Category: Faith

Outgrowing God – 7 to 12

I decided to complete my review of the remaining chapters of Outgrowing God by Richard Dawkins in one go. This is Part Two of his book, subtitled “Evolution and beyond”. Richard Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist, as well as an atheist, and so would like evolution and science generally to explain everything. In some ways he is hoist on his own petard because he accuses theists of using God to explain the unexplained, whereas he uses unknowable science and evolution to explain the unexplained.

Chapter 7, the first chapter of Part Two is entitled “Surely there must be s designer?” and goes on to explain how evolution explains everything, except the origin of life which he cannot explain. The creation story of the Bible is largely regarded as mythical or allegorical and largely superseded by evolution with two tremendous gaps, namely the creation of the universe and the creation of life within it.

Those of us who believe in God, believe that He created the universe and that He created life. Dawkins believes that nature evolved naturally without a designer. It blows my mind, on the other hand, that God could create living organisms that would grow into so many wonderful species of animals and plants and ultimately into intelligent beings like ourselves. That takes a level of magnificent genius that far exceeds making it up as He goes along.

Dawkins asks a couple of questions about belief in God and about belief in good and evil. He asks the question whether we evolved to believe in gods and he tries to explain it. While not denying the possibility, I cannot deny the possibility that God puts it in people’s minds that there is a god. They may not fully understand the god and the evidence is that they didn’t. But the fact is that different races were physically evolving throughout the world, in their different ways, but mentally evolving in the same way to believe in god(s). What a coincidence! Dawkins’ explanation is no more plausible than belief in God.

Likewise, there is remarkable similarity in the moral code of people and societies throughout the world. This point is well argued in the book Mere Christianity by C.S.Lewis. Because societies that had no connection with each other and with physical and cultural differences came up with the same moral code adds to the possibility of a uniform external influence on all people.

Of course, if you are looking for an excuse not to believe in God, you can put everything down to coincidence and as yet unknown science. Dawkins does include a chapter on “Crystals and jigsaw puzzles” which I find rather surprising because crystals, which did not evolve, to my mind demonstrate the mind of the Creator in their wonderful beauty and geometry. Not at all what you would expect by accident. This whole chapter speaks to me of the wonders of creation. What a pity some don’t believe in it.

The last chapter of the book is “Take courage from science”, and is written as if science somehow does away with the need for God, as if it explains everything, In fact, all science does is tell us more about God’s creation. So what this book will do is give atheists more reason to reject God, but it does not give one good solid argument to deny God’s existence.

I will finish with a quote from 1 Corinthians 1:25 – “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”

Outgrowing God – 5&6

This is my 4th post commenting on the book Outgrowing God by Richard Dawkins, Here I am covering Chapters 5 and 6 which are related to each other. Chapter 5 is entitled Do We Need God in Order to be Good?, and Chapter 6 is How Do We Decide what is Good?

In a way these are silly questions because we are none of us “good” by God’s standard of perfection. Mankind’s standard is somewhat lower and we certainly do not need God for other people to consider us good or not. So in a couple of sentences I have answered the question that heads Chapter 5, yet he found it necessary to write a whole chapter. He finds it necessary to go through the 10 Commandments one by one, commenting on each. I really don’t think that Christians agonise over the 10 Commandments – we have internalised them even though we might well have to think carefully if asked what they are. The point is that we know we are not perfect and that we have sinned “in thought, word and deed”, for which we ask forgiveness and resolve to do better. “Sin” is an emotive word, but is a conveniently short one for falling short of perfection.

So being a Christian is not about “being good”, it is about praising God for the goodness of his creation, about thanking him for his goodness to others and to ourselves, and asking for what we deem to be important to us and to others and, importantly, giving us guidance on how to live our lives. If we have faith in Jesus Christ, we are promised eternal life, but that is not our motivation. I believe that Christianity is right for this life.

So on to Chapter 6, How do we decide what is good? Well Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist (not a theologian nor educated in logic) so he gives us an evolutionist view on how we decide what is “good”. So although it is perhaps interesting to see how people’s idea of good develops and changes, it is not really relevant as far as faith is concerned. I believe that God tells us through his Holy Spirit, whether what we are thinking, saying or doing is good or not. Not for us to judge whether what other people think, say or do is good or not, unless what they are doing is manifestly evil in its impact on others.

So that brings us to the end of Part One of the book. I should have mentioned earlier that he calls Part One “Goodbye God”. He certainly has not persuaded me to say goodbye to God. He has told us that people have had many gods over time: that does not preclude the existence of God. He has questioned the truth of the Holy Bible, without considering how much is eye-witness or second-hand at most. He has told us about myths. He has questioned whether the Bible is “good”. He has talked about goodness in a way that is irrelevant to faith. He has to do better to have us say goodbye, but will persuade those who have already said it.

Part Two is entitled Evolution and Beyond. As an evolutionary biologist, he has to include his pet subject. Some of it is quite interesting. Of course the origins of the universe and of life are complete unknowns, but he has faith that science will come up with answers, but more of that later in future posts.

Outgrowing God – 3&4

This is my third post reviewing the book Outgrowing God by Richard Dawkins. I have recently finished reading the whole book and find that it has not in the least shaken my faith. He is persuasive in what he writes, but really seems to be preaching to the converted – those who are atheists or pondering on becoming atheists. It is not reasonable to conclude that there is no God from what he writes, but atheists will like it because it superficially supports their contention that science explains, or will explain, everything and that we do not need to believe in a creator God.

In this post, I will cover Chapter 3, Myths And How They Start, and Chapter 4, The Good Book?. I am pretty much skipping over Chapter 3 because, though interesting, there is enough substance in the Bible to dispel it as a myth. I do concede that there might be an element of myth about Jesus’s life before his ministry, simply because the story will likely have been passed through several people before it was written down. However, what is written is consistent in message with what we can certainly declare as factual.

In all of Jesus’s ministry, he was accompanied by his twelve disciples. Paul was not a disciple, but got to know some of them after his conversion and he got to know Luke, who travelled with him and wrote the Gospel that bears his name and the Acts of the Apostles. Paul’s letters are a significant part of the New Testament. We therefore have a pretty good link to the ministry of Jesus, his death and resurrection. Forget myth – it is not as significant as Dawkins would want you to believe.

