And now, a word from Stephen Fry.

One of the things that seems to be a common theme among believers who start to question their faith is the realisation that we look at what others believe and think, “what a load of nonsense”, then look at what we believe and start to wonder why it’s any different. Certainly that’s a line of questioning I’ve been looking at. Richard Dawkins has an excellent bullet-point summary of what Christians believe in his God Delusion, and if you read it and try to imagine how it looks to a non-believer you’d think “how on earth could anyone believe that?”.  (I’d like to quote that section here but I seem to have lent my copy to someone and I can’t remember who.)

I was reminded of it when reading Stephen Fry’s account of his tour of America. I’ve reached his vist to Salem, where he’s talking to Laurie Cabot, High Priestess and “Official Witch of Massachusetts”. She mentions that Christians have gone from persucuting witches to scorning them for their superstition.

Stephen Fry’s comment: 

“I murmur sympathy, which is genuine. To me, all religions are equally nonsensical and the idea that Christians, with their particular invisible friends, virgin births, immaculate conceptions and bread turning into flesh, could have the cheek to mock people like Laurie for being ’superstitious’ is appalling humbug.” 
(Stephen Fry in America, p.34) 

The Christian Agnostic

When I stared labelling myself as an “Agnostic Christian”, I thought I was being quite clever and original.  The full summary of my ‘religious view’ on my facebook profile says

Agnostic Christian. (Or is that Christian Agnostic? I can’t make up my mind.)

…which was supposed to be clever (can’t make up my mind. Get it?). But it should come as no surprise to me that the idea is far from original. In fact I’ve just discovered a 1965 book called The Christian Agnostic” (Leslie D. Weatherhead) that I’d rather like to get hold of. There’s a fairly long extract here, from which I shall quote just this one section:

I am writing for the “Christian Agnostic,” by which I mean a person who is immensely attracted by Christ and who seeks to show his spirit, to meet the challenges, hardships and sorrows of life in the light of that spirit, but who, though he is sure of many Christian truths, feels that he cannot honestly and conscientiously “sign on the dotted line” that he believes certain theological ideas about which some branches of the church dogmatize; churches from which he feels excluded because he cannot “believe.” His intellectual integrity makes him say about many things, “It may be so. I do not know.”

That may describe me. A bit.

A Christian Facebook? Why?

Can you imagine my delight when I received this invitation this morning?

Special Invite to join the first Facebook Alternative for Christians 
Get in early! Sign up today! 

FaithOut.com
www.faithOut.com 

Friends + Faith = Fellowship 

Part of the CTV Network http://www.christian.tv
www.praize.com – www.xianz.com – www.faithout.com 

“FaithOut” appears to be an utter rip of of facebook; I had a look at the screenshots (like this, for example) on the site and they seem to have copied every little thing. But my question is: Why? Why? Why does such a thing exist?

One thing I’ve never understood is the desire by some parts of the church to cut themselves off completely from the world. To only seek medical advice from a Christian Doctor, for example. (Steve Taylor summed it up in a song back in the early 80s – when I was listening to Christian music – in the line “you’ll only drink milk from a Christian Cow”.) 

And in this case, why not just encourage Christians who want to use a social networking site to use an existing one, where hopefully they can be a positive influence and reach out to their friends from all areas. That’s supposed to be the idea, isn’t it? 

One good thing: I was impressed that my email programme marked the invitation as spam. Good job!

There’s probably no bus.

I was sent this today, and it made me chuckle:

 (Update: I should point out that I have no idea where this came from originally. I claim no creative input! If you made this image and happen to see it here, please let me know and I’ll credit you accordingly.)

(Further update! 29 January 2009: I’ve now been approached by the creator of this, who’s asked me to replace the version I had with this one which has his watermark on the bottom. Thanks, Hedgehog from Hell. Loving your work!)

(Yet another update and an apology – 30 January 2009: If you saw this site this evening you may have had the misfortune to see a truly repulsive image that I would not have wanted anyone to see. The guy who’d made the bus stop image had his reasons for changing the picture and hadn’t realised I’d linked directly to it. Entirely outside of my control, but my apologies none the less to anyone who saw it.)

Do I regret being a Christian?

Daniel, writing from his position as a “former Christian” over at Unreasonable Faith asks an interesting question:

Was belief a waste of time?

