Some good news for a change

I'm still working my way through God Is Back. This time I wanted to share some good news, always nice to hear in this troubled time.

For one thing, America today is a strong refutation of the idea that modernity was bound to destroy religious faith. The United States today is still very religious. For example, 9 in 10 Americans believe in the existence of God or universal spirit. A majority of American adults say they pray at least once a day. Around 75% believe in life after death. Nearly 80% believe that miracles still occur today as they did in ancient times. Over 60% report they or members of their family belong to their local church or house of worship. One statistic I found interesting was that 21% of atheists say they believe in God or universal spirit. How does that happen? Oh well...

Europe seems to be waking up to religious faith too. Over 2 million Britons have taken the Alpha course, which focuses on spiritual growth. Pilgrimages are booming. The number of adult confirmations in the Church of England has risen sharply. Religious people in Europe reproduce more enthusiastically than secular people, which may give religion an important long-term advantage.

The authors report a mountain of evidence that religion is good for you, according to social scientists. For example, one doctor has discovered that weekly church attendance can add 2 to 3 years to your life. Another study found that religious observance might enhance immune systems and lower blood pressure. Religion also seems to be correlated with happiness. Attending religious services weekly has the same effect on people's reported happiness as moving into a higher income distribution. Religion can also combat bad behavior. One study found, for example, that religious participation is associated with lower rates of crime and drug use.

Religions in America provide much good for their communities. The authors use Philadelphia as an example. More than 90% of the city's congregations provide a social service of one sort or another. They provide medical care, they work to alleviate poverty, they help prisoners, they try to improve the lot of single-parent families. One person calculated that it would cost Philadelphia $250,000,000 a year to replace all the work done by the churches.

In a later chapter, the authors talk about an interesting change in Christian intellectualism. At one time evangelicals were not considered intellectual heavies. But today, the authors report, evangelicals are rediscovering the life of the mind. They credit Billy Graham and C. S. Lewis as major influences. Over the past 30 years the proportion of evangelicals earning at least a college degree has increased more than any other religious tradition. Several universities have set up Veritas forums that bring students and professors together to discuss the relevance of Jesus Christ with intellectual issues.

Yes, there are terrible things happening in the world today. But it's nice to know that religion, and especially evangelical Christianity, is on the rebound. We are part of a movement that is helping the world today.

God is Back--life without God didn't work out so well

I'd like to continue summarizing an interesting new book called God is Back.

After the introduction the authors look at what happened to religion in Europe -- the triumph of secularism. The Enlightenment began it all. Two characteristics of this movement were confidence in human reason and confidence in human goodness. Wow, today, of course, we see the flaws in that type of thinking, don't we? The key event that demonstrated believe in reason and goodness was the French Revolution in the late 1700s. Following this event, several intellectual giants chipped away at the foundations of faith. The main challenge came from Charles Darwin, but there were others -- Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud,, and critics who attacked Christianity and the Bible as a historical document.

The authors have an interesting statement by Voltaire that shows down deep what these critics really believed. No matter how he and his kind argued against religion, he knew there was value in it: "I want my lawyer, my tailor, my servants, even my wife to believe in God, and I think that then I should be robbed and cuckholded less often."

Those that knocked down religious faith felt the need to replace it with some other ideology. One of the most powerful as the call of science. For example, H. G. Wells and others believed that the world should be ruled by a scientific elite. Another religion substitute that flourished in the 19th century was the call of culture (the arts). A third secular ideology was the worship of the nation-state. Finally, the fourth ideology was socialism. In the 20th century many of these new faiths came together under vicious totalitarian regimes--communism and Nazism leading the list. If this political nightmare was the result of these replacement ideologies, we today should not place our hopes in them. But people don't seem to learn.

By the mid-20th century it looked like secularism was a total success. One author in 1968 assured the New York Times that by the 21st century, "religious believers are likely to be found only in small sects, huddled together to resist a worldwide secular culture." Things did not work out quite that way.

