Bias, Prejudice and Free-Thinking

Dr Peter Slezak, senior lecturer in history and philosophy of science at UNSW, has an interesting opinion piece in today's SMH.

I first took one of Peter's subjects in my first year at uni. I remember talking to a Christian friend about the subjects I was studying, and when he heard I was taking "Science: Good, Bad & Bogus" he told me that Peter Slezak was really "anti-Christian." This got me worried, but I shouldn't have been. Sure, Peter is a staunch atheist who has no time for unintellectual views, but we actually got along very well. Sure, he'd poke fun of beliefs he thought were stupid, but he was always quite happy for students to stand up and disagree with him, as long as they produced a decent argument.

In total, I took five subjects with Peter as an undergraduate - I like to call that a minor in Slezak Studies! His "efforts at brainwashing" failed, however. I'm still a Christian, and even after 3 years of anti-SSK messages, I've become somewhat sympathetic to a sociological view of scientific knowledge. I think Peter is more disappointed about the latter...

I think it's of crucial importance that academics are allowed freedom of thought and expression in universities. I think all students should have their beliefs challenged, no matter what they are. Universities should be places where students learn to think critically, and to question everything. The great thing about Peter's classes is that he wasn't really trying to brainwash his students with his point of view - he was trying to get students to think. Bias and prejudice are unavoidable - everything is always taught from some kind of perspective - but as long as students are being marked on their ability to think and argue critically, rather than on their adherence to a party line, what is the problem?

God said go forth, multiply - but have fun, too!

It's awesome to see articles like this in the mainstream media!

God made wine to make us feel better

Psalm 104:14-15 - You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart.

See Lionel's post on The Sola Panel: What's wrong with drunkenness?

Photo from Mister Tim's Photostream on Flickr.

What does the Bible really say...

...about the end of the wicked? Try this Hell Quiz. And check out this post on Doug's blog.

Conversations

I don't know how to say this
I don't know how to stand
I don't know where to put my feet
Or where to put my hands

I've got them in my pockets
My fingers are freezing cold
They're wrapped around a ticket stub
That's four weeks old
And I don't know how to say this

I think we've figured out
This world is bigger than you and I
We've exhausted our wealth of knowledge
And have no more answers for mankind

We've had every conversation in the world
About what is right and what has all gone bad
But have I mentioned to you that this is all I am
This is all that I have

I'm not trying to judge you
That's not my job
I am just a seeker too
In search of God

Somewhere somehow this subject became taboo
I have no other way to communicate to you
This is all that I am
This is all that I have

We've had every conversation in the world
About what is right and what has all gone bad
But have I mentioned to you that this is all I am
This is all that I have

I would like to share with you
What makes me complete.
I don't claim to have found the Truth
But I know it has found me

The only thing that isn't meaningless to me
Is Jesus Christ and and way he set me free
This is all that I have
This is all that I am

- Sara Groves

A Mere Christian

I currently attend an Anglican church, but I would not call myself an Anglican. I used to attend a Baptist church, and I was baptised, by full immersion, as a believer, at age 12, but I would not call myself a Baptist.

I am a Christian, a Mere Christian, of no other Religion; and the Church that I am of is the Christian Church… But must you know what Sect or Party I am of? I am against all Sects and dividing Parties…

- Richard Baxter, Church History of the Government of Bishops, 1680

Complementarity without hierarchy

A very interesting blog.

What would Jesus deconstruct?

This sounds like a very interesting book.

Charity or intolerance?

What the New Atheists Don’t See, by Theodore Dalrymple

Let us compare Hall’s meditation “Upon the Sight of a Harlot Carted” with Harris’s statement that some people ought perhaps to be killed for their beliefs:

With what noise, and tumult, and zeal of solemn justice, is this sin punished! The streets are not more full of beholders, than clamours. Every one strives to express his detestation of the fact, by some token of revenge: one casts mire, another water, another rotten eggs, upon the miserable offender. Neither, indeed, is she worthy of less: but, in the mean time, no man looks home to himself. It is no uncharity to say, that too many insult in this just punishment, who have deserved more. . . . Public sins have more shame; private may have more guilt. If the world cannot charge me of those, it is enough, that I can charge my soul of worse. Let others rejoice, in these public executions: let me pity the sins of others, and be humbled under the sense of my own.

