David Cameron

An interesting article in 'The Age' regarding British Prime Minister David Cameron and his spin on Religion in his country. It was mainly about the a general 'moral decline' and how religon has a place in aresting this decline. It was in light of the recent riots in his country. Also of interest was his own personal admission:

Mr Cameron also disclosed details of his own faith following criticism from atheist Richard Dawkins that he was ''not really a Christian''. ''I am a committed, but I have to say, vaguely practising, Church of England Christian, who will stand up for the values and principles of my faith,'' Mr Cameron said. But he added he was ''full of doubts'' and ''constantly grappling'' with the big theological issues.

I find this an honest answer. One that most people can relate to. It does underline that what people took for granted 50-100 years ago with Christianity, an unwavering faith; is not the case anymore. The ideas of pluralism, deconstruction are mainstream thoughts. The Church needs overcome these hurdles.  Then the moral compass may return. 

Degrees of belief

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This is one of my favourite quotes. From the God delusion by Richard Dawkins::

”There is something distinctly odd about the argument, however. Believing is not something you can decide to do as a matter of policy. At least, it is not something you can decide to do as an act of will. I can decide to go to church and I can decide to recite the Nicene Creed, and I can decide to swear on a stack of bible that I believe every word inside them. But none can make me actually believe it if I don’t. Pascal’s Wager could only ever be an argument for feigning belief in God. And the God that you claim to believe in had better not be of the omniscient kind or he’d see through the deception. The ludicrous idea that believing is something you can decide to do is deliciously mocked by Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, where we meet the roboti Electic Monk, a labour-saving device that you buy ‘to do your believing for you. The de luxe moel is advertised as ‘Capable of believing thingsthey wouldn’t believe in Salt Lake City’.

It gives me an understanding why evangelism doesn't work. Some people will hear the Gosple and it just washes over them. They may understand the concepts but its something in the heart that dosn't click. They arn't been difficult, just honest.

One of the things through reading of Marcus Borg and looking seriously at textual criticism as well as looking deeper into the 'Quest for the historical Jesus" is that there are cross roads through out your walk where you have to make decisions. Did this really happen? It is for me a case of intellectual honesty. It comes back to the above quote. There are some things that you belive and can never be taken away and other well you just have to let them slide.

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Feildings response

Upon last weeks post on Q&A on the ABC I couldn't help feel sorry for Steven Fielding. I was perplexed that his reply to Dawkins question 'was he a creationist?' The reply was a small 'yes' and a loud (and I paraphrase) 'lots of people are allowed to believe different things.' It was if he was rather embarassed by his answer. To be honest I would have been more interested in why he was a creationist. Even if I didn't agree, I think it would have been a better response.


Now where I have empathy with Feilding is that as a Christian there are responses that we will give that don't make much sense to people. It doesn't matter if you are a progressive liberal or a fundamentalist. Sooner or latter we will be embarrassed by our responses. Maybe it is not embarrassment rather an uncertainty? That in uncertainty we need to be honest with our selves and therefore to God.

Richard Dawkins and Steven Fielding

ABC's Q&a had and interesting discusion. It revealed the conservative religious nature of Family First senator Steven Fielding.

I find it fascinating that a man who is has an engineering education could be swayed over politics and religion more so than the weight of evidence with science.

You can download the episode and see him in action here.

On a positive side I found it interesting that the majority of world religious believers, did believe in evolution. Ah, I'm in good company.

Doing archaelogy via DNA

The ABC has reported that Australian scientists have mapped the entire DNA sequence of a 4000 year old human remains.

"It gave some fascinating insights into its biology, like he had certain genes that were more adaptive to living in the cold," Dr Bunce said.
"We can tell his blood type. We can tell he had a dry type of ear wax, and you can make hypotheses about his eye colour and hair colour.
"It's sort of a new way of doing archaeology, which is exciting."

This is pretty interesting science it makes me wonder what implications there will be for looking at the evolutionary process. Such as will it reveal the evolutionary 'missing link. I wonder if Dawkins will have any thoughts on this...'

The Athiests are comming to town!

The Australian Athiests association has got a gig in Melbourne which looks like a Hillsong conference, minus the kids program!

There are a few speakers which would be interesting to hear::

Robyn Williams, from the Science program on Radio National
Tanya Levian:: From Hillsong fame. (from reading her book I would have thought agnostic!)
Richard Dawkins:: Headline act here, read a few of his books
Phillip Adams:: Australia's best known, Atheist/Socialist

I was also amused at the large number of comedians who are on the lineup. Does this mean that Atheists have more fun than believers? On my anecdotal evidence I'd say yes....