Who Needs God?: Rumours of Death

Well, here we find ourselves!

New home for however long God intends!

And it is exciting. Nice space, a lot of light in the lobby!

Now here is the question I have for you!!!!!....

What are we going to do for this community?

How are we going to serve the mission of Jesus here?

We live in very confusing time. Confusing morally, politically, religiously.

And it has produced a level of skepticism in our culture that is extremely high! That question anyone or any group that holds to any truth claim.

And maybe no where is this skepticism higher than in the arena of religion.

It is assumed by many that Religion and specifically Christianity is on its way out. That people are leaving faith in droves as our culture becomes more enlightened and no longer needs a God.

Faith is based on blind belief and secularism (the belief that there is nothing besides matter) is based on reason.

But what I would like to do over the next month and a half is consider the possibility that Christianity offers a worldview that makes more sense out of the world we live in than a secular one.

That the Christian God, satisfies our desire for meaning, identity, justice, in ways that no other worldview can OR tries to.

And that rather than a blind leap of faith, belief in God and belief in the God of the Bible is much more reasonable than many would seem to allow.

And in fact Christianity offers compelling answers to the questions of life; questions on meaning, life, death, belonging, identity, and what it means to be fully human.

But here is the argument:

Religion is shrinking!! There is no longer any reason for religion and therefore we are seeing people step away from religion!

If Bill Maher or Dawkins are to be believed the world is naturally moving toward reason and away from belief in God, who they equate with the Spaghetti monster in the sky!!

It is not a new phenomenon, John Lennon of the Beatles was very vocal in songs like Imagine that the world would be a better place with out religion!!

Imagine there's no heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today... Aha-ah...

-actually a perfect definition of secular

that we are who we are today, coming from nowhere going toward no real future, and with nothing outside of the material word having any significance

We do not need God, religion, and in fact the best thing for the world would be if religion would just admit it already and give its last breathe.

And for good reason, we do not need it and in fact the best thing for the world would be if religion would just admit it already and give its last breathe.

Although religion and specifically Christianity has been reported by many to be dying out, this simply isn’t the case.

it is patriarchal, it is oppressive, and intolerant,

The fact is that it is the secular portion of the population that is shrinking globally.

as the French philosopher Diderot said during the enlightenment

As Diderot

“Men will never be free until the last king is strangled by the entrails of the last priest.”

The world is expected to become more religious not less.

The Washington ran an article in April of 2015, titled The world is expected to become more religious — not less, pointing out that the world is actually expected to become more religious........ not less. it was a well titled article!!!

Many point out that the “nones”, those who are not affiliated with any sort of religion, have gown and point to the fact as proof that religion is on the way out.

pointing out that the world is actually expected to become more religious not less.

But a closer look at this demographic shows not those were devoted people of faith making a decision to drop it, but those who were not devoted in the first place.

And that those who do see them selves as devoted people of faith are growing.

So the question is..... In light of all the opposition, the strong movement against and voice of atheism in the last few decades..the strong push for a secular age, how is it that religion, faith is growing?

I. Why is religion still growing?

There could be a few reasons:

a. Secular Reasoning isn’t Completely Reasonable

b. Secular Reasoning ignores a sense of something more

FIRST:

Secular Reasoning is not completely Reasonable

meaning there are things about the world and our existence that cannot be properly explained by a purely secular view of things

Jurgen Habermas,

Philosopher, Jurgen Habermas, for decades defended the secular worldview saying that the only way to have meaning discussions in the public square.

He shocked the establishment when he spoke to the necessity of religious faith!

He said that secular reason alone cannot account for “the substance of the human”

Secular reason alone cannot tell us whether or not the technological advances they create are good or bad for human beings!

To do so would mean understanding what a good, flourishing person is, and science does not have the tools to do that!

As many Christian philosophers have said,

Social sciences may be able to tell us what human life is but not what it ought to be

Looking at the the atrocities of the 20th century Habermas makes his case, that science that does not answer to something outside itself is in great danger of leading to destruction.

“The ideals of freedom....of conscience , human rights and democracy are the direct legacy of the Judaic ethic of justice and the Christian ethic of love…To this day there is not alternative to it”

None of this an argument against science, or the good it has done, It is not and never has been the enemy of Christian Faith, but only to say that it cannot alone serve as a guide for human flourishing

possibility†that†Christianity†offers†a†worldview

that†“makes†sense”†of†the†world†that†we†live†inÆ