THOUGHTFUL ON CHRISTMAS EVE
Like New Year's, Christmas Eve is a good time for contemplating our lives and role in God's universe. Below are three writers whose recent articles bring good food for thought this night.
1. Marvin Olasky, Journalism Professor, editor of World Magazine and one of the treasures of today's world of Christians, has a top-flight article on how journalism should be corrected and practiced today here. (HT Hugh Hewitt.) Core below:
"After all, if the Bible is God's Word, can any other words trump His? Since only God knows the true, objective nature of things, doesn't His book, the Bible, present the only completely objective and accurate view of the world? Shouldn't our goal be to see the world as much in biblical terms as our fallen and sinful natures allow?"
Marvin's article sets a benchmark for good journalism in the future. It deserves to be read in full. (In it he also shows how anyone can read two of his major books on journalism, but for free, on line. Not many writers give their books away free!)
2. More from Michael Novak's fine article quoted below in yesterday's blog, this time on how our freedoms arise from the very nature of God. (Read whole article here.) Today's featured exerpts:
"Jesus Christ taught humans to give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's. ...The very idea of everything belonging to Caesar is false in principle. The modern idea of democracy follows in the wake of this teaching of Christ.
"...Jesus Christ introduced into modern Europe the idea of the dignity of every single individual, especially the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable...To come to the aid of the poor is an essential idea of modern democracy.
"There are other ideas key to democracy embedded in the Christmas drama...One of the most important of these other ideas is the inalienable liberty of individual persons.
"This God, as William Penn of the Society of Friends explained, created the world so as to place within it women and men to whom He could offer His friendship. They would be free to accept or reject his friendship, since He wished not slavish friendship but the friendship of the free...Since He made the universe for friendship, the Creator had to make it free. Freedom lies at the heart of things."
3. Finally, a touching account of how two atheists changed course this year. See Andrew Klavan's story in the Wall Street Journal today, exerpted below:
"Antony Flew and I found God this year. We had different reactions to the discovery.
"Mr. Flew, an 81-year-old professor of philosophy in Britain, had been a leading champion of atheism for the past half-century. He has now hesitantly accepted a version of what's called the argument from design...What's more, on the secularist Web site www.infidels.org, writer Richard Carrier says he has contacted Prof. Flew and reassures his fellow atheists that the professor is proposing only a "tentative, mechanistic Deism" and continues to deny the possibility of an afterlife.
"So that's how Prof. Flew responded to his encounter with the Divinity. Me, I got baptized.
"...Perhaps the argument for nonbelief most identified with the professor was what he called 'the presumption of atheism.' Here, atheism is understood in its negative sense: The atheist doesn't assert that there is no God; he simply doesn't accept that a legitimate and meaningful concept of God exists. For such an atheist, the burden of proof lies, as it does in law, with those who make the positive assertion--that is, for those who believe.
"The presumption of atheism seems to me to be at the heart of all scientific reasoning about religion. And as I'm someone who loves and believes in science, it was a major stumbling block for me most of my life. After all, why would anyone believe without proof in that for which there is no evidence in the first place?
"...When Prof. Flew looks to DNA and the mysteries of creation for God, I propose that he's looking in the wrong direction. Let him, rather, talk to a recovering alcoholic in whom God stands surety for the diseased will, or visit a Salvation Army shelter where God has taught a despairing soul its worth. Let the professor--in the name of experiment--sit in solitude and give silent thanks and feel the almost instantaneous repayment in the coin of vitality and joy. In such situations, I refuse to acknowledge that there is a legitimate and meaningful concept of there being no God. The burden of proof is all on atheism.
"Like an art critic who proclaims the genius of a blank canvas and then stands sneering as the millions pass it by for yet another look at the Sistine Chapel, scientific atheism seeks to proceed from nothing when human experience is the only reasonable place to start. This world of pleasure and suffering will be as it is either way, and we may each of us face it as we choose. But as one can legitimately see design in the chaos of evolution and recognize providence behind the mask of history, so God undeniably may be known to live in the experience of being human.
"God alive in the experience of being human. What a concept.
