It was someone's intention that the cosmos in all its vastness and microscopic detail should come into being
"To make up your mind that there is a God affirms something tremendously important about being alive. It means that you believe that you do not exist by accident. Someone knows that you are there. Someone decided that you should be there. It was someone's intention that the cosmos in all its vastness and microscopic detail should come into being. That was and is God.
Christians reject the view that the presence of humans on this beautiful planet has come about by an unplanned sequence of events. They do not accept that life is merely a phenomenon that overtakes some planets in their dying years. Instead they believe that God always intended that human life, with its capacity for intelligence, goodness and love, should be the climax of a vast plan. We are incredibly fortunate to be part of that plan, because we are alive, and human life is bursting with potential."
From Now a Christian.org
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Thank you for the post – I hope the thick black ice yesterday didn’t cause you any major problems? I have a friend in Holmfirm and I noted (on the BBC news) that although the snow is going, the frozen remains were treacherous yesterday.
“Someone knows that you are there. Someone decided that you should be there.” “[Christians] do not accept that life is merely a phenomenon that overtakes some planets in their dying years...”
When I read this post I was reminded of the time I witnessed to someone (a young nurse, whom I had a bit of a fling with for a time) and I said something along the lines of ‘Have you never laid on your back, when out camping, or a walk in the evening and looked up at the stars and thought all that space and majesty can’t exist by accident?’. At the time this had little effect even after I’d dragged her off to hear J.John speaking. Ironically she and her husband now attend a church in Morley and I’m the agnostic; or perhaps I should say non-religious, which is not quite the same thing.
To begin with the second of the two quotes above – it is thought life began on earth about 1.5 billion years ago – which is about a third of the estimated age of the earth – far from the dying years, especially as earth has got probably as many years to go – the upper estimate (after a quick nose around the web) is 5 billion years – so leaving bad (i.e. Now a Christian) science behind – what about the first quote.
Well, it appears to be using the singular implication of ‘you’ (such a pity we dropped ‘thou’ out of common usage as I’d have known for sure!) – which looking at the ‘Now a Christian’ page would not surprise me). This is fine, but once you believe ‘Someone decided that you should be there’ you enter into problems about why our being ‘here’ is nice for some people and not so nice for others. A quick listen to the BBC news tells you many are ‘here’ but seem to get the crappy end of the deal. As you have said or intimated elsewhere, there is no promise of an easy life in Christianity, but my problem with faith at present is why 10,000 people are wiped off the face of the earth in Haiti – a country where life in general isn’t exactly a bed of roses well we in the West get off scot free. I am not saying there isn’t a theological way around this – but it is my belief that present day Christianity’s over concern with the self (the me me me Christianity – evident in many denominations, but esp. Evangelical Christianity) is perhaps a misguided way round the ‘suffering’ problem. An over concern with the self and with personal morality is, I believe , a way getting side tracked. I am not saying such introspection doesn’t have its place, but it can cloud the real issue and help us forget the problems of religious belief – busily believing in one thing, in an attempt (albeit subconsciously) to ignore or not believe something else. You may have noticed on my blog how I found ‘The Christian Institute’ website so appalling (and I’ve had to use it a lot recently for various research purposes); its innuendo, self-righteousness and (in parts) downright economy with the truth I am sure feels like God’s work to those within and to some without the organisation. But it actually says very little about Christianity – it is polemic and divisive and that is a sure sign of it not being what it purports to be...
A way forward, a way forward, that is the problem – how to reconcile a God who made me and watches over every detail of my life, with the God who allows 10,000 to die in the time it takes you or I to make a cup of tea.
Because of space, I pasted my next offering below. It is from something I wrote (and is in a published, Christian journal – fame (I think not!)) on the self question. I’m sharing it, so you can understand where I am coming from and perhaps realise that in all my rants and problems with Christianity, I am writing from the heart.
A new way of relationship with God and his world is evident in prayer. Prayer is not the self chatting to God, but our whole self being drawn into God: our will becoming His Will, our way of relationship, his way of relationship. It is no longer the self bumping along with the rest of the world, but the death of the self in order that it may enter into a communion of love and self-giving. All of us are at different stages in this journey of relationship with God... When we can still the chatter of self and enter more fully into a relationship with God manifested through prayer, we should not become too interested in this change of relationship because we are so apt to draw everything back to the self, to self-seeking and self-justification and pride rooted in our own judgements of value and worth. It is injurious to our spiritual life to become overly concerned with a deepening relationship with God – we are returning to our natural state, as members of a communion of love – don’t be fooled into thinking it is anything special; it is just REAL life. Similarly it is not wise to become overly interested in the snatched glimpses of God our diseased eyes perceive (remember what happened at the Transfiguration (Mark 9: 2); the self all too quickly looks for gratification and can, oh fools we are, believe there is something special about itself that has caused the revelation. What glimpses we perceive are tokens of God’s love and you can be sure you have not earned them, they are given freely to all the children of God. Nor should we become overly concerned with the faults and failings of our neighbours (that means everyone else) – especially what we have judged ourselves – if you find yourself getting angry with or repulsed by or feeling you are a better person than your neighbour – you can be sure you’re doing something wrong! Our folly is to become too interested in the self – it is the scourge of the Christian life and no more abundant than in many of our present day expressions of Christianity – Western Christians live in an individualistic, self-seeking and self-deifying world, it is our culture and one with which we are burdening the rest of the world. It is little wonder its subtle deceits have deluded even the faithful. But we are invited to return to our true nature, in a communion of love and self-giving that is Our God; our response to this invitation must be a clear ‘Yes’; but, as Jesus wisely teaches: ‘Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'’ (Matt 5: 37). You really can’t trust anything else you feel you need to add to your ‘Yes’ and your ‘Nos’!