In a following chapter the authors ask why America evolved so differently from Europe. Of course, we know the story of our founding by religious groups. But the authors say America was not born religious -- church members never made up more than one-third of the adult population of New England before the American Revolution. Instead, they assert that America became religious. In the 1740's the land experienced the first of what was called a Great Awakening. And then the American Revolution came along, a unique event in modern history because it was a revolution against an earthly regime but not an exercise in anti-religious sentiment. The colonies embraced religion along with liberty, reason, and popular government.

The Founding Fathers did not want to see an established church like those in European countries, but they did not want to drive religion out of the public square. They believed the answer was making religion a matter of individual conscience rather than statecraft. They argued that the separation of church and state was good for both religion and state. What resulted was a free market in religious forces, which cause clergymen to compete. The result of all this religious energy was spectacular. The proportion of churchgoing Americans rose, another great awakening took place, and a true American ideology developed, which rejected hierarchy and tradition.

American evangelicals took over. They formed societies of all kinds, they provided an inspiration for America's emerging political system, and they swept away the age-old distinction between the clergy and the laity. This accomplished much good, another refutation to those secularists who fear American religious fervor.

But the 20th century saw several setbacks to American religion. First was the split in American Protestantism between liberals and fundamentalists. Protestants also lost battles against drink (Prohibition) and Darwin (evolution). Academic reformers came up with new, secular models for university life, replacing the religious model that emphasized virtue as well as knowledge.

Evangelical America had a resurgence later in the 20th century. Liberals had overreached with court decisions, protest marches, soft-on-crime judges. Billy Graham, Campus Crusade for Christ, Jerry Falwell and other individuals and groups kept religion in the news.

The authors seem fair in their historical analysis. They leave me with a good feeling, knowing that America got it right and avoided the horrors of secularism in control.

God is Back--some good news

A few months ago I read an article in World magazine about an interesting new book called God Is Back by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge. The overall point of the book is the explanation of how and why religion is booming around the world, contrary to what many secularists expected as the 21st-century began. I bought the book, read it, and would like to take you through certain portions of it.

In the authors' introduction they discuss the amazing growth of Christianity in China. Even a conservative estimate of the total number of Christians in that country exceed the total number of members in the Communist Party. Some believe Christians may well number over 100 million. They focus on a Chinese government economist, who wrote in a widely read essay about his travels around America. He argues in this essay that the key to America's commercial success is not its natural resources, its financial system, or its technology but in its churches -- "the very core that binds Americans together." The authors reveal that this economist later converted to Christianity.

This growth of Christianity has surprised many people who believe that the modern world would marginalize religion. Europeans have spent the last 200 years trying to free themselves of religious influences. America was a bit odd in their eyes since its people had always assumed religion and modernity could thrive together. Right now it looks like the American model is succeeding -- religion and modernity are going hand-in-hand all across the globe.

Secular intellectuals were looking forward to an atheistic world. Boy, have they been disappointed. You can see their exasperation in such books as The End of Faith, The God Delusion, and God Is Not Great. They are confronted with seeing the wrong sorts of religion worshiping -- not the mild, mainline Protestantism, but evangelicalism. In fact, the most remarkable religious success story of the past century has been the most emotional Christian religion of all -- Pentecostalism. Atheists are also frustrated by the kinds of people who are turning to religion. They expected it would be the weak, the ignorant, or the fearful. However, today it's actually the upwardly mobile, educated middle classes who are driving the explosion of faith. In America, the evangelicals are well educated and well off, much to the surprise of secular leaders and mass media pundits who have incorrect stereotyped images of religious people.

The authors give several reasons for the increase in religious beliefs. For one thing, the political classes in the West are waking up to the enduring power of religion. People over the last forty years have seen the overreach of elitist secularism. Politicians who have told us they can solve our problems have been shown to be failures. The authors believe competition and choice are driving the surge in religion just as they have in market capitalism. They say the American model of religion, one that is based on choice, is winning because it effectively blends God with modernity.

