Carnival of the Godless #64

I enjoyed meeting you yesterday in Minnesota, and I think that what you have done to open a dialogue with the religious may have some long-term benefits as they see that we really don’t always breathe fire nor do we always succumb to the temptation to use the Bible as toilet paper.

I look forward to reading the book; but until I do I have a few legitimate concerns that what you are doing with churches is actually being used to “improve” their worship and honing their evangelization towards atheists.

Of course my suggestion on how they can improve their churches is to forget the whole “God” thing and live in the here and now, but I doubt that they would listen. But doesn’t it bother you to think that you are being used by church leaders? The Q&A session was too short IMHO and time was taken up by people asking questions that I thought were irrelevant to your particular story.

I look forward to reading your book, but if you haven’t addressed this question in the book, have you addressed it in other places? If not, would you please address it for me here?

Thanks
Tangled Up in Blue Guy

So, Bjorn, I got that and I am sure that what Hemant is trying to do is based in his desire to achieve friendly discourse between the religious and the Godless. If, as it seems to be, that churches are making changes based on what he tells them they are doing wrong then isn’t he helping them strengthen their mission?

That’s what I would like to read. It seems to me that Hemant is opening himself up to being used. He can’t control what they write about him, and even one article made the false claim that he has converted to Christianity.

Siamang, I understand what you’re saying about wanting to exhaust all the possibilities in a search for God in the name of intellectual rigor, but there are an infinite number of dumb ideas. Is it really necessary to spend an infinite amount of effort investigating their infinite number of possibilities? If after thousands of years of argument by people just as smart as anyone alive today we haven’t found that one golden argument that clinches it, is it not beyond reason to keep looking? There are far more important here-and-now questions that must be answered. What a colossal waste of brain power.

Have you ever searched for something for hours and finally given up, and only then because of the actions you took after giving up you found the thing? My keys, my glasses, God, the TV remote; maybe we should give up and win. Maybe when the last person on earth completely gives up looking for God only then will humanity take actions that will finally reveal whatever transient, unknowable truth is there for the knowing if it’s there at all.

Is it really necessary to spend an infinite amount of effort investigating their infinite number of possibilities?

I’ll leave that effort to the believers. If they are content to look under every rock and peer into the dark matter of the universe looking for the First Cause (hallowed be Thy name), let them by all means.

What I’m attempting to communicate to Mike is that rational people have nothing to fear from Christians upgrading their arguments. I would like them to PLEASE upgrade them! Much of their previous ones have become a bit old and tired out and no fun to play with!

😉

But I don’t fear, “oh nooooes, Hemant might give away our soooper sekret atheist counter-challenges, and then a church might figure out the Holy-Handgrenade against Skepticism!”

Sorry for the silly tone of my reply. I don’t mean to make light of your comments, Mike Haubrich and Richard Wade. My sentiments are sincere.