On to Chapter 4. The Bible is, or was, frequently referred to as “The Good Book”. Dawkins questions whether in fact it is “good”. The Bible is an easy target, especially the Old Testament, where you can select passages that are quite horrific and do not show God or his people in a good light. There is wholesale slaughter of some peoples, their women and children and animals, except preserving their unmarred daughters. Not nice. How do I explain it? I don’t. What we do have are some beautiful books, like Psalms, the Song of Solomon and good words from the various prophets which include passages relating to Jesus Christ some hundreds of years later. The good thing that comes out of Old Testament times is the survival of the Israelites, scripture, and the environment into which our saviour Jesus Christ could be born. (My words – Dawkins would not say such a thing).

Dawkins has less to say about the New Testament and believes that Jesus comes across as a good man. He mentions two things which give me some difficulty. First is causing a fig tree to wither and die because it did not bear any fruit. Sounds petty. Second is the story of the Gadarene swine. When Jesus casts demons out of a man, they ask to be sent to a nearby herd of pigs. Jesus complies, they go to the pigs who promptly charge down the hill into the sea and drown. I can’t get my head around this at all. Why would Jesus comply with their request? Why would the demons cause the pigs to die so that they are left without anything to occupy? The only thing I can get from this is “Be careful what you wish for”. They ended up with nothing.

Dawkins does say that the bits that people do not like, They tend to classify as allegorical – in other words, only included for the message it conveys. I am content to leave things unexplained and consider the Bible as a whole, and I find it very satisfactory as a whole with many valuable lessons for this day, 2,00 years after Jesus.

Dawkins is particularly scathing and mocking about the crucifixion of Jesus. John Stott, an eminent theologian wrote a whole book on The Cross of Christ, it is cogently argued and explains why the cruel death of Jesus was necessary for our salvation. Dawkins should have got together with his fellow atheist Stephen Hawking, who was of the opinion that God cannot break any laws. If God’s law is “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins”, then that is the way it is. Dawkins thinks that God could just forgive everybody anyway, since he is too obtuse to realise that God cannot break his own law. Paul wrote something very apt in one of his letters “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). It is as if Paul foresaw mocking Dawkins who clearly thinks it foolishness. The cross is central to the Christian faith and therefore its symbol.

First Communion

Today was my first Holy Communion as a confirmed member of the Church of England. There were three of us in the service this morning who had been confirmed in Coventry Cathedral on 22nd November. This was the first Communion service in our church since then.

I had previously taken Communion as a baptised member of the Methodist Church, but this was my “First Communion” as a confirmed member of the Anglican Church. It was also the very first Communion of Anne, the vicar’s daughter, which made it very special.

The Communion service is highly symbolic, with Communion wafers and not very alcoholic wine. I think we should sometimes do it the way Jesus and his Disciples did it at Jesus’s last supper on earth, where they were all sat at table; Jesus broke bread, handed it around, and passed the cup of wine around. His command was “Do this in remembrance of me”.

Outgrowing God – 2 – But Is It True?

Chapter 2 of the book Outgrowing God by Richard Dawkins is titled But Is It True? and is entirely about the Bible, and what isn’t in the Bible, so concentrates on Christianity. I have only read a few chapters, but the list of contents seems to indicate that he does not give the same treatment to other religions.

He quotes “Chinese Whispers” as showing that a story changes with the telling from one person to another, so that it becomes unrecognizable after a few tellings. Because the Gospels are all written after the death of Jesus, he therefore calls their accuracy into question. He makes a big thing about the way that even to this day, erroneous and untrue stories make the rounds.

He mentions that it wasn’t finally decided what books go into the Bible until centuries later. He then makes a big thing about books which aren’t in the Bible – the gospel of Judas Iscariot and a book about the early life of Jesus. He did this just to heap on the ridicule. It may make a good read, but doesn’t add anything. The Christian answer is that the people deciding on which works belonged in the canon were guided by God. He goes on about historical accuracy, but I think excludes some important points.

He questions the authorship of the gospels, including Luke’s. But I think it worth examining this. Luke wrote two books of the Bible – The Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel that bears his name. There is little doubt that they are by the same person. The Acts starts with the aftermath of Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection, then Paul’s conversion and then Paul’s activity and travels. Much of it is written in the first person – the word “we” frequently appears – because Luke travelled with Paul and Paul mentions him in one of his letters. Paul also knew Jesus’s disciples, so Luke would have heard from him the details of what they did after Jesus’s death. We can therefore be very confident about the accuracy of The Acts of the Apostles and, of course, Paul’s letters.

Luke’s Gospel is of course after the fact, but his stated intention is to write as accurate a history as he can. My own view of the New Testament is that it may not be 100% accurate but that it is 100% true in its revelation of God. You can quibble about the genealogy of Jesus, but does it really matter?

The chapter includes a quote from Josephus, the first century Jewish historian. It is likely that the reference to Jesus being the Messiah is a later modification or insertion, but what he wrote about the death of John the Baptist is slightly different from the Bible account, and so is less likely to be a forgery, and he records the execution of Jesus’s brother James, which isn’t in the Bible so there was clearly no alteration of Josephus manuscript.

Dawkins does condescendingly agree that there was indeed a preacher called Yeshua who was executed, but that is about as far as it goes. So I will end with a quote from Acts 5 v 34-39:

“But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honoured by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: ‘Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case I advise you: leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.’”

It stands up to Dawkins too.

Outgrowing God – 1 – So Many Gods

Outgrowing God is a book by Richard Dawkins, author of the better know (but rubbish) The God Delusion. So why would I, a committed Christian, read such a book? Certainly because of curiosity – I was interested to read what he had to say, especially since he is quoted so often and atheists repeat what he has to say as “justification” for their disbelief. I also wanted to be sure that my faith was strong enough to withstand his arguments against the existence of God.

I borrowed the book from our local library (there was no way that I was going to buy it) and have only read a few chapters so far. I shall try to write a chapter by chapter critique and this covers Chapter 1, titled So Many Gods. I should say at the outset that this book is written by someone who most definitely does not believe in any god, and he cannot resist mocking belief.

First, let me say that he says something very sensible, that children are ascribed the religion of their parents before they can even talk, e.g. a Catholic child, a Muslim child, a Protestant child and so on. It is as if religion is something inherited, as if it were race, whereas it is nothing of the sort. I have said before that I am grateful for my nominally Christian upbringing, but that is not the reason that I am a Christian, although it is impossible to say whether it made it more likely that I would be a Christian than have any other faith. In fact I wish children were not branded in this way and I think it a mistake to reinforce it with religious education. Children must be free to believe or disbelieve, rather than indoctrinated to think that they are right and that therefore others are wrong. That’s why people kill.

