thoughts out !oud

a Christian’s news, views, opinions and occasional poetry …

Lazy Myth: Christianity oppresses scientific truth and is closed-minded, aka the Galileo case

As Christians, it seems we are forbidden to ever broach the topic of who the Western world’s fathers of science were. Heaven forbid, especially, that we mention that many of them were faithful, Bible-believing Christians and then follow this up with the bold (but factual) claim that the methods employed by modern science today, and that science as an established and sustainable institution, happened within only one period – and in one part of the world – in history: that of Europe, in the period then known as Christendom.

I made the fatal mistake of dropping this claim into a little discussion on a related topic and it wasn’t long before someone piped in with their contrary piece of wisdom: “Just ask Galileo what he thought about Christendom [sic] great… Continue reading Lazy Myth: Christianity oppresses scientific truth and is closed-minded, aka the Galileo case

Lazy Myth: There is no reasonable evidence for Christianity

This somewhat blasé objection goes something along the lines of: I don’t believe in the Christian God for exactly the same reasons you don’t believe in Odin (a Norse god) or the Tooth Fairy.

(This argument is actually a softer variant of Stephen Roberts’s argument: I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.)

Firstly, the issuer of this argument (which is actually nothing more than fluffed-up rhetoric) is attempting to pursuade his opponent and/or audience not by reason nor by contradictory evidence, but purely - and unjustly - by association. He is stating, by inference, that only the misinformed, immature and childish… Continue reading Lazy Myth: There is no reasonable evidence for Christianity

Fruit-loops and ding-a-lings

Sometimes the most insightful tidbits you learn about the Christian faith come neither from the church pulpits nor from the myriad of sermons/messages available on the internet. Sometimes they come from estranged conversations with faceless strangers. The one I’m about to extrapolate a little on happened in a Christian channel on an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) server. The simple truths just blew me away at the time. Let me try to relate them.

I have long had a feeling that the segregation of the mainstream churches into its various denominations (and non-denominations) has made genuine Christian worship a stale affair. That is, each church community has enmeshed its specific style of worship into its doctrinal beliefs - which serves only to muddy the waters of true and… Continue reading Fruit-loops and ding-a-lings

Re-writing the Bible

“How can you believe a book based on events that happened over 2000 years ago?” “It’s a case of Chinese Whispers … there was original truth then, down through the centuries, retelling after retelling, the real truth was whittled away, the story was embellished and we now have myth.” “What about the books not included in the Bible?”

These are just some of the objections that get bandied around every Continue reading Re-writing the Bible