CharlesJones

Writing Down the Jones

Archive for the ‘Words’ Category

August 13
Posted in Science, Words
Tagged

Physicalism in Science (Updated)

Physicalism: the metaphysical position that everything which exists has a physical property; that is, that there are no kinds of things other than physical things.

microscope.jpg

While contemplating the opening salvo of The God Delusion, I started thinking about the ideas of naturalism, materialism, and physicalism in relation to the scientific search to disprove the existence of God. After a while something was nagging at me…it just didn’t fit, logically.

Many people argue that the basis for Christian belief is circular. See Ryan’s second comment on my God Delusion chapter one post. The explanation I’ve heard most often is that the Bible says God is real, and since the Bible says it’s God’s word, it’s true. If all you’re basing your belief on is blind acceptance that the Bible is the truth, then it is quite circular.

But it finally clicked for me yesterday that this crusade undertaken by Richard Dawkins and many other scientists, to effectively disprove the existence of God through science is equally circular. Read more

August 12
Posted in Books
Tagged

Counterpoints: The God Delusion, Ch. 1

Dawkins uses the first section of chapter 1, “Deserved Respect” to set up some things; first, good religion and bad religion. For Dawkins, good religion is what he calls “Einsteinian” (aka pantheism, or natural theology), and “supernatural religion” (aka theism, or supernatural theism, a la Borg) is bad. Dawkins liberally, and glowingly, quotes Einstein embracing “naturalism” (belief that nothing exists beyond the material world, also called “materialism”) and thrashing “supernaturalism”.

einstein_ar.jpgHe then goes on to quote letters from people implied to be Christian leaders to expose the “weakness of the religious mind.” He chooses a sample of writers that in no way reflects the intellectual elites of Christianity to compare to the genius of Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, and Stephen Hawking. This seems like a slightly unfair comparison. Why not sample writings from C.S. Lewis or Alister McGrath? Why not find some people with M.Div.’s from Princeton and Yale? It’s simple, Dawkins is trying to (not-so)subtly set up his second point: that smart people are atheists and Christians/religious people are dumb.

The letters Dawkins samples are perfect for his purpose. They are the product of undereducated, overzealous people trying to protect their mistaken beliefs. They use poor logic and non-Christian theology to attack Einstein. One is far more nationalist (not to mention hateful) than Christian. But is this really an accurate representation of Christians? I don’t have to answer that , do I? Read more

August 9
Posted in Books, Philosophy
Tagged

Counterpoints: The God Delusion Preface

0378_goddelusion_d.jpgHere we are. Ryan has summarized the project pretty well, so I’ll send you there to see his post first (if you’re returning, or started there, read on).I’ll follow his lead in just a moment to give you a little background into me and my perspective, but I do have some comments about Dawkins’ preface to the God Delusion.

Judging from the preface, much of his argument centers around the premise that Christians believe what they do because they were inculcated as children, and that teaching is so ingrained that they refuse to see the “truth” of his arguments: The story of his wife and her school (“I didn’t know I could.”), his comments about there being “no such thing as a Muslim child,” only the “child of Muslim parents,” and statement that “dyed-in-the-wool faith-heads are immune to argument, their resistance built up over years of childhood indoctrination.”

Unfortunately, none of this applies to me. Read more

August 5
Posted in Books, Philosophy
Tagged

Counterpoints

debate.jpgYou may or may not be familiar with the series by Zondervan in which people from different viewpoints each write a chapter and the others write a response. Though it was difficult at times, I’ve enjoyed reading Four Views on Salvation in a Pluralistic World, and Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches. The format is interesting and fulfilling to see the arguments responded to immediately.

In light of that and the ridiculous discussions I have with my brother-in-law, we’ll be having a counterpoints-style discussion of our own. Read more

July 27
Posted in Words
Tagged

Arguing the Faux Facts

798068_justice.jpgOne of the hardest things about being on the conservative/traditional side of a Christian theological debate is dealing with statements like this:

Rather, I see the grand statements about Jesus – that he is the Son of God, the Light of the World, and so forth – as the testimony of the early Christian movement. These are neither objectively true statements about Jesus nor, for example in this season, about his conception and birth. To speak of him as the Son of God does not mean that he was conceived by God and had no biological human father. Rather, this is the post-Easter conviction of his followers.

In this paragraph Marcus Borg, of the Jesus Seminar, states these things as fact: Jesus did not say he was the Son of God or the Light of the World and the statements about Jesus’ divinity are not true. He states this as fact and it’s accepted as fact by many. The problem? It can’t be substantiated. Read more