So this chapter is about the many different gods there have been through history in different societies. His point is that there are so many gods that we cannot logically believe in, that we cannot believe in any. If societies make up gods, then gods are made up.

Superficially, that might seem fairly convincing, but of course it is not a logical argument. The fact that people invent gods, does not logically mean that there is no God.

More interesting would be to know why societies have made up gods. It has to be the realisation that there is indeed a mighty power behind creation. People have not just accepted things the way they are, but thought there was something behind it. The question Dawkins does not ask, because he does not believe in God, is whether God might have put these thoughts into people’s heads. I say that as someone who could not get it out of my head that I simply had to get hold of a Bible. .I say it as someone who knows of extraordinary conversions to belief.

So if God gave people the idea of gods, why was it incomplete? There are many possible answers to that question, but it is worth considering that the story of God in the Bible took thousands of years to unfold. It is only with the New Testament that God is finally revealed.

So Chapter 1 is no argument against the existence of God. It is written so as to ridicule the idea that God exists and claims that existence is unlikely, but will only persuade those who are already persuaded.

Confirmation

After a bit of dithering, I decided to go forward for Confirmation in a formal service in the Church of England. One reason for my dithering was that it seemed like a formal joining of myself to the Church of England, an organisation with which I sometimes find myself in disagreement. The decision weas made a bit easier for me by the resignation of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury. He was to my mind too vocal on political issues which were in a very grey moral area. So many political decisions are a balance between what is good for some people against what is good for others. There is very rarely an absolute right and wrong between which to decide. I also believe that the main purpose of a church is to spread the gospel and nurture believers to strengthen their faith and jointly to bring good into the world. If the church succeeds in this, then there will be enough people of goodwill to make the right political decisions. Much better than telling people which decisions one thinks right and wrong.

So what did Confirmation entail? There were a group of half a dozen of us from the Benefice of Brownsover, Clifton and Newton who wanted to go forward for Confirmation in Coventry Cathedral on November 23rd. In preparation, we had two evening sessions with our vicar on Christian “basics” – what we needed to believe and say we believed in order to be confirmed.

The Confirmation Service itself was conducted in Coventry Cathedral on Saturday 23rd November by Ruth, acting Bishop of Coventry. This was my first visit to the Cathedral and I was really quite impressed. It has a lot of merit as a building. I well remember the controversy it aroused when it was opened (that dates me). I can’t remember the detail after all this time, but I do remember the criticism of the huge tapestry of Jesus Christ. I concur that the portrayal of the bottom of his garment is very awkward, but it is otherwise quite good.

We started with a “rehearsal” at 2:00, which was running through where we stand when and where we move to at different stages. In all, I think there were about 25 people being Confirmed, and one also being baptised. All ages and races, and especially good to see young people there as well as a few oldies like myself.

After rehearsal was tea, biscuits and a chat before the service itself started at 4:00. I was very pleased to be accompanied by my partner Lyn and to be able to introduce her to our vicar and a few other people. This was the first time that she had met them.

Bishop Ruth had been dressed casually before, but put on all her finery for the service. The Cathedral Choir was there and sang for us before the service started as well as during the service. At a later date, I will attach the details of the service to this post. For now, let me say that I found the service very moving and highly emotional. I was really glad that I had decided to go forward to make this public declaration of faith.

Flavius Josephus

Flavius Josephus was, amongst other things a Jewish historian of the first century AD. He wrote a couple of significant works of Jewish history, namely “The Antiquities Of The Jews” and “The Wars of the Jews”. The Antiquities Of The Jews covers history from the Creation until the first century AD. It is a long work of 20 volumes that I am not about to read from beginning to end, but it is interesting to Christians in that it covers the time of Jesus and gives us a different perspective on some of the people mentioned in the Bible.

The full text of the book is on Project Gutenberg. I did a search and found the following interesting passages concerning John the Baptist, Jesus Christ and Jesus’s brother James:

John The Baptist

“Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod’s army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist: for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing with water would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not only for the remission of sins, but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. Now when many others came in crowds about him, for they were very greatly moved by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion, thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it would be too late. Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod’s suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death. Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod, and a mark of God’s displeasure to him.”

Jesus Christ

“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”

James Brother Of Jesus

“Ananus, who, as we have told you already, took the high priesthood, was a bold man in his temper, and very insolent; he was also of the sect of the Sadducees, who are very rigid in judging offenders, above all the rest of the Jews, as we have already observed; when, therefore, Ananus was of this disposition, he thought he had now a proper opportunity to exercise his authority. Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned:”

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When writing about Jesus, Josephus says “And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day”. And still going strong after 2,000 years!

Josephus himself lived from c.37 to c.100 AD, so he was born just after these events took place, so he would have had to rely on verbal testimony and any available documentation. During his lifetime, there would have been many who were witnesses to the events. Although not exactly contemporary accounts, they do confirm that these were historical people and not some religious fantasy, as some would want you to believe.

The paragraph about John the Baptist is revealing because it indicates that Herod was the instigator of the execution of John the Baptist, instead of being beguiled and tricked into it. Either way, he is culpable and it is interesting that Jews viewed the destruction of his army as God’s punishment. Jesus’s brother James was prominent in the early Christian church and his death, and the manner of it, are not recorded in the Bible. Other passages of the book are quite interesting about Pontius Pilate and the other people prominent in Jesus’s time.

Josephus was an observant Jew and not a Christian, and so was recording history as he knew it. He wrote Antiquities Of The Jews in c.94 AD, so about 60 years after Jesus’s death and resurrection. Clearly at that time, and throughout the life of Josephus, there was wide knowledge and presumably discussion of Jesus and the origins of Christianity so that he needed to make mention of John the Baptist, of Jesus Christ and of his brother James. James is believed to have been killed in 62-69 AD, so Josephus was an adult at the time and probably knew of it first hand.

Addendum 10/07/2024

I have looked into this subject a bit more, having been told that Josephus’s original text had been “edited” subsequently by Christians.

A strong argument to support the theory that it was edited is that it is highly improbable that Josephus, an observant Jew, would refer to Jesus as the Christ. The word “Christ” derives form the Greek “Christos” which means anointed, as is also the meaning of the word Messiah.

