jcmmanuel

About Me

I am a Christian, but also an agnostic in many ways: There's a lot about God that I simply cannot know. Some atheists however put a check in the box "irrationalist" the very moment I used the word Christian. What is it, that makes so many atheists believe that when someone has his mind open for considering faith, he will inevitably try to bypass reason? There is no 'logical reason' for this presumption - it has been the wrecked attempt of the 'new atheists' to present all things related to religion like that. But anyone who did some reality checks would know this to be untrue. The belief that religion bypasses reason has probably been on a sharp increase since nine eleven, but that's also since 'new atheism', an ideology which was more or less designed by Sam Harris since day 1 after nine eleven. But we should keep in mind Michael Novak's words here: "Civilization is constituted by reasoned conversation. Civilized humans converse with one another, argue with one another, offer evidence to one another. Barbarians club one another." It is too easy to portrait religion as the barbarian club all the time. If there's one place where you can play that game all the time, it must be the atheist community on myspace - who put to shame all "atheists of good will" out there.
It's too easy to point the finger to Christian fundamentalists (who indeed put to shame Christian faith) if you are not ready to face your own dragons. Not religion in general, but this kind of atheism in particular, did bypass reason and did so for years and years. My blogs - all listed on this page - have some focus on atheism for that reason. Not that atheism would be at the center though - I'm not an a-atheist, focusing on the negative all the time makes absolutely no sense - I'm more often thinking about how to support Christians, or any people with a reasonably open mind, to have that mind even more opened up. For that reason I wrote some blogs about evolution & creation - because too many Christians have not been capable to distinguish evolution from atheism, they've always been thinking Christians 'should' be in trouble with evolution, for no good reason. And then, blogs about how we can get back to a normal, intelligible way of reading and understanding those Bible books (Are they infallible? What is that good for? etc.). All of that *could* also carry away the interest of an open minded atheist. And I do know a few atheists on myspace who are like that - unfortunately they are rare cases so it seems.

Let us talk like grown-ups: a minimal approach to monotheism starts with an understanding of its axiomatic presuppositions. The origin of all things is God is such an axiom. The God idea itself isn't illogical - no more than the Big Bang idea could be illogical. Also, One God is in a way more logic than many gods - how would mankind have survived all those little wars of the capricious gods of the Pantheon, for thousands of years? The Greeks understood this point already. Then, the Magna Charta of monotheism is, that humans have their own individual identity as conscient beings, and that this identity is best understood in a relationship with the Creator (and also, that mankind should not regard themselves as gods or at the same level of God). To me this makes sense, rational sense.

Of course, you can 'rationally disagree' with me - we're not doing exact science when we talk about these things, origins are beyond the horizon of scientific experience, and Physics, Astrophysics or Mathematics cannot exclude God either. But, as with all strong axioms, one needs a good reason to reject. It isn't enough to point the finger to mistakes made by 'religion'. It is not enough to put an 'a' in front of ideas like theism and start syllogisms from that viewpoint. You have to treat people as people. We are all one and the same species, you cannot cut yourself off the branch you're sitting on, hoping not to make a fall. Even the Greeks had this deep sense that our hybris (excessive pride, egotism, arrogance) could be the major problem of mankind - in this, they were clearly in line with the old Hebrews and with the thoughts expressed by Jesus. This problem is not unique to atheism or theism or whatever - this is a human problem. It did not disappear with the upcoming Enlightenment, not even in its best practitioners.

There have been famous scientist, who were real secularists too, who understood the whole issue of communication way better than many atheists today. Stephen J. Gould was certainly one of them (as a communicator, a 1000x better than the famous Richard Dawkins who has by now blown up all communication between thousands of atheists and believers, probably for decades to come). Or, take someone like E.O. Wilison (check the science videos on my profile) - clearly a genius, and a secular humanist - but these are the people who have understood a very fundamental lesson, one that all good managers in a company would understand: you cannot change the business rules without understanding their context, their meaning, their history. You cannot just decide you should get rid of a "legacy system" and simply push the "stop" button. To call all religion a fairy tale or compare it to Santa Claus, knowing well that no adult believes that, while billions of adults believe there's a God of some kind, is to exclude yourself wittingly from all communication with 'the other side'. Your role will be that of an entertainer of your own community, at best (style Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris). Agreed, it's probably a lot of fun for them, and it is their life after all. Time will tell if that was a real life.

In spite of all the religion bashing, I think an atheist basically deserves better than being treated the same way as these guys have been treating believers. Making a sharp difference between atheism and 'new atheism' is expressing my respect for honest atheists. I also would not call the atheist position irrational, less so nihilistic. My criticism against the atheist position is rather simple: to me, this is by definition not being open-minded. I want the ceiling of my reality-room to be higher. Scientific methodology is great, but life is still a lot bigger than science, just as life is bigger than doing maths all day long. The day science can prove it otherwise - e.g. delivering me the perfect equivalent of my feelings of joy when I praise God from deep within, and doing so with hundreds of others who all praise the same Creator - I might change my mind. But I wonder if I would not see God as the real Scientist behind the scenes then. If my worldview is my house, then I do not want it to have a closed rooftop. It simply does not fit with the whole idea of being open-minded. Even Carl Sagan said that atheism would require him "to know more than he actually did". Skepticism is a useful methodology in the sciences, but it wasn't meant to cut off everything beyond our rooftop as "non-existing" or meaningless.

