Approaching Atheists

Jason at The Cynical Christian is running a series, with Jennifer F. of “Et tu?” – the diary of a former atheist called “Approaching Atheists.” In it they discuss how Christians should interact with atheists. You can browse the whole series by checking out the posts labeled “approaching atheists”. I particularly thought the most recent two posts (as of now) were beneficial to read: the Top 9 Don’ts and Dos for Talking With Atheists.

Definitely check out the series. This is a very important issue for modern Christians in this society, as atheism is on the rise. We need to know how to talk with atheists, how to understand their position, and ultimately how to win some of them over.

Sadly, I think many times in interactions between Christians and atheists, the Christians end up doing more harm than good. Three don’ts for talking with atheists particularly jumped out at me as things I see a lot and that cause major problems: “Quote the Bible,” “Use a lot of Christian catchphrases,” and “Devalue the importance of science and logic.”

Often when talking with atheists, people quote the Bible. Although this is generally done with good intentions, and there is definitely a time and place to use the Bible, at least understand that an atheist does not believe in the Bible. As the article on Don’ts points out, quoting the Bible to an atheist would cause the atheist to feel like you would if your doctor used a Harry Potter book as his source of medical information.

Additionally, quoting the Bible without any sort of justification other than “it must be true because the Bible says it” to an atheist will only reaffirm his or her probable belief that all Christians are merely mindless sheep devoid of logic who couldn’t spot a circular argument if it bit them on the nose. Christians don’t need to be illogical to truly believe in their faith. We know that. We need to show the atheists that.

The next don’t I mentioned was the use of a lot of Christian catchphrases. If, right off the bat without much of an explanation, we tell an atheist to “Open your heart to Jesus, who died on the cross for you, and be washed in the waters of baptism, for the forgiveness of your sins that are covered with the blood of Chist and so that you may receive the gift of the Holy Spirit who will dwell in you,” chances are he or she will shut down right away. Although we know what these phrases mean, someone unversed in Christian theology will only hear religious mumbo-jumbo that will probably reinforce the belief that theists are illogical.

Finally, and importantly, many times Christians devalue the importance of science and logic while they talk with atheists. As the series points out, to many atheists, science and logic are the pinnacles of existence, as they are “what separates us from animals.” Science and logic have their uses, and to simply deny them will cause the atheist to close you out very fast. This isn’t to say that there is a place for pure faith, but it’s hard to convert someone on “blind faith” (although this isn’t to say that it can’t be done).

Also, keep in mind that science and logic are works of God. To refuse to give them the respect they deserve would be to dishonor a facet of God’s great creation.

One other thing to note is that, although atheism is increasing in our society, outright atheism is still in the minority. Far more common, however, are nonreligious people who act very much as if they don’t believe in God, and probably rarely think on the issue. For the most part, we should use these guidelines for talking with these people too, at least until we get to know them better.

In an increasingly secular society, it is very important we know how to interact with atheists, so we may sow good seeds among the still-white fields.

Christian

I was talking with someone about a conversation she had with a friend of hers. I don’t remember the details, but it involved the use of the word “Christian.” The person I was talking to said how she had a “Christian” upbringing. This offended her friend, as she felt that her own upbringing was being called “not Christian.” Her friend also talked about how she was offended when the person I was talking to talked about how her children had “Christian friends.” Her friend seemed to think this implied that Christian friends were better.

Her friend felt like her upbringing was “Christian” too. She wanted to be called a “Christian.” When asked if she believed in Christ, she said no, but didn’t think that made a difference.

This (of course) got me thinking about the word “Christian.” In modern society, the word “Christian” has started to become trivialized. In his book Mere Christianity (a very good book, by the way), C. S. Lewis talks about this problem of abuse of the English language. You can read the passage here.

Lewis compares the word “Christian” to the world “gentleman.” He talks of how “gentleman” used to mean something simple- one who had a coat of arms and property. However, the meaning has changed, from the actual definition of the word, to instead describe the qualities a gentleman should have. This is a very important idea.

The first time a group of disciples were called “Christians” is chronicled in Acts 11. The second half of the chapter describes the church in Antioch. The text of Acts 11:19-26 reads:

Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

The transliterated Greek word for “Christian” used here is “Christianos,” which literally means “a follower of the Anointed [that is, Christ].” Looking at the above passage, we can determine several qualities that the Christians at Antioch possessed.

First of all, the message at Antioch was preached to both Jews and Gentiles. We read that the Lord was with them, and many “turned to the Lord.” Perhaps more importantly, Barnabas there saw “evidence of the grace of God.” They were also “true to the Lord with all their hearts.”

So, according to the passage, I would venture to say that, for one to be considered a Christian in the true sense (as opposed to whatever the whims of culture consider it) he or she must be a believer and follower of God (being the true God), be true to Him with all his or her heart, and have His grace for the times when they fall. Therefore, unless another way has been found to earn the grace of God besides through the death of Jesus (or a way has been found to live a perfect life that is free of sin), the only way to be a Christian is to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

One final thing: why are people in secular society so anxious to earn this title of “Christian”? Why would people want to be considered Christian if they do not follow Jesus Christ?

Just like “gentleman,” people like the qualities associated with being considered “Christian.” This is actually very good. People recognize “Christian” as something good, and if you are not “Christian,” then that is something bad.