Many readers of this site have religious backgrounds. Do you think being religious was a waste of time for you? That is, do you wish you were always an atheist/agnostic/skeptic?

 In many ways, I wish I had the foundation of skepticism for my entire life. But I also don’t think my time believing in God was a complete waste. I came to love reading, found great friends, and asked many questions that would eventually lead me to atheism. My belief was a necessary part of who I am now, and why this blog exists. It’s a hard question for me to answer.

How about you?

There have been lots of interesting responses. Well, I don’t quite fit into the category of people he refers to in the opening line, but even so I thought it might be quite interesting to try to answer the question. So I replied, and this is what I found myself saying:

Great question Daniel, and lots of interesting responses. I’m still in the church and calling myself an “agnostic Christian” so have some thoughts on this.

My background first: not raised in a religious environment, converted to Christianity by big London Crusade at the age of 15 (Luis Palau at QPR stadium). I’d found somewhere I felt at home. Joined local Baptist church after an invitation and have been there ever since. That’s 25 years. Active member of the church, was on the leadership team as a deacon for six years, helped with various evangelistic campains over the years, still play drums in the worship band. (Learned especially so that I could do so.)

Over recent years, began to feel that much of what we do in church (not just in my own church but wider) just doesn’t make sense. Am feeling it might possibly be just a load of superstitious nonsense. have read Delusion and some other bits, am trying to balance that with reading some more Christian material but generally finding it just isn’t interesting me and I’m not finding arguments convincing. Am in regular dialogue with my minister and others about all this. One thing I decided not to do is pretend, so anyone I speak to at church or outside knows that I have no clue whether I believe there’s a God or not.

Anyway – to your question. No, not a waste of time. The majority of my friendships have been made within the church, and most of my life experience is intrinsically liked to it. Most of my musical ability has developed and been encouraged and nurtured within the church. (Indeed, it’s often referreed to as my “gifting”.) I now play drums in a local rock band and have no way of knowing whether I’d ever have got involved and learned to play if my life had taken a different path. Most significantly of all, I met my wife there. And where would I be without her?

Now I’ve got older and (just a little) wiser, I recognise in myself a greed and selfishness that’s probably not healthy. I do suspect that being in the church has helped me keep this under control while I didn’t have the self-confidence and self-awareness to do so under my own steam, so to speak. I think being in the church has kept me safe from a lot of external influences that I could well imagine me struggling with.

However…

… that last point is something of a two-edged-sword. It’s only recently that I’ve realised one of my regrets in life is that by shutting myself away in the church at the age of 15, just when I should have been getting out into the world and experiencing things and making choices and learning, I’ve probably missed out on a lot. Maybe not all good experiences, but I missed them none the less. And as a 40 year old family man with responsibilities, a wife and a young child there is simply no way I’ll ever have such opportunities again.

So – time wasted? No.
Opportunities missed? Yes.

But happy with where I am just now. Ask me again in another ten years.

 

A new start…?

Take a look at my previous post. Do I, or do I not, say that I’m going to post here more often this year? Hmm.  Not going very well, is it?

I do have a few ideas for subjects to post about. I want to say something about photography, and my increased use of Flickr to publish snaps of things I see. I’m quite tempted to write a review of my new phone. There’s always the option of saying something about what it feels like to turn forty (which I did on the first of January). And of course I really do need to catch up with my thoughts about God, which are, after all, the original purpose of this blog.

So why do I not just do it? It’s not as if I never get the opportunity; I spent an awful amount of time online: reading other blogs, mooching around on Facebook and Flickr, idly browsing YouTube.  And I often have ideas and thoughts that I think I could/should blog about, but the moment passes, another evening flies by, and it gets forgotten. I can post here from work, even (at lunchtime, of course, as I am now) so there’s really little excuse except my laziness.

So – I’ll refine my “resolution”. Rather than just a vague “try to post here more often”, I’ll aim for “post here from work at lunchtime every time I’m in the office”. (Which is three days a week.)

Let’s see how that goes.

7:15am. Not funny.

7:15am. Not funny.

Originally uploaded by Trevor Coultart

I was awoken this morning by loud noises outside my bedroom window. I was not amused.

Mac worship

Forth of January already and this is my first post here for ages. And to think that my only resolution (well, vague thought, really) was to post here more often I’m not doing too well so far.

Anyhow - read this this morning and enjoyed it.  You might like it, too.  Perhaps.