It is more plausible that he wrote something like Jesus was thought (by some) to be the Christ. The thing is that all extent texts derive from a version from Eusebius, a 4th century Christian theologian.

What is in less doubt is that Josephus’s writing is one more piece of evidence that Jesus really did live and that he was crucified. As also stated above, Josephus mentions John the Baptist and James, brother of Jesus, who was killed in his living memory. It is unlikely that those mentions are additions, because if one were intent on doctoring the Josephus text to such an extent to support Bible records, one would include more and different topics.

So I am inclined to think that later Christians probably did make alterations to the text, but I also think they were probably limited to identifying Jesus as the Christ.

It is not implausible for Josephus to have said that followers of Jesus were known as Christians “to this day” (i.e. the time Josephus wrote). It is worthy of note because there were other sects at the time

Fight The Good Fight

While contemplating my situation the other day, the hymn “Fight the good fight” came to mind. As someone who is completely unable to sing, I don’t often think of hymns, but this one seems to me very apt, both from a faith and a health point of view.

Whether you agree with the Christian emphasis or not, the advice is just excellent. We are encouraged to live this life without fear and with determination to do our best. These are the words:

1 Fight the good fight with all your might,
Christ is your strength and Christ your right.
Lay hold on life, and it shall be
your joy and crown eternally.

2 Run the straight race through God’s good grace;
lift up your eyes, and seek his face.
Life with its way before us lies;
Christ is the path and Christ the prize.

3 Cast care aside, lean on your guide;
his boundless mercy will provide.
Lean, and the trusting soul shall prove
Christ is its life and Christ its love.

4 Faint not, nor fear, his arms are near;
he changes not, and you are dear.
Only believe, and you will see
that Christ is Lord eternally.

Naturally I would like everyone to enjoy the benefits of faith, but either way there is a load of good advice contained within the Bible and within Christian songs and literature. Some of it, like this hymn, is very stirring. Other things are very calming, like Jesus’s encouragement “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11v.28-30). There are certainly times when our cancer makes us feel “weary and burdened” and at those times I am really thankful for my faith because I never feel anxious or depressed. I praise God that He makes this joy so freely available.

Philippians

I was recently reminded of Paul’s letter to the Christians at Philippi (aka the book Philippians in the Bible). Paul wrote this while imprisoned in Rome, yet it is full of love, joy, gratitude and hope.

One part that resonated with me was “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4v.6). He goes on to say that he has learned to be content whatever his situation. This is such perfect advice – especially for those of us with cancer or in some other life-changing situation.

Certainly faith gives me real calmness over my condition. Only God knows what the outcome will be, and I am happy to accept my fate, whatever it might be. In the meantime, I do everything I can in terms of diet, exercise and lifestyle to be as healthy as I can be and to feel as well as I can. Whereas some people are anxious about what the results of their scans will be, I simply see them as indicators of how things are going and whether I need to try something else. Accepting one’s fate certainly doesn’t mean being resigned to it and giving up. I am reminded of the hymn “Fight the good fight” and I think I shall do a blog post on that. It is very apt and very stirring.

I wish this peace of mind on everyone. What is so wonderful is that it is freely available through faith in Jesus Christ. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7v.7-8). Throughout this cancer episode I have come to believe that mental and spiritual health are more important than physical health. I would like all three of course, but am really grateful for what I do have.

Why I Am Not A Christian – 2

In my blog post “Is there a God?“, I pointed out some of the weaknesses in Stephen Hawking’s reasoning for saying there is no God. I suggested he should have stuck with science, where he had expertise, instead of commenting on areas where he was out of his depth. But I made the rash commitment of responding to the arguments of two philosophers, Bertrand Russell and Richard Carrier on why they were not Christians. Philosophers being trained in argument and logic are obviously going to be a tougher challenge. I responded to Richard Carrier HERE. This post is in response to Russell’s essay “Why I Am Not A Christian“.

“Why I am not a Christian” was initially given as a lecture by Bertrand Russell in 1927 and subsequently written and published as an essay, along with other essays in a book entitled “Why I Am Not A Christian”. At least Russell avoids the arrogance of Carrier, who claimed to have conclusively shown that God does not exist and that Christianity is false. Russell limits himself to saying why he is not a Christian.

Quite rightly Russell starts with a definition of a Christian. Unfortunately he gets it wrong. He defines a Christian as someone who believes in God and who believes that Jesus, if not divine, is at least the best and wisest of men. A Christian very simply is someone who believes that Jesus is the Son of God and came into the world to save it. Starting with his incorrect description, Russell gives his reasons for not being such a person. The following is my critique of his reasons for not being a person such as he describes.

Belief In God

Russell could just have said that he didn’t believe in God and saw no reason for doing so. But he starts with disagreeing with attempts to “prove” the existence of God. But why bother? Nobody has ever conclusively “proved” the existence or non-existence of God. Those who believe in God tend do so because of personal experience and those experiences will differ from person to person.

Suffice it to say that the Holy Bible promises that “ask and it will be given you, seek and you will find and knock and the door will be opened”. If people do not bother to ask, seek or knock, they may never receive. However, in my own case, I really didn’t do any of those things and was given faith anyway. I thank God for his amazing Grace, because it happened shortly before discovery of my brain tumour.

The Nature Of Jesus

Russell then sets out to say why he doesn’t consider Jesus the “best and wisest of men”, which he started out by erroneously suggesting is a requirement to call oneself a Christian.

What he does is deliberately misinterpret some of Jesus’s sayings and then use his misinterpretation against Jesus. He also mentions areas in which he considers that Christians do not follow what Jesus said. Whic is surprising for a philosopher to bring up as an argument against Christianity because it is totally irrelevant. Following are some examples:

He told a rich man to sell up everything and give it to the poor and follow Him. Russell misinterprets this as applying to everyone and criticising Christians for not doing that. The correct interpretation is that this man, asking Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life, loved his wealth too much to give it up. Jesus perceived this and so said what he said. By no stretch of the imagination is it an instruction to all wealthy people to sell up and give everything to the poor. In reality, there have been and are many wealthy Christians who have used their wealth to provide employment and have given from 50% to 90% of their income to charity. In this way their wealth does much more good than if they were to give it all up in one go. There is a good article on such philanthropists HERE.

