Monday 15 September 2008

Engaging with the world the creation debate

Whilst browsing the BBC website I noticed this interesting article on creationism
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7613403.stm

Creationism has reached prominence due to the election in America. Sarah Palin stated that she felt creationism should be taught in schools. The God debate has had a profound impact on the US elections with debates on abortion and creationism. At the start of the campaign, when candidates were being selected, the question was asked whether the candidates believed in evolution
The response from three candidates was no. McCain answered yes but attempted to defend his position, to what is a difficult question if you consider micro-evolution.

Often you will hear that people don't care about God anymore, but I perceive that if you engage people they have a view on it. It appears to me that the issue of creationism and whether there is a God is becoming prominent again.

Today on my lunchbreak I wanted through Borders bookshop. I found several books that engaged my interest Radio 4s John Humphrey's "Confessions of a failed atheist" a book about agnosticism, Dawkins now infamous "The God Delusion" and although I did not see it there the referenced Christopher Hitchens book "God is not great". People are willing to put there view forward on christianity and whether God exists. (Now I have not read these books but only browsed them). What encourages me is that we have Christian books emerging such as John Piper's "The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World" and Tim Keller's "The Reason for God".

We need to be those who engage with the world not defensively but offensively. We need to read atheistic literature that attacks God and respond to it, because this is what people think and feel about the King of Kings and we need to engage with them to show them his glory and grace.

Hopefully I'll post my thoughts on the US elections and all that is happening and has happened soon.

1 comment:

Rune said...

Hi Jon,

I've read the books that you descibed except for Piper's and Keller's, not surprising as I'm an atheist. I'll look out for them though.

Hitchens, I find, is quite an angry character and I wasn't that impressed by Dawkins' The God Delusion.

The science vs religion issue rages through lots of blogs.

If you feel like it, drop by Loose Tongue, sometimes it's related to atheism, sometimes just random bollocks. I've linked a few strange characters there as well, who are always up for a good argument.

Cheers

Rune