Thursday, October 9, 2008

Agnoxious



I wonder if you would know how to answer Bill Maher.
Is there a difference between faith and reason?
Is it rational to believe in the God of the Bible?
How would you defend the rationality of faith in Christ?
How would you explain the appropriateness of God's jealousy?

I have to admit that I am empathetic with Bill Maher. Some of the stuff that Christians peddle is nothing short of ridiculous. I have a "Bible Bar" and "Your Best Life Now" Board Game in my office to prove it. I wonder how often our goofiness gets in the way of our witness? Even Senator Prior concluded that faith in the Genesis account (wrongly characatured by Maher) was probably unintelligent. Of course the likes of Al Mohler, Cornelius Plantinga, and Ravi Zacharius are noticably absent from his film. I don't think Maher would fare well against great minds.

Maher's problem however is not just with the stranger elements within evangelicalism. He is openly scandalized not only by the idea of God but even more by the message of the gospel. For this there is no remedy save the grace of God breathing life into into his unregenerate heart.

6 comments:

melledge said...

Maybe under pressure I might also say something stupid. But it just seems amazing to me that someone would defend his belief in creation by saying, "you don't have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate." Frankly, Bill Maher walks away from that discussion looking like the hero. I guess that's the idea, since it's his movie.

Todd Pruitt said...

Matt,

You're absolutely right.

Mike said...

I heard him interviewed recently on NPR as well and quite frankly I think he came off as quite self-righteous...as some Christians can be.

I think we all need a good dose of humility and perhaps realize that we don't have all of the answers. As Christians I think we offer certainty in a world of uncertainty when perhaps uncertainty is something we must embrace to a degree....kinda like kissing your aunt.

Anonymous said...

Are you trying to get me going again!!! :)

If we don't have any certainty (truth) to offer then what do we have to offer ?

Are you certain that we should embrace uncertainty to a degree ?

Mike said...

harley...not trying to crank you up for that sake alone...but in answer to your question "Are you certain that we should embrace uncertainty to a degree?"...yes

Mike said...

...wanted to follow up my answer to your question to say that I realize that I have stepped into the postmodern conundrum (i.e. "if everything is uncertain then we can't be certain about uncertainty")...but I think to dismiss the notion of uncertainty by those standards is not helpful to the discussion. The same could be applied to modern views of certainty yet I still think it is helpful to talk in terms of "what we know...or at least what we think we know"