In the same way he misinterprets Jesus’s statement “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire” (Matthew 18 v.8)). This is clearly metaphorical in that most of us have accumulated some baggage, some habits, whatever, prior to conversion, that we have to shed in order to follow Jesus. And we have the Holy Spirit, the Divine Helper, to help us to do that. It is astonishing how many people, on receiving Jesus, instantly stop drunkenness, smoking, swearing or whatever it is that is holding them back.

He also misinterprets “Do not judge, or you too will be judged” (Matthew 7 v.1) as implying that Christians who are judges in court are going against their faith. It doesn’t mean that at all. It refers only to judging people with respect to their morality in respect of God’s law and God’s expectations and has nothing to do with society’s laws, whether civil or criminal. I don’t know Russell’s motivation for what can only be deliberate misinterpretations. They don’t do his argument any good.

Conclusion

Russell’s failure is simply to take bits of the scripture and misinterpret them instead of looking at them as a whole. Interestingly, we just covered a passage in our Bible study that has a bearing on this – 2 Corinthians 4 v.4 “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God”. The god of this age, meaning the devil, has effectively blinded the minds of unbelievers to the Gospel. This is evident in that atheists who have made up their minds that God does not exist are completely blinded to the fact that he does and mock the experience of those who believe, whereas those who keep an open mind are not blinded and are more likely to come to understand the beauty and simplicity of the Gospel.

What surprise me so much about many atheists is that they are so determined in their belief that God does not exist. Make no mistake that it is a belief just the same as belief that God is. That passage from the letter to the Corinthians above can be the only reason that they are so bigoted – an accusation often unjustly directed at Christians.

Addendum – Hell

Since writing this, I have taken an interest in Biblical Greek. I took Greek O-Level some 65 years ago and actually passed, much to my teacher’s surprise. I have to admit that I really didn’t enjoy it and never got to grips with it. If not always bottom of the class I must have been near it. Strangely, I was always top of the class, or near it, in Latin. But really the Classics were not for me. Maths and Physics were what I enjoyed. Anyway, now that it has a purpose, I am eager to understand Koine Greek (Κοινη) which is the language of the New Testament (most, if not all). Add to that, I am reading that probably much of Jesus’s ministry was likely in the Greek language.

This new-found interest in Greek has got me interested in the original meanings and use of words for Heaven, Hell and Paradise. I am doing more research on this and plan to document my results, either online or in a book, depending on how substantial it is.

Anyway, it is relevant to this post because one of Russell’s criticisms of Jesus is his warning some people they are destined for “Hell”. So I wanted to discover whether it was true and what it really meant. So I went back to the original Greek. The word translated as Hell is γέεννα, anglicised as Gehenna. Gehenna was actually Jerusalem’s rubbish dump, where fires were kept burning to control pests and disease. It is widely taken as a metaphor for “Hell”, being a fiery place where souls are tortured for eternity. Perhaps it is not such a metaphor after all. Perhaps it is a way of saying that those who have spent a life opposing God will be ended and discarded.

In common with a lot of people, whether God-loving or God-hating, I think that an eternity of torture is a bit harsh for a lifetime of disobedience. If God created mankind as an immortal soul, then God is the only one who can undo that immortality – by metaphorically throwing them onto a fiery rubbish dump, so suffering briefly, not eternally. This is pure conjecture at this point and I need to do more research.

The reason that I am mentioning this is that “orthodoxy” may not necessarily be correct. It is not that I spend any time on pondering what happens after death, even though closer than many as an 80-year-old with cancer. My belief is that, however we lived our lives, we will accept God’s judgment as just, when it comes to the time. I actually have a distaste for statements too often made that someone is destined for Hell, or even for Heaven. I imagine that God doesn’t like people pre-judging what He will do either.

Why I Am Not A Christian – 1

In my addendum to my blog post “Is There A God?” I set myself up for the challenge of responding to two works titled “Why I Am Not A Christian” by philosophers Bertrand Russell and Richard Carrier. I have now acquired both as audio books from Audible, but have only listened to Richard Carrier’s so far. These are my comments on his work. I shall respond to Bertrand Russell later. Bear in mind that these are books and my comments are limited to a blog post, so I can only address the main points.

The full title of Carrier’s book is “Why I An Not A Christian: Four Conclusive Reasons To Reject The Faith“. Obviously not conclusive in that they didn’t shake my faith, though it is reasonably well argued, but in the case of the audio version, not very nicely read by Carrier himself.

His four “conclusive” reasons are:

  • God’s silence,
  • God’s inaction,
  • The lack of evidence, and
  • The way the universe looks exactly like a godless universe would, and not at all like a Christian universe would, even down to its very structure.

Basic problems are that he is arguing from the wrong premise and so, in my opinion, reaching the wrong conclusion. As any scientist and philosopher will tell you, if you start with the wrong assumptions, you will reach the wrong conclusions. Carrier frequently uses the phrase “Christian God” but I shall call him God for the sake of brevity.

God’s Silence

His first mistake is to base his argument on the description of God by C.S.Lewis in his book Basic Christianity. He really ought to go back to the source, the Holy Bible. To argue that God is not like a man’s description is meaningless.

His second mistake is thinking that God should act the way he thinks God should act if he matches C.S.Lewis’ description. So that is adding his thoughts and interpretations on top of C.S.Lewis’ thoughts and interpretations.

His basic argument is that God does not exist because he does not clearly tell everyone in no uncertain terms what they need to do for their salvation, and leaving it up to them whether they take notice or ignore it. Instead he says that we are bombarded with a plethora of confused and contradictory messages from mere humans rather than the truth directly from God unambiguously so that everyone could agree what the message was.

That kind of ignores that God has already spoken to us unambiguously and in no uncertain terms in the Holy Bible. Namely “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind”; and, “Love your neighbour as yourself”. As Jesus said “Do this and you will live”. (Luke 10 v.27-8)

Carrier makes the point that chemists agree on the fundamental facts of chemistry, doctors agree on the fundamental facts of medicine and engineers agree on the fundamental facts of engineering, but mistakenly says that people are confused about the facts of salvation. But there they are in black and white for all to read. What more does he want?

Carrier makes the point that believers of all religions claim to be hearing the word of God and that they are hearing different messages. So he concludes that if God is telling people different things, then he really isn’t telling them anything and the reality is that there is no God and they are just hearing their “inner voice”. That is a difficult statement for me to refute because, as a Christian, I do not know what people of other religions are hearing, if anything. I have read most of the Qur’an and it left me unmoved and I have also read “I Dared To Call Him Father” by Bilquis Sheik, a Pakistani Muslim woman who converted to Christianity, against all the odds. That book left me in no doubt that God talked to her through his Holy Spirit. I don’t say that Christianity is the only way to salvation and that everyone who is not a Christian will die, because that is not what the Bible says. Refer to what Jesus said above.

