, and magazines from a wide variety of worldviews).
A couple days ago, writers and bloggers got so negative, I seriously considered giving up on Internet dialog.
But you've made me a believer again (in the Web:-).
One negative note:
especially the horrific creedal doctrine of Original Sin.
I finally gave up on the Christian religion several years ago
(after over 55 years as a committed Christian).
of Augustinian-Reformed theology, finally preaching Matt Chandler's
wildly popular book, The Explicit Gospel.
In the book, Chandler states that infants are "in essence, evil."
In the very first chapter, he claims that God primarily created humans for himself, for his own "glory."
Then there is God's foreordination of most of us billions to eternal damnation:-( That's, also, for God's own glory. Very strange.
And according to lots of Christian leaders, the God of Jesus Christ has a secret hidden will that wills all rapes and murders and slaughters! Whatever happens is God's will no matter how destructive, how evil.
Yes, this almighty God has created the vast majority of humans for the sole purpose of torturing them forever "for his own glory."
Whew:-(
Doesn't this Christian God, indeed, sound like the negative description of God by Richard Dawkins?
The Christian God is "jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
Yet incredibly this is the "Christianity" which is being promoted by multi-millions of Christians.
Chandler is the minister of a church in Texas with 10,000-plus members and his book is being taught across the U.S. in thousands of churches, even in at least one Quaker meeting. They even put a Chandler video up on their meeting website:-(
And millions of other Christian leaders are claiming this theological obscenity is the Truth.
I know you are aware of all of this, since you got your theology degree at a Reformed seminary,
and have written in depth against Timothy Keller's theology,
but your title reminded me of what I have been delivered from:-)
Keller's book ought to have been titled The UnReason of Our God.
And since, you also wrote that we humans do have an "ability to do things which are despicable," and you write, repeatedly, that you are for humanism, compassion, and empathy, I gather you are aware that many others besides Christians hold to destructive views.
Maybe, you might consider changing the title of your blog from the negative "Godless in Dixie" to something positive like "Humanist in Dixie."
For instance, lots of atheist leaders are claiming we human beings have no choice, but are "puppets, "meat computers," "bags of chemicals," "tumors all the way down," and other demeaning terms.
And they state that ethics are subjective preferences, that slavery, rape, slaughter are no more wrong than not liking a beverage or a color:-(
To misquote a famous peace song by Pete Seeger:
"Where have all the humanistic leaders gone?"
Fighting against the Ocean of Darkness,
Daniel Wilcox
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