AN Wilson, known to many as a religious skeptic and critic of the Christian faith, tells his story of faith in public. I hadn't heard this before, and maybe I'm woefully outdated, but here it is.Here's a second account from about two weeks back.A week ago, there were Palm Sunday processions all over the world. Near my house in North London is a parish with two churches. About 70 or 80 of us gathered at one of these buildings to collect our palms.
We were told by the priest: 'Where we are standing in Kentish Town does not look much like a Judaean hillside, and the other church to which we are walking does not look much like Jerusalem. But as we go, holding our palms, let us try to imagine the first Palm Sunday.'
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Interesting.
I wonder if he would pass the oft-used Evangelical test of having accepted Jesus as his personal savior or be dismissed by people who use that test as not a True Christian.
It seems to me that his reasons for returning to Christianity mostly amount to "I didn't like the arrogant person I was when I was an atheist"
"I didn't like the arrogance of the atheists I spent time with"
"The atheists I knew had something missing in their lives"
"Everyone I admired was a Christian"
I don't question his experience with atheists and Christians; on the other hand it certainly has not been my experience that all atheists are arrogant or unable to appreciate the poetry and beauty of life.
Helen,
I actually found the last part of the Mail article most interesting.
I don't give a rip about the "Jesus as personal savior" decision jargon. The key is buying into the story and choosing to follow Jesus and God. For some of us raised in the church it becomes more a decision not to turn away.
Does anybody besides me sense a strong current of "god of the gaps" type reasoning in the Wilson article(s). The comments on the development of human language in particular seem to be a bit that way. I wonder if this is just the Daily Mail (notoriously conservative) trying to beef the story up with 'rational backing' rather than just running with the faith elements of the story.
phil_style,
I don't see a God of the gaps argument - except in the idea that there is something deeply missing in life if all we are is "animated pieces of meat." Comments on language could be taken that way in the absence of anything else - but I don't think that the argument is "We can't explain language so we must invoke a divine being," which would be a real God of the gaps argument.
It is deeper than this and gets to the reality of things like beauty and morality and purpose and such. Cognition is more than just reductionist materialism if the concepts contemplated have any "real" meaning.
RJS, thanks for your response. I realize that "Jesus as personal savior" is not the criterion everyone uses and I don't place particular value on it myself.
My main problem with what AN Wilson wrote is that he implies either you're a Christian or you can't appreciate the beauty and poetry and music of life. I don't agree with that. You can appreciate things you don't have reasons for. Not everyone needs reasons.
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