Christianity has spent longer grappling with modernity than other religions, so it's no wonder that it is doing so well on the world stage. The authors compare this attitude with Islam, where modernity does not sit well. It remains the world religion that has found pluralism hardest to cope with. Islam has not been through a Reformation, let alone an Enlightenment. The authors grant Islam is a power today, but they believe it will not be the direction we go in the future. Let's hope they are right.

This brief overview gives you an idea of the book's premise. In future blogs I would like to explore a few more specific points the authors bring up.

Gay marriage is in the news again

Just when you thought the people had voted clearly in California that they didn't want same-sex marriage, a judge comes along and throws the results out the window. In our local paper today, I read about an exultant gay woman who held up a sign reading, "Life Feels Different When You're Married." This sign encapsulates the entire pro-gay marriage argument as one of feelings rather than logic. Maybe it would be helpful for you to see a piece I wrote for the same paper a little over a year ago. It gives logical, non-religious answers to those who urge gay marriage. Here goes:



A recent letter by Peggy Hart (February 9th) looked forward with delight to the possible overturn of Proposition 8, the ballot measure that rejected same-sex marriage in California. She suggested the proposition passed only because churches “intimidated their flocks by telling them the Lord does not want gay people to have the same rights as straight people.” Hart later claimed Prop 8 supporters were “threatened with damnation” if they didn’t back the measure. Is that why the proposition passed? No, of course not. There were solid, non-biblical, non-theological reasons why California should have voted no to same-sex marriage.

First, Prop 8 didn’t take away any rights or benefits of gay/lesbian domestic partnerships. California Family Code 297.5 says that “domestic partners shall have the same rights, protections, and benefits, and shall be subject to the same responsibilities, obligations, and duties under law.” Gays are asking for a special right, namely to wed someone of the same sex. It is not a violation of the equal protection clause to deny this special right. If it’s not really about rights, what is it about? In one word—approval. Same-sex marriage is an attempt to force society to approve a lifestyle that many oppose for various reasons.

Secondly, the proposition established a positive type of discrimination. We discriminate all the time. For example, we don’t let blind people drive. We are simply making a legitimate distinction in that case between sighted and blind individuals. We think it’s better for society to limit drivers based on vision. The same is true for marriage. We discriminate between two types of marriages for legitimate reasons that benefit society. Researchers have found children do best having both a mother and a father, an arrangement that occurs in opposite-sex marriages. However, same-sex marriages deny children either a mother or a father. Therefore, government protects and sanctions opposite-sex marriages, which produce the next generation and creates civilization itself.

In addition, Prop 8 recognized that any change in the institution of marriage opens the door to all sorts of odd and potentially destructive relationships. Once we have redefined marriage to include a gay or lesbian couple, how can we exclude any arrangement? What’s to keep three men from wanting to have a “marriage”? Why not a 10-year old girl and a 50-year old man? A brother and a sister? There’s no logical or legal reason why any other grouping should be excluded.

If people wish to reconstruct an institution and its legal definition, the burden of proof for the change is on them. It’s unfair to attack those who simply hold the traditional, legal, social, and linguistic meaning of a word. It’s especially unfair to do what the letter writer did—assume the Prop 8 supporters were religious bigots, carrying out the commands of their church leaders. Instead, there are plenty of logical, non-theological reasons to oppose such social engineering. Gays and lesbians have the liberty to live as they choose, and that’s as far as the law should go.

A last look at Keller's book

This will be the last blog on Timothy Keller's book, The Reason for God. So far I have covered the first six chapters, which offer various defenses of the Christian faith. This blog will take on the challenge by secularists who say that you can't take the Bible literally.

The author tells an interesting story about Anne Rice, famous as the writer of Interview with the Vampire and other horror/erotica books. She started out as a Catholic but lost her faith at a secular college. After wild success at writing vampire books, Rice announced she had returned to Christianity. Why? She had initially accepted recent scholarship that offered historical reconstructions of the early Christianity. This scholarship suggested there were new gospels and that most of the classic Christian teachings about Jesus were mistaken and based on legends. Then she did her own research. She says she was amazed at how weak this recent scholarship is: "Some books were no more than assumptions piled on assumptions... Conclusions were reached on the basis of little or no data at all... I discovered in this field some of the worst and most biased scholarship I've ever read."

