Rick Warren on Nightline this week (h/t Hemant)
Interviewer: [...] test that you’re giving these two men?
Rick Warren: I’m testing their character, I’m testing their convictions, I’m testing their confidence -
Interviewer: A religion test?
Rick Warren: No, absolutely not. I’m totally opposed to religious tests for the Presidency. I think it’s appropriate to know what a person believes, what their religion is; but I don’t think that’s the test for the Presidency.
Interviewer: I’ve heard you say you want to understand what their personal relationship with Jesus is. Does that mean a Jew or a Muslim would be out as far as you’re concerned?
Rick Warren: Not at all, not at all. I could vote for a Jewish President easily. The only kind of President I don’t think I could vote for would be an atheist. I could not vote for an atheist President because I just think that’s pretty arrogant. I think that the Presidency is too big for any human individual and I think we do need God.
You can see the video excerpt here (I can’t embed this particular clip - embedding is disabled)
The way some Christians equate arrogance with not believing in God has bothered me for a while. Read the rest of this entry »
08-20-2008 |
26 Comments »Karen, a regular commenter and occasional guest poster here, has posted her deconversion story over on our ebay atheist blog.
Check out how Karen went all the way from Bible-believing Christian to atheist.
05-29-2008 |
No Comments »Do you remember Josh and Karlene’s request for atheist conversation partners that I posted a few months ago?
Elizabeth is a classmate of Josh and Karlene. She teamed up with Amy, one of the respondents to Josh and Karlene’s request, to do the same project Josh and Karlene were doing. I just interviewed Amy and Elizabeth over on our ebay atheist blog about how the project went. Go check it out!
05-21-2008 |
No Comments »I thought this was interesting (h/t Hemant): My Argument with God by Ricky Gervais.
I liked his description of what he believed about Jesus, as a child
I loved Jesus. He was my hero. More than pop stars. More than footballers. More than God. God was by definition omnipotent and perfect. Jesus was a man. He had to work at it. He had temptation but defeated sin. He had integrity and courage. But He was my hero because He was kind. And He was kind to everyone. He didn’t bow to peer pressure or tyranny or cruelty. He didn’t care who you were. He loved you. What a guy. I wanted to be just like Him.
I especially liked “He was my hero because He was kind.” Read the rest of this entry »
04-22-2008 |
9 Comments »People regularly ask me what I mean when I say I’m “almost an atheist”.
One of my more concise attempts to explain that is here.
04-13-2008 |
10 Comments »
I also posted this on Friendly Christian today
A few years ago I realized acceptance is essential to living a happy life. It also occurred to me that acceptance may be simpler for atheists.
When Christians encounter personal suffering or tragedy, there’s always a ‘why’ question that has to be dealt with, namely:
“Why did God, who is all-powerful and claims to love me, allow this to happen?”
When atheists encounter personal suffering or tragedy (any type which isn’t directly caused by another human), it’s ‘just the way it is’. There’s no person behind it to ask ‘why?’ to.
I think this makes such things easier to accept (not easy, but easier) than if God is in the picture. What do you think?
10-29-2007 |
15 Comments »Debbie posted this comment on An atheist in Christian college today.
I have served in Christian ministry for over 20 years and have been a pastor’s wife for nearly 10 of those. I am now separated and awaiting divorce. During my time of healing over the past 2 years of separation, therapy, and abuse at the hands of my so-called “Christian” friends, I found one very special friend. She is an atheist, and a very convicted one. At first meeting, you would have thought a pastor’s wife and an atheist would have little in common. She remains my closest friend, my greatest support, and my most valued support-sister. And it has NOTHING to do with religion - which we agree to disagree on. That doesn’t mean we don’t talk religion - we do. We just don’t try to sell each other anything. We just listen, and support. It’s a beautiful relationship. When I say “praise God,” she smiles for me. When she gets angry and says screw God, I give her a shoulder to rest on.
Just love keeps us connected. Isn’t that what Jesus really asked us to do anyway? He doesn’t need anyone to advertise His name - God, if we think we need to do that for Him we must have a tiny God who is incapable and we myst think very highly of ourselves!
I love my girlfriend. She is an atheist. I am a Christian. We have much to share and offer each other.
10-07-2007 |
3 Comments »I’m also posting this on Friendly Christian today
What would it be like to be an atheist at a Christian college? If you want to know, read the blog Leaving Eden. The author of it is at Wheaton College and is an atheist.
Last week it felt very lonely:
I walked across campus today after a conversation that signaled the end of another friendship. Thinking, this is what it feels like to be alone. It sucks.
If Jesus was the friend of non-religious people, shouldn’t Christians be too? Why does admitting to being an atheist end this person’s friendships with Christians?
09-26-2007 |
19 Comments »A new online friend, Bill, invited me to guest post today on his blog, Friendly Christian.
Bill recently ran across Hemant’s story and website, Friendly Atheist. Bill decided he’d like to follow Hemant’s lead and he renamed his blog the Friendly Christian. Hemant mentioned Bill’s blog and a number of atheists went to check it out. Since then, Bill has had a number of atheist visitors and active Christian-atheist conversation on his blog.
This is what I posted on Bill’s blog today.
I’m curious about how differently Christians and atheists (evidently) see the world. The other day Gods Gal was saying she can’t look at the world outside without seeing evidence of God. hoverfrog, writerdd and siamang responded that when they look at the world outside they don’t see God at all. (That conversation is in comments #49-#52 on What If…)
Why do we see things so differently?
Here’s the tricky part. :-) See if you can answer these questions without offending those who see differently from you.
08-22-2007 |
30 Comments »I thought this was interesting - and the comments might be also.
08-14-2007 |
4 Comments »