Digression

A lot of Carrier’s argument is based on what he thinks God could or should do, or what he would do if he had God’s power.

For example, he says that God does not behave as a father should in not giving his children guidance as soon as they go astray. But they have that guidance any time they want in the Holy Bible, which also assures them of God’s love. Just as a parent cannot speak to their child if that child completely rejects them and moves away, so God says little or nothing to those who reject him. But, like a parent, he is always there if the child comes back. See the Parable of the Lost Son as an example (Luke 15 v.11-32)

Another thing is that we cannot fully know God’s mind. We only get glimpses. However, there is reason to believe that he is taking a relatively “hands-off” approach to his creation. As an example see The Parable of the Tenants, Matthew 21 v. 33-41. Very briefly a landowner (God) creates a vineyard and lets it out to tenants (us) to manage while he goes off elsewhere. He sends them his servants (prophets) whom they beat or kill, and he finally sends his son (Jesus) and they kill him too. The implications then are that there will be a day of reckoning.

That is not to say that God has deserted those that love him, but only to say that he does not intervene in every single thing that is wrong with the world. And everything that is wrong is man-made and the price of having free-will. We have guides as to how to use that free-will, but we have abused it. And we are paying the price. I don’t want to get into the realm of politics, but would say that there seems to be an increasing expectation, world-wide, that governments will pick up the pieces of people’s mistakes. Carrier expects God to do the same. Whereas Christianity is about our personal responsibility towards God and towards our neighbour.

Digression over, back to Carrier:

God’s Inaction

So Carrier’s expectation is that God would cure all the world’s ills. He would eliminate all disease, would eliminate all weapons, would eliminate poverty, would provide enough for everybody. He sees that as what any “good” God would do, and so he takes the fact God doesn’t as evidence that God does not exist.

It is a good point of course, but an equally good point is that if we all turned to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, then all these things would be done. By us. The choice is ours. Who are we to say that God is not good or does not exist because he does not save us from the consequences of our actions? He has given us the solution. What more does Carrier want? Spoon-feeding?

The Lack Of Evidence

Carrier says that there is a lack of evidence that God exists. Christians believe that there is evidence, but much of it is personal experience. Things in our own lives and the lives of others convince us that God indeed is, but we are well aware that does not meet the standards of scientific proof.

But then Carrier’s arguments for the non-existence of God do not meet the standards of scientific proof either. His conclusions (and his book contains many of them) that God does not exist are defective.

Carrier also makes the point that there is no evidence that faith in Jesus leads to eternal life. There isn’t, but so what? Christianity is so good for us and for the world in this life, that the next life is not really an issue. Christianity is so full of joy and freedom, and comfort when we need it, that eternal life is not really a a factor in our Christianity. It is a lovely promise, but definitely not something we need to prove.

Jesus kind of makes it clear that we are not going to get any proof. He is repeatedly asked for a sign from Heaven and he repeatedly refuses. When Thomas was told of Jesus’ resurrection, he doubted its truth, saying he needed to see for himself. Later when Jesus appeared to Thomas, he said to him: ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe’. Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’. Then Jesus replied, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’ (John 20 v.27-9)

Wrong Universe

Carrier claims that the universe is exactly like a godless universe would look and not at all like a Christian universe would look. He makes the good point that with so many suns and planets in the universe, there is bound to be one conducive to life and that life will evolve as we know it can. But so what?

This again is Carrier playing God and saying that if there were a God, he would do it differently. It is really a rubbish argument to say that God would do it differently, therefore he doesn’t exist.

Conclusion

Carrier’s conclusion is quite interesting.

He repeats his four reasons as proving “conclusively” that Christianity is false and that there is no God. He claims that Christianity makes numerous failed predictions, which is not true. Christians may make predictions that are wrong, but that does not mean that Christianity makes failed predictions. The other failed predictions he refers to are what he thinks Christianity predicts, e.g. a different universe, so not surprising they are failed predictions. There is not much value in making things up so that you can trash them.

Interesting though that he continues with the question “So what do we believe?”, which he answers in another of his books “Sense And Goodness Without God”. I certainly will not buy it, but will read it if the opportunity arises. He summarises that book as since this world isn’t the way we want it to be, we have to make it the way we want it to be. Scary! He goes on to say good things like we need to create justice, care for each other, we have to find and give and receive love for each other etc.

But who says we have to do that? It is just his opinion of what a nice world would be. Hitler had another view of what a nice world would be. Who is right – Hitler or Carrier? It is purely subjective. You could argue that in Hitler’s world, there wouldn’t be a problem with over-population and there wouldn’t be any racial strife. Certainly Carrier’s view is closer to the Christian view, but if Christianity is false, as he would have us believe, what evidence is there that this is the right view?

And how is Carrier going to bring about this world that he says we “have to” try to bring about? Politics? I think there is enough failed politics around the world, including in Carrier’s home country, to know that that won’t work. World Government? That’s an even scarier idea with all the problems of the European Union on a larger scale.

I’ve got a better idea! Let’s do what we can to promote real Christianity, where people take personal responsibility for being and doing better. And where we have an objective standard of good and bad.

Here’s another idea for Carrier to make the world better. Stop going on about Christians and just leave us to our faith. He is not going to convert us and we are not going to convert him, so there really is not much point.

Invictus

The poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley was catapulted into the public consciousness by the 2009 film of that name about Nelson Mandela and post-apartheid South Africa. The poem helped to carry him through his imprisonment and is perhaps part of the reason that he emerged without resentment and vengefulness. Henley himself was no stranger to misfortune, having had part of a leg amputated at a fairly early age. He suffered ill health and did not live very long, dying at the age of 53. This is the poem:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul

Invictus is the Latin word for unconquered or undefeated, and is a marvellous example of how we should live our lives – as the master of our fate and captain of our soul. With God to help us

Invictus is kept in the public consciousness by the Invictus Games, the name of which is written with the letters I AM highlighted in a different colour. Was this in the knowledge that I AM is one of the names of God? Possibly not.

The poem is not overtly Christian – “I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul”, but the sentiment is entirely consistent with Christianity, except that he seems to have a rather gloomy expectation of the hereafter. I also believe it is a good fit with life with cancer: whatever it throws at us, we are personally responsible for our reaction and how we learn from it.

