CHRIST IN WINTER:
Reflections on Faith for the Years of Winter
I heard Sylvia McNair, the
great opera and Broadway soprano, now an IU music prof, do a TED talk, about
light. She started by singing “Fly Me to the Moon,” and then pointed out that
we know there are about a hundred billion universes, like ours, meaning a sun
[each “star” is a sun] with its planets. I have heard that number before. I
still can’t comprehend it.
It’s strange to me that
atheism should arise out of awareness of the vastness of the universes. It
seems just the opposite to me. Just because I can’t comprehend the vastness of
the cosmos does not diminish that vastness. Just because I can’t comprehend the
possibility or reality of God does not diminish the possibility or reality of
God.
Occasionally I tweet
something with “God” in it. In doing so, I have developed a fairly constant
group of determined atheists who want to argue that “There is no God, so what
you have said is irrelevant at best and more likely misleading.” They must
troll for #God.
Interestingly, none has
ever suggested that the problem with believing in God is that focusing
“outward” on the transcendent means we don’t spend enough time on the imminent,
being good citizens of this little planet, this tiny dust fleck in a corner of
the cosmos. I think that’s the best atheist argument, and it’s a good one, for
a lot of Christians spend so much time thinking about heaven and the after-life
that they don’t have time for earth and this life. Jesus taught us to pray,
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
No, these are evangelistic
atheists. They don’t want me to be a better citizen of the world. They only
want to convert me to the “no God” position.
I don’t really care if
atheists believe in God. I do care about whether they believe in the world.
Christ didn’t die to get people to believe in God. Christ died to save the
world.
Come on, atheists. Get
with the program. What you or I believe is of little consequence. What we do is
of great consequence. Yes, it’s a little planet in a minor universe, but it’s
all we’ve got.
JRMcF
I tweet as yooper1721.
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