True Christians need to seize this opportunity to tell others just why being a Christian is so good. And, above all, we need to continue behaving as Christians should.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

The movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed opens in theaters today. For those of you who haven’t heard, it is an Intelligent Design-related movie that attempts to show that scientists and educators are persecuted because of their religious faith or their questioning of evolution.

As one can imagine, it has generated a good deal of controversy. ID critics have attacked it in numerous ways, from claiming that they mislead interviewees, including Richard Dawkins (yeah, he’s one to talk), to complaining about who was allowed to see invitation-only advanced screenings.

As for me personally, I just hope that they did a good, honest job on the movie. So many times something big in the whole origins debate comes up and the theist end (ID or whatever it happens to be) falls flat and ends up being more of a detriment to Christian apologetics, which is unfortunate, because there really are good arguments for Christianity. Hopefully the movie is a quality, solid support of the ID movement, and not something that will give critics of theism and Christianity more stuff to blast while ignoring the real arguments.

Tom Gilson at Thinking Christian has a post reminding everyone, whatever the movie ends up being, to be calm and thoughtful about it. For more information, I’d recommend browsing through his posts tagged “expelled.”

Easter

Regardless of whether today is the actual, calender-date anniversary of the resurrection of Jesus, and regardless of whether it is theologically allowed to treat this day as “special,” this is as good a time as any to reflect for a moment on the Resurrection.

I heard a story today about a newsman reporting the holiday as “today is the day Christians gather to celebrate the alleged resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

I actually like this. Most reporters I heard today simply described it as “celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.” It felt like they were treating it as simply a religious belief or a matter of opinion- you either believe it or not. Opinions cannot be true or false, so questioning whether the resurrection actually happened would be pointless.

Adding “alleged,” however, changes it. It no longer is simply a personal decision to either believe or not believe. An alleged event is an event that someone has claimed to have happened. The resurrection makes a claim of historic truth, and opinions matter little in the face of truth.

In a way, all Christians are conspiracy theorists. The official word explaining the disappearance of the body of Jesus was that the body was stolen. We believe otherwise. We believe that the body of Jesus, although completely dead, was restored to life, and that Jesus got up, walked out of the tomb, and appeared to many people before ascending into Heaven.

The Resurrection is the core tenant of the Christian faith, and is either a historic event or not. Merely dismissing it as a matter of opinion is to misunderstand Christianity.

On the subject of Easter, Martin LaBar at Sun and Shield has a good thought on the Resurrection, and Tom Gilson has two new posts on “The Ironies of Easter,” and has reran a post on the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Many will recognize these words from the song “Low in the Grave He Lay” (from Cyberhymnal- careful of the auto-playing sound):

“Death cannot keep its Prey, Jesus my Savior;
He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord!

Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever, with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!”

“You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.”

-Mark 16:6

Thoughts on The Golden Compass

If you’re at all involved with the Christian community, chances are you’ve heard the controversy surrounding The Golden Compass, a kid’s movie that comes out tomorrow (Friday the 6th). This is more than just another Harry Potter, though; the book that the movie is based on is written by militant atheist Philip Pullman. It’s part of the trilogy His Dark Materials, which contains serious anti-religion (particularly anti-Christian) themes.

There are a couple things to clarify. First of all, when people talk about the anti-Christian themes in the book, they really mean the themes in His Dark Materials. I have yet to read the trilogy, but as I understand it, the antitheism gets worse in the later books. Additionally, the movie is reportedly much tamer than the books. The concern is that the movie will inspire kids to read the books, which will put “bad thoughts” into their heads.

Personally, I disagree with the proposed boycott of the movie. We can’t shelter our children from atheism forever. Atheism is getting more and more popular in our society, and kids need to be exposed to it. If we don’t teach them about it, they’ll learn it in school and on the streets.

I think that instead of blocking out every competing worldview (and thus indoctrinating our kids like the antitheists claim), we should focus on training our kids in apologetics. That way, when they are confronted with other views, they’ll know why they are Christians and be able to defend their faith.

From my experience, a problem with Christianity is that too often we don’t train our kids in apologetics. Looking back at my younger days, I can’t think of a time when an adult talked to me about rational reasons to be a Christian. Even now, I still can only think of a handful of times when apologetics has been taught in a class. The vast majority of my apologetic knowledge is from my own research. This should be considered a problem.

Don’t get me wrong, I do think we should shelter our kids to a certain extent. We shouldn’t go reading The God Delusion and God is not Great to eight year olds, but we should teach kids age-appropriate apologetics lessons (the movie is rated PG-13, so hopefully none of the younger kids will be seeing it).

So although I don’t think Christians should promote The Golden Compass, I don’t think they should boycott it. Remember, all things work together for good. This movie could even promote an interest among kids in apologetics.

Bottom line: We shouldn’t be completely sheltering our kids from non-Christian worldviews. Instead, we should teach them why they’re Christians, so they can defend their faith when the inevitable confrontation comes.

I want to recommend a couple posts about the Golden Compass. First of all, Jeffry Overstreet at The Looking Closer Journal has an excellent article on questions people have asked him about The Golden Compass. Martin LaBar at Sun and Shield has a couple of posts too. Finally, Tom Gilson at Thinking Christian has a listing of all his posts on the movie.

If you disagree with any of my opinions or statements, I welcome your thoughts in the comments. Thanks for reading, grace and peace be with you.