I certainly didn’t have this poem in mind when I formulated my approach to my cancer, so am somewhat blown away by how accurately it expresses my feelings about it. Initially I was rather inclined to leave it up to the medical profession, but then being told that I will probably never be free of cancer, inspired me to start taking responsibility.

I wasn’t given much dietary advice and the subjects of mental and spiritual wellbeing, and their importance in healing, never arose in conversations with oncologists. That is not a criticism of oncology today, because I realise that they are constrained by their training and even by their ethical code which prevents them talking about things that are not “proven” to be of benefit. Drug trials provide evidence of efficacy and side effects, whereas there is no “proof” that a particular diet will have a beneficial effect or that the mental and spiritual measures that I have already touched upon will promote healing. All I can say with certainty is that they have done wonders for my morale and that the recent scan results are very encouraging. And if they cease to be encouraging, that would indicate that there are further learning opportunities and different ideas to investigate and try out. “I am the master of my fate”.

Good News!

A couple of days ago I had my scheduled appointment with the oncology consultant. I was both eager and anxious for this appointment because I was to get the results of my recent scans. The CT scan of my body does not worry me greatly, although my lungs have four small metastases. Left to themselves, they are too small and slow-growing to be of much concern to someone my age, and they are totally symptom-free. On the other hand, the tumour in my brain stem is a major concern, and I have an MRI scan of my head for that. It was the symptoms of loss of balance and difficulty pronouncing some words that led to its discovery. If it grows too big, it will affect the ability of my brain to control my body, with devastating consequences.

The good news is that the MRI head scan showed that the brain tumour has shrunk significantly, as has the surrounding oedema, since my last scan 4 months ago. Praise God! This was my first scan since going back onto the Everolimus and Lenvatinib therapy at a reduced dose of Lenvatinib, so good to know that the reduction hasn’t done any harm.

That is not to say that the good result has come easily. First off, I give thanks to my Christian brothers and sisters who have supported me and the medical staff with their prayers. I firmly believe that this helps in general and specifically in steering us towards the right treatment.

The drugs have unwanted side effects, the worst for me being low energy and tiredness. On top of this, I have made major changes to my diet and supplementation to both detoxify and to consume those things that fight cancer and avoid those that tend to promote cancer growth.

The biggest dietary change has been to completely exclude sugar, red meat and dairy. I thought of going completely vegan at one time, but have since learned that the occasional organic free range egg is fine, as is a little white chicken meat, some fish, and cheese from sheep or goat milk. But I certainly miss my bacon at our monthly men’s breakfasts at Christ Church, Brownsover, which were about the only times that I had a full English breakfast. I still attend these for the company and the invariably interesting discussion after.

Very topical, as Christmas approaches, is that my alternative treatment involves both Frankincense and Myrrh, as oil in a blend of oils that I apply around my head and neck because of their anti-cancer properties. What we apply to our skin is absorbed into the body, which is why we need to be so careful about what cosmetics we use, as well as any chemicals with which we come into contact. Frankincense and Myrrh get several mentions in the Bible, not only as gifts to the newly born Jesus, so that reinforces their value. I also take Frankincense internally in the form of Boswellia Serrata capsules.

God, through His creation, has provided us with many natural medicines that we can use. In fact this was all that people did use until the pharmaceutical industry took off and persuaded people that man-made medicine was the way to go. Certainly the industry has done good, as well as a lot of harm. I think we have a problem in that a lot of the old “folk” remedies have been forgotten, but fortunately they are being rediscovered. Cannabis, for example, is a wonderful medicine for many ailments, including cancer, but is sadly hardly available legally in the United Kingdom, apart from the non-narcotic component CBD, which is legal and also beneficial, but not to the extent that the whole plant is.

Clearly the thing to do now is to continue along the same lines of medication and diet, perhaps refining it as I learn more. But as they say: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Probably the best advice I can give myself for now. But I would really like to be free of the medication, so that I can feel normal again. Perhaps the oncologist will agree to a break of a month or two when my brain tumour is smaller.

Is There A God?

I have taken the title of this post from the title of a chapter in Stephen Hawking’s last book, which I have just read – “Brief Answers to the Big Questions“. This book was published posthumously. It is quite a good read in spite of our difference in knowing of God’s existence. He looks at the question from a scientific point of view. Seemingly, in my opinion, he starts out with the negative view and then tries to justify it scientifically.

It would probably take a whole book to refute all his arguments. I am rather left with the feeling that if that is the best an atheist can do, even someone with a brilliant mind like Stephen Hawking, then it adds to the probability of God’s existence. Kind of like I felt after reading “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins.

In matters of science, I have to accept what Hawking says. I don’t know enough to be able to refute his scientific statements, but I can detect the gaping holes in his reasoning.

Beginning of the Universe

His belief, currently widely accepted, was that the universe started as a “singularity” which is a point of no size and infinite density. Think of it as a tiny object that has lots and lots and lots of mass (mass is what causes things to have weight in the presence of gravity – feathers don’t have much mass, lead weights do). Apparently the mass of the known universe is often quoted as 1053 kilograms (that is a number 1 with 53 zeros behind it). Then this singularity exploded with a Big Bang to form the universe as we know it. Observation shows that it is still expanding and this led to the idea that it was all together at some point billions of years ago.

Hawking states that time does not exist within a singularity.

I have no reason to dispute these “facts”, nor do I need to.

First Error – Laws

I quote from his chapter “Is There a God?”: “The universe is a machine governed by principles or laws …..These laws of nature will tell us whether we need a god to explain the universe at all. ……… Unlike laws made by humans, the laws of nature cannot be broken“. He then goes on to say: “These laws may, or may not, have been decreed by God, but he cannot intervene to break the laws, or they would not be laws.”. The big problem with this is his huge assumption that God is subject to the laws that he made for the universe.

Looking at it from a Christian point of view actually makes more sense. If there are “laws of nature” they were established by God to govern the creation and evolution of the universe. The fact that God made laws to govern the universe does not at all mean that He made any laws, of nature or anything else, to govern His own actions. God is a free agent not constrained by any imaginary laws. He is perfectly free to intervene in any way He pleases. The beauty, elegance and consistency of the “laws of nature” is more of an argument in favour of God’s existence than against it. Many scientists believe in God.