Who sounds more charitable, more generous, more just, more profound, more honest, more humane: Sam Harris or Joseph Hall, D.D., late lord bishop of Exeter and of Norwich?

No doubt it helps that Hall lived at a time of sonorous prose, prose that merely because of its sonority resonates in our souls; prose of the kind that none of us, because of the time in which we live, could ever equal. But the style applies to the thought as well as the prose; and I prefer Hall’s charity to Harris’s intolerance.

Happy Reformation Day!!

I like this description of how Dan Phillips of Pyromaniacs marks Reformation Day with his family (h/t Craig).

Last year I gave Tim (one of our pastors and my bible study leader) some nails to nail his thesis to the church door.

Hmm. Why didn't I know that this hymn was written by Martin Luther? And it appeared in Gilmore Girls!

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God's own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God's truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.

Reason and Religion

I like his style!

But some are so strangely prejudiced against Reason (and that upon sufficient reason too, as they think, which yet involves a flat contradiction) as that they look upon it not as the Candle of the Lord, but as on some blazing Comet, that portends present ruine to the Church, and to the soul, and carries a fatal and venomous influence along with it. And because the unruly head of Socinus, and his followers, by their meer pretenses to Reason, have made Shipwreck of Faith, and have been very injurious to the Gospel; therefore these weak and staggering apprehensions are afraid of understanding any thing; and think, that the very name of Reason, especially in a Pulpit, in matters of Religion, must needs have at least a thousand Heresies couched in it. If you do but offer a Syllogism, they’d straightaway cry it down for carnal reasoning. What would these men have? Would they be banished from their own essences? Would they forfeit and renounce their understandings? Or have they any to forfeit, or disclaim?

- Nathanael Culverwel, An Elegant and Learned Discourse of the Light of Nature, 1652

Sentimental hymns lead to murder!

OK, not exactly, but Byron has commented on a great quote from Hauerwas.

Click here.

Light

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen – not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else.

- C.S. Lewis

Christianity - the foundation of liberty

Christianity, and nothing else, is the ultimate foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights, and democracy, the benchmarks of Western civilization. To this day, we have no other options [than Christianity]. We continue to nourish ourselves from this source. Everything else is postmodern chatter.
- Jürgen Habermas

Click here.

Hmm.

A new theology blog - Sky's the Limit. He wants his blog to be the Augustine's Confessions and Calvin's Institutes of the blogosphere. Hmm...

Faithful & True, but what's the theology?

I've been confused lately about all the different labels being tossed around for "types" of Christian theology; e.g. Reformed, dispensationalist, covenant theology... And then there's a lot of terms that are more familiar, but the definitions are always changing, e.g. evangelical and fundamentalist.

This is one of the more recent songs by Tim MacBride (associate pastor of Narwee Baptist Church, musician extraordinaire and all-round genius). I'm trying to remember the jargon for what kind of theology it's meant to be...

The king has come: the blind can see,
The strong man is bound and the captives go free!
Tell all who have ears that the kingdom is here
And nothing will stand in its way!

To him is given all authority
For he has risen! And the stone rolled away
Became a great mountain, now it fills the earth,
And nothing can stand in its way!

Now Satan is bound from deceiving the nations,
The gospel resounds and the earth hears its song.
And the kingdom rule of the Faithful and True
Has come in each one
Who will bow before the King of Kings.

And when there are people from every nation
And every tongue who join in the song,
Then the kingdom rule of the Faithful and True
Will come and each one
Wll bow before the King of Kings.

You reign over all through the people you've called
You reign over all through the people you've called.

I get the "now, but not yet" idea about the kingom, but that's about it. Is it covenant theology? Amillenial eschatology? I think I need to do more study at Moore College. Much more.