Keller takes on scholars who argue that the Bible is a historically unreliable collection of legends. He specifically points out the Jesus Seminar, a group of people who say very little of Jesus sayings and actions can be historically validated. They believe the New Testament Gospels were written so long after the events that they cannot be trusted. They also believe there were many other gospels that were suppressed by the church in a power play. Does this sound familiar? It's the same message contained in a wildly popular book The Da Vinci Code.

But Keller has strong arguments against these ideas. First, the timing is far too early for the gospels to be legends. Paul's letters, written within 15 to 25 years after the death of Jesus, contain the same basic message that we see in the gospels -- the miracles of Jesus, his claims, the crucifixion, and, most importantly, his resurrection. He cites other authors who say at the time the gospels were written there were still numerous well-known living eyewitnesses to Jesus's teaching and life events. In addition, there is no other alternative gospel that was written as early as the four canonical books (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John). For example, the Gospel of Thomas is dated no earlier than 175 A.D. Secondly, Keller says there is no evidence the later church created the gospels to support their views since Jesus never takes sides in any debate they were going on in the early church. In addition, the content in the gospels is far too counterproductive for the gospels to be legends. Consider how the disciples are shown -- petty and jealous, slow-witted, and cowards. Another point Keller raises is the literary form of the gospels. It is too detailed to be considered as legend. As support, he uses C. S. Lewis, a world-class literary critic, who said there is a huge difference between gospel accounts and ancient legends. There is irrelevant detail, and the stories often take the limited vantage point of a participant rather than that of an omniscient narrator.

Keller notes another approach by critics is to complain about the Bible's cultural stance. Some see the Bible as outmoded because it seems to support slavery and the subjugation of women. However, in the first-century Roman empire at the time the New Testament was written, there was not a great difference between a slave and the average free person. This was not the slavery of the African slave trade nearly 2000 years later. In Roman times slaves made the same wages as free laborers and often were able to buy themselves out of slavery. Keller says it's arrogant for us to use our time's standard of "progressive" as the plumbline by which we decide which parts of the Bible are valid and which are not.

I have only covered half of Keller's book through these seven blogs. The second half of The Reason for God deals with effective reasons to have a faith in Christianity. This part of the book is well done too, but I want to move on to other topics. This book is for both Christians and non-Christians alike -- check it out for yourself.

Discouraging news

I hate to bring bad news, but I came across the following piece commenting on our current economic situation. It's pretty depressing, but it's what could be expected from simply throwing money at our problems--

The signs of a deep and sudden slowdown in the US are becoming ever clearer as the "sugar rush" from the Obama fiscal stimulus wears off and the inventory boost fades. California, Illinois and other states are cutting spending, tightening US fiscal policy by 0.8 percent of GDP.

Thursday's plunge in the Philadelphia Fed's July index of new manufacturing orders to –4.3 suggests that the economy may have buckled abruptly, as it did in mid-2008. The Economic Cycle Research Institute's ECRI leading indicator has tumbled, reaching –8.3pc last week. This points to a sharp slowdown or recession within three months.

While US port data looked buoyant in June, the details were troubling. Outbound traffic from Long Beach fell from 139,000 containers in May to 116,000 in June. Shipments from Los Angeles fell from 161,000 to 155,000. This drop in exports is worsening the US trade deficit, eroding the dollar.

The US workforce has shrunk by a million over the past two months as discouraged jobless give up the hunt. Retail sales have fallen for the past two months. New homes sales crashed to 300,000 in May after tax credits ran out, the lowest since records began in 1963. Mortgage applications have fallen by 42pc to 13-year low since April. Paul Dales at Capital Economics said the "shadow inventory" of unsold properties has risen to 7.8m. "The double dip in housing has begun," he said.

