Proceed cautiously today. I am providing you with a link to a very interesting book review. Once again, Terry Eagleton has written a piece worth thinking about, but the site and the reviewer are unapologetically liberal, so please know that in advance.
Eagleton’s new book, “Reason, Faith and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate” is not what you may think. His book begins, "Religion has wrought untold misery in human affairs. For the most part, it has been a squalid tale of bigotry, superstition, wishful thinking, and oppressive ideology." As the reviewer writes, “That’s quite a start, especially when you consider that the point…is to defend the theory and practice of religion against its most ardent contemporary critics.”
You can read the review for yourself HERE, but I think there is something very valuable to be learned from the whole exercise.
I have been seeing bumper stickers lately that say, “Dissent is patriotic.” Let’s not get into all that today, but the concept is interesting. Those who question the church are not necessarily opposed to her (or pessimists or trapped in relativism or whatever accusation is currently popular) – as a matter of fact, questions often are formed from a deep-seated love.
So, read with love in mind. Eagleton asserts that much of atheism is built on the fact that religion has been unproductive – okay, horrible – for the human race. Although there are cases where this is true, it does not in turn prove atheism (or disprove faith), does it?
Let’s welcome questions, from all sorts of places and people. Honest feedback, if we can resist defensiveness, can only help us see our blind spots.
No comments:
Post a Comment