Click here to sample more music from the inimitable Tim Mac.

Education or Indoctrination?

Nick has written a post about a movie called Jesus Camp. I thought my comment was going to get too long, so I'm posting it here instead.

Where do you draw the line between education and indoctrination? Can you give children a choice without educating them about religion anyway? I was a Christian from a young age, but I don't think I was indoctrinated. Do you? I didn't have a full understanding of what it meant to be a Christian. I "asked Jesus into my heart" when I was about 3 or 4 (maybe older, I can't remember), but I didn't really know what it meant. I did it just after my bath - I thought he'd be able to get in more easily if I wasn't wearing any clothes! But just because I only had a child's understanding doesn't mean I was indoctrinated. It wasn't something I was forced to do. I wanted to do it, and my parents weren't even in the room at the time.

My understanding of Christianity grew gradually as I got older. I don't know exactly when I understood different things, but I remember trying to evangelise my friends when I was about 6 or 7 (I was a very cute little girl back then, by the way). I organised a group of my friends at school into a little singing group and we performed some Sunday School songs for the rest of the class (and we were invited next door to sing to the other class as well). I used to invite friends to Sunday School. No one told me to. I just wanted my friends to know what I knew about Jesus. Does this sound like indoctrination?

When I was 12 (only 2 years older than your cut-off of 10), at Easter time, it really hit me just how significant and important it was that Jesus died for me. I count this as the time that I made a real commitment to Christ, and took my parents' faith on for myself. But that doesn't mean that I didn't believe it before, or that I just believed because my parents did. If that was the case, I might not have stayed a Christian. No one would have forced me to. My parents might not have been happy, but I'm sure they would have respected my decision.

Yes, my parents "forced" me to go to Sunday School when I was a kid. Mostly I enjoyed it, but sometimes I wanted to sleep in on Sunday mornings. But they forced me to do a lot of other things too - eat vegetables, go to school, practise piano - I'm grateful for all of it. Except for the brussels sprouts.

I'm a Christian, and I consider that I have been one pretty much my whole life. Although my understanding has changed, there was never a time that I didn't believe in God or what he has done. But I've always had a choice. I've had plenty of chances to change my mind. I've had my faith and beliefs challenged. I haven't shied away from such challenges - I read books by authors such as Dawkins, and I get into debates with people like Peter Slezak. I am not a Christian out of ignorance. The more I read and the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. This, I think, is what Dawkins just doesn't get. He seems to think that the only Christians who aren't ignorant, indoctrinated and blind are the ones whose beliefs hardly resemble Christianity any more. He's wrong.

Simply Christian

Christian faith is not a general religious awareness. Nor is it the ability to believe several unlikely propositions. It is certainly not a kind of gullibility which would put us out of touch with any genuine reality. It is the faith which hears the story of Jesus, including the announcement that he is the world's true Lord, and responds from the heart with a surge of grateful love that says: "Yes. Jesus is Lord. He died for my sins. God raised him from the dead. This is the centre of everything." Whether you come to this faith in a blinding flash or by a long, slow, winding route, once you get to this point you are (whether you realize it or not) wearing the badge which marks you out as part of the church, on an equal footing with every other Christian who has ever lived. You are discovering what it means to wake up and find yourself in God's new world. [179]

Made for spirituality, we wallow in introspection. Made for joy, we settle for pleasure. Made for justice, we clamour for vengeance. Made for relationship, we insist on our own way. Made for beauty, we are satisfied with sentiment. But new creation has already begun. The sun has begun to rise. Christians are called to leave behind, in the tomb of Jesus Christ, all that belongs to the brokenness and incompleteness of the present world. It is time, in the power of the Spirit, to take up our proper role, our fully human role, as agents, heralds and stewards of the new day that is dawning. That, quite simply, is what it means to be Christian, to follow Jesus Christ into the new world, God's new world, which he has thrown open before us. [202]

Tom Wright, Simply Christian, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, 2006.