Back to me--I can't wait until November. Let's clear Congress of both parties and start over. This bunch is looking after their own interests, not ours.

Keller--one more time

Let's see . . . I had just said I wouldn't get distracted and went back to summarizing key chapters in Tim Keller's book The Reason for God. Then I got distracted with another left-wing plot that I had to rant about. Sorry . . . I feel better now, so it's back to Keller again. This is an important book to share with non-Christians, so I do intend to finish it. In a later chapter he takes on another challenge to Christianity: the fact that many believe science has disproved belief in God. He uses Richard Dawkins as a good illustration for this idea. It was Dawkins who said Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist. In another book Dawkins argues that a person cannot be an intelligent scientific thinker and still hold religious beliefs.

Keller challenges one reason for this belief, the fact that miracles have supposedly been disproved today. He starts by noting that the statement "no supernatural cause for any natural phenomenon is possible" cannot be tested since it is not a scientific finding, but rather a philosophical presuppositions. Science, by its nature, can't discern or test for supernatural causes. This belief that miracles cannot happen seems to be based on the idea that there cannot be a God who does miracles. Of course, Keller says if there is a God, there is nothing illogical at all about the possibility of miracles. The idea that God does not exist actually is an article of faith since his existence can be neither demonstrably proven or disproven.

The author then challenges the idea that science is in conflict with Christianity. Take the idea of evolution. Christians may believe in evolution as a process without believing in philosophical naturalism, the idea that everything has a natural cause and that organic life is solely the product of random forces guided by no one. He uses as an example Francis Collins, an eminent research scientist and head of the Human Genome Project. This man believes in evolutionary science and critiques the intelligent design movement. However, Collins also believes that the fine-tuning, beauty, and order of nature nonetheless point to a divine creator. So here is someone who believes in evolution and God.

At this point I part ways with Timothy Keller. It is true that Francis Collins portrays himself both as a scientist and a sincere Christian. But his position, commonly known as theistic evolution, simply makes no sense. How can you have evolution, commonly defined as unguided, be guided by God? That term, theistic evolution, strikes me and many others as an oxymoron. I wish Keller had used other challenges to evolution from the intelligent design movement.

Okay, back to the issue of science being in conflict with Christianity. Keller says this idea is losing credibility with a growing number of scholars. The concept of a conflict between science and religion was a deliberate exaggeration used by both scientists and educational leaders at the end of the 19th century to undermine the church's control of their institutions and increase their own cultural power.

Keller uses two famous studies to show many scientists see no incompatibility between faith in God and their work. In 1916 40% of scientists who were surveyed said they believed in a God who actively communicates with humanity. In 1997 this survey was repeated -- the numbers have not changed significantly in 80 years. One theologian wrote that most of the unbelieving scientists he knows are atheists on other grounds than their science.

Going back to the idea of evolution, Keller looks carefully at Genesis 1. He says the relationship of science to the Bible hinges not only on how we read the scientific record but how we interpret certain key biblical passages, especially the first chapter of Genesis. He notes that Christians have a wide range of interpretations of this crucial chapter. Keller takes the view that Genesis 1 and 2 relate to each other the way Judges 4 and 5 and Exodus 14 and 15 do. In each couplet one chapter describes a historical event and the other is a song or poem about the theological meaning of the event. He believes Genesis 1 has the earmarks of poetry and is therefore a song about the wonder and meaning of God's creation. He sees Genesis 2 as an account of how it happened. He believes it is false logic to argue that if one part of Scripture can't be taken literally then none of it can be. That isn't true of any human communication. His conclusion is that people considering Christianity as a whole should not allow themselves to be distracted by this intramural debate. This person should concentrate instead on the central claims of Christianity -- the person of Jesus, the resurrection, and the central tenets of the Christian message.

There is one more chapter in Keller's book that I would like to examine next time. And, of course, this chapter represents a quick overview. There are plenty of good books and articles that deal with the issue of science and Christianity, so if you are interested, let me know and I can get you some more information.