As one of my agnostic friends on myspace (N.L.) wrote: "People have so much more to offer than just their religious beliefs... there are a millions things to talk about and to do without the mention of religion... That's where we (my friends who are Christian and I) find our common ground". These words to me represent the great advantage of true agnosticism, as opposite to atheism. I could also add to that: agnostics have so much more to offer than just their doubts. Atheists may have more to offer than just jiggling the 'a' in front of Theism.

The Christian viewpoint is not really restrictive towards the other: all are "sons of Adam", created in imagio dei (in the image of God). There may be many problems related to religion today, the Bible may be much misunderstood by Christians, etc. etc. - that's all true. But taking the safe position that all error is 'on the opponents side' has never been helpful. I would love to have more atheist friends, but they would have to be a bit more honest then the average ones I have encountered so far. Being just an anti-theistic bigot is not a quality. Throwing the most stupid jokes about religion on each other comments pages all the time, indulging in perpetual self-affirmation, is not a quality. Posting one blog after another against religion is not a quality. To me, that looks like the signs of someone who knows it's a lost case they're fighting for. I see almost no difference with the tactics of the 'fundies' out there. Feel free to educate me if you think I'm missing an important point, but... remember this: "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle" (A.Einstein).

Peace.

Index Of Blogs

Below you can find an overview of my blogs, classified under several themes and with some additional remarks.

New Atheism (not atheism!)

My first blogs were about 'new atheism'. They do touch on atheism in general too, but I don't think I ever confused them. I am of the opinion that no decent atheist deserves it to be associated with the 'new atheism' brand (unless it is his/her own choice).

1. New Atheism's 4 Horsemen
2. Fishing the big lake of religion
3. The new atheist misconception of religion
Trivia: Imagine No Religion?

The Secular State

I accept the principles of the secular society. What I do not accept is the idea that while the public domain should not be dominated by religious speak, it could still be dominated by atheist speak. No one who takes serious the secular society should accept 'negative religion' (anti-religion) to be the standard. In public discussions, you cannot talk religion and assume that anyone would understand what you are saying - neither can you talk like an atheist and presume you will be making sense .I currently have only one blog about this topic.

1. What is a Secular State?

Christians and The Book

Doctrine, interpretation etc. still cause troubles among Christians. But the biggest problem is someone's "pharisaic" attitude, or the fear to doubt our own human capacities. Is the Bible "inspired"? Sure - but that doesn't exclude human inspiration. The ancient Jews have been thinking about life, they weren't just God's typewriters or something like that.

1. Religion with distorted message?
2. We don’t need Bible Inerrancy
3. On Infallibility of the Scriptures
4. Early Jurispridence in the Critic's Den
5. Rating Liberal theology - Does Bart Ehrman mattter? 

Evolution and Creation

For Christian readers: my position is quite simple: I take science serious, with no initial objection from 'faith considerations' whatever. I do not start from suspicion because I do not have to. If God is great, then there's nothing to fear from humans discovering how the world has been made and how we humans function. I can also distinguish science from atheism - it requires some low-level brain activity (actually just some commonsense). Evolution theory does not make me reject Genesis 1 as meaningless - quite the contrary. If you want to understand this more properly, read those blogs. You can always comment on them, or send me a private message.

1. Evolution Is Fun
2. Homo Sapiens: origin Africa or Eden?
3. The Genesis 1 Galaxy is Cool!
4. The Genesis 1 Hominid is Cool!
5. The Real Big Heart of God

Religion and Science

There's all kinds of issues people have with either religion or science or both. Most often people have a problem with just one of these - a sure indication that something is seriously out of balance. The whole problem is (of course) related to the wars between 'theists' and 'atheists', but this goes a little deeper I think. Many people who are no atheists, are nevertheless set up against religion (and they often don't just mean church institutions). Many Christians are still suspicious of science because they perceive it as an attack on their faith - which is not the reality, but their perception - probably due to atheist claims. These blogs are meant to deal with issues in this domain.

1. Making some Sense of Mortality
2. How Human is Transhumanism?
3. Reinventing the Sacredness of Life

Some brilliant blogs by friends

Finally, let me also refer to a small set of great blogs written by friends.

Brilliant Blogs by some of my friends:
2009.03.26 The Agnostic's Upper-Hand (by Jonathan)
2009.03.24 My Abusive Husband Named God (by Michelle)
2009.01.01 The Meaning Of Life, Love Letter To An Atheist (by Nurseratchet)
2008.11.03 An Atheist Against Abortion (by Mark J.A.) - [PS. The same people who now sympathized with this great blog would have wiped the floor with any Christian who would have dared to write this.]