"Merry Christmas, Prof. Flew."
Yes! And Merry Christmas to you all!
1. Marvin Olasky, Journalism Professor, editor of World Magazine and one of the treasures of today's world of Christians, has a top-flight article on how journalism should be corrected and practiced today here. (HT Hugh Hewitt.) Core below:
"After all, if the Bible is God's Word, can any other words trump His? Since only God knows the true, objective nature of things, doesn't His book, the Bible, present the only completely objective and accurate view of the world? Shouldn't our goal be to see the world as much in biblical terms as our fallen and sinful natures allow?"
Marvin's article sets a benchmark for good journalism in the future. It deserves to be read in full. (In it he also shows how anyone can read two of his major books on journalism, but for free, on line. Not many writers give their books away free!)
2. More from Michael Novak's fine article quoted below in yesterday's blog, this time on how our freedoms arise from the very nature of God. (Read whole article here.) Today's featured exerpts:
"Jesus Christ taught humans to give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's. ...The very idea of everything belonging to Caesar is false in principle. The modern idea of democracy follows in the wake of this teaching of Christ.
"...Jesus Christ introduced into modern Europe the idea of the dignity of every single individual, especially the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable...To come to the aid of the poor is an essential idea of modern democracy.
"There are other ideas key to democracy embedded in the Christmas drama...One of the most important of these other ideas is the inalienable liberty of individual persons.
"This God, as William Penn of the Society of Friends explained, created the world so as to place within it women and men to whom He could offer His friendship. They would be free to accept or reject his friendship, since He wished not slavish friendship but the friendship of the free...Since He made the universe for friendship, the Creator had to make it free. Freedom lies at the heart of things."
3. Finally, a touching account of how two atheists changed course this year. See Andrew Klavan's story in the Wall Street Journal today, exerpted below:
"Antony Flew and I found God this year. We had different reactions to the discovery.
"Mr. Flew, an 81-year-old professor of philosophy in Britain, had been a leading champion of atheism for the past half-century. He has now hesitantly accepted a version of what's called the argument from design...What's more, on the secularist Web site www.infidels.org, writer Richard Carrier says he has contacted Prof. Flew and reassures his fellow atheists that the professor is proposing only a "tentative, mechanistic Deism" and continues to deny the possibility of an afterlife.
"So that's how Prof. Flew responded to his encounter with the Divinity. Me, I got baptized.
"...Perhaps the argument for nonbelief most identified with the professor was what he called 'the presumption of atheism.' Here, atheism is understood in its negative sense: The atheist doesn't assert that there is no God; he simply doesn't accept that a legitimate and meaningful concept of God exists. For such an atheist, the burden of proof lies, as it does in law, with those who make the positive assertion--that is, for those who believe.
"The presumption of atheism seems to me to be at the heart of all scientific reasoning about religion. And as I'm someone who loves and believes in science, it was a major stumbling block for me most of my life. After all, why would anyone believe without proof in that for which there is no evidence in the first place?
"...When Prof. Flew looks to DNA and the mysteries of creation for God, I propose that he's looking in the wrong direction. Let him, rather, talk to a recovering alcoholic in whom God stands surety for the diseased will, or visit a Salvation Army shelter where God has taught a despairing soul its worth. Let the professor--in the name of experiment--sit in solitude and give silent thanks and feel the almost instantaneous repayment in the coin of vitality and joy. In such situations, I refuse to acknowledge that there is a legitimate and meaningful concept of there being no God. The burden of proof is all on atheism.
"Like an art critic who proclaims the genius of a blank canvas and then stands sneering as the millions pass it by for yet another look at the Sistine Chapel, scientific atheism seeks to proceed from nothing when human experience is the only reasonable place to start. This world of pleasure and suffering will be as it is either way, and we may each of us face it as we choose. But as one can legitimately see design in the chaos of evolution and recognize providence behind the mask of history, so God undeniably may be known to live in the experience of being human.
"God alive in the experience of being human. What a concept.
"Merry Christmas, Prof. Flew."
Yes! And Merry Christmas to you all!
posted by Old Neocon at 7:21 PM
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