Engaging our Critics

On Sunday I began a new sermon series called Engaging Our Critics: A Dialogue with Atheism. Over the last few years there have been a number of books condemning religious faith on the bestseller’s list. The series is intended to be a Christian response to Atheism’s challenges. I shared a list of some the most influential books. They are:

• Sam Harris: The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation
• Daniel Dennett: Breaking the Spell
• Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion
• Christopher Hitchens: God Is Not Great

On Sunday I talked about the relationship between faith and science. The church has not always been open to the latest findings of science. Some of the most significant challenges have been to the work of Galileo and Copernicus and, of course, Charles Darwin.

One of the common ways that religious people have set ourselves up for these conflicts is by using God as the explanation for all of the things we don’t understand about the natural world around us. This practice is called “God of the gaps”. When human understanding advances and ‘God” is not needed to explain something, it seems to believers, like God is being rejected and reduced. The problem is poor theology and science and lazy bible scholarship. God is not just a concept to be used to fill in the gaps.

Every generation must encounter the best human thought and knowledge and reflect deeply about who we are and how we can best articulate our understanding and relationship with God, each, other, and the created world.