Hawking then makes the assumption that everything since the Big Bang is governed by the laws of nature and that there is therefore no need for God because Hawking thinks Him constrained by those same laws. This is of course a nonsense and completely denies reality.

The second part of this error is Hawking’s questioning whether “the laws of nature will tell us whether we need a god to explain the universe at all“. How can you question whether the laws that God made tell us whether we need God? If God didn’t make the laws of nature, how were they made? Bearing in mind that nothing existed prior to God, how could there be laws that governed matter and energy and the relationship between them before they existed, unless He made them?

Hawking would either have us believe that the laws that govern the universe were spontaneously created at the same time as the universe, or that they existed before the universe, even though there was nothing for them to govern prior to creation. I think that is much more of a stretch than believing that there is a God.

Second Error – Time

As stated above, time does not exist within a singularity. So Hawking leaps to the conclusion that there was “no time before the Big Bang ……….. For me this means that there is no possibility of a creator because there was no time for a creator to have existed in.“. Absolute nonsense! There is no time within the singularity, but that is not to say there isn’t time outside it for God to “exist in”. For proof just look at black holes. As Hawking says, at the heart of a black hole is a singularity and there is no time within them, but we know there is time outside them because the rest of the universe goes on regardless and we couldn’t observe them if it didn’t. By extension, this means that there was as much time as the creator God wanted to “exist in” prior to the Big Bang, because He was obviously outside the singularity. Hawking’s argument just doesn’t hold water.

Conclusion

So as I see it, these are the two glaring errors. There is plenty more to disagree with in his “answer”, but that would take too long and someone more patient and painstaking than I. On a personal note, I was surprised that Hawking’s reasoning was so weak. He did try, whereas some atheists, realising the futility of trying to prove that God doesn’t exist, demand that we prove He does. We have no need to.

At least Hawking limited his reasons for not believing in God to one chapter, whereas Richard Dawkins found it necessary to write a whole book of bad argument and non sequiturs to state the reasons for his atheism. It seems to me that scientists would be better to limit themselves to studying the wonders of God’s creation rather than trying, and failing, to explain that it wasn’t His creation. Slightly ironic that Hawking’s ashes reside in Westminster Abbey, a place dedicated to the glory of God.

There is obviously a problem that we cannot prove or disprove the being of God with repeatable experiments, which are what science demands. So we look at the evidence. Jesus repeatedly rejected the requests of sceptics to show “proof” of who He was. He left them to consider the evidence for themselves. Christians believe there is plenty of evidence. We find our own experience and others’ experience of the Holy Spirit compelling. We see miracles and answers to prayers rather than coincidences because there are so many of them. We believe in the resurrection of Jesus, not just because the Holy Spirit and scripture tell us so. Even after this length of time and with no contemporary news reports, we do know that His crucifixion left his disciples fearful and demoralised, and then His resurrection and the Holy Spirit energised them to preach the Gospel and even die for it. People are not generally prepared to suffer and die for something they don’t know to be true.

As Gamaliel said to the Sanhedrin “But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God” (Acts 5 v.39) . And that was 2,000 years ago and the Gospel is still going strong, in spite of the many attacks against it. It is worth reading the whole chapter because he describes sects that vanished when their leaders were killed, and therefore the expectation that Christianity would vanish unless it were from God. Paul experienced a miraculous conversion and got to know the disciples and wrote about it in his Epistles, and Luke travelled with Paul and wrote about it in the Acts of the Apostles and was motivated to write the Gospel account that bears his name .

And as Paul so succinctly put it in one of his letters: “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” (1 Corinthians 3 v.19). Which is one way of saying that God is immeasurably more powerful and wise than we are. Atheists using their “wisdom” to argue that He doesn’t exist would do well to bear this in mind. He created the universe and all the “laws” that govern its evolution. Awesome!

You will note that I have steered clear of Biblical creation as outlined in Genesis, because all I set out to do was demonstrate Hawking’s faulty reasoning. I am inclined to accept the Big Bang, or something like it, as the beginning of the universe. In fact, it completely blows my mind to think that God could create a singularity from which our planet evolved with all the life and resources that we need. Sad to say, we are not very smart and are in danger of mucking it all up even more than we have already.

I realise that faith has more to do with our receptiveness and the Holy Spirit than with intellectual argument. The best that argument can do is open someone’s mind to a point where they search for themselves and ask for help – “So I say to you: ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Luke 11 v.9).

Addendum

I am reading Hawking’s book “A Brief History Of Time” and interesting it is too. I mention this as an addendum here because he essentially contradicts what he wrote in his answer to the question “Is There A God?”.

One of his arguments is that the Big Bang was the beginning of time, so there was no time before it for God to exist in. But in “A Brief History Of Time” he plainly states that there was time before the Big Bang, and only that the Big Bang is taken to be the beginning of time because it coincides with the beginning of the universe and that what happened before is not relevant to the mathematical and physical analysis of the universe.

Therefore taking the beginning of the universe as the beginning of time is a purely human construct for human convenience, because we know nothing of what went before. To then conclude in a different book that there was no time in which God could exist is patently ridiculous.

Hawking should really have limited himself to the mathematics of God’s creation. He was certainly no philosopher if even I can pick holes in his logic. Richard Dawkins is equally ignorant of philosophy, which is why his book “The God Delusion” is such rubbish.

On the other hand, Bertrand Russell was a philosopher, and he wrote “Why I Am Not A Christian”. Looking where to buy that book, I came across another with the same title by another philosopher, Richard Carrier. So I seem to have set myself the challenge of reading their books and seeing whether their arguments hold water.

I certainly believe my faith is up to this challenge – and I couldn’t have confidence in it if it wasn’t. I’ll keep you posted!

On the other hand, I wouldn’t want it thought that faith is an intellectual exercise, because it most definitely isn’t. But if men are going to use their intellect to challenge it, then they need to be challenged.

Belief, Faith And Religion

Belief, faith and religion are interconnected but distinctly different. I thought it worth putting my thoughts down because many people, especially atheists, confuse faith and religion, and to some extent belief. They tend to point to the failures of “religion” and “religious people” as proof that God doesn’t exist. That is clearly nonsense and defies all logic..

Belief and Faith

Belief and faith in God are often seen as the same thing. The reason that I have separated them is my own experience. Before I became a Christian and had faith in God, I believed that God actually existed, but that belief did not in any way affect my life. I didn’t feel a need to do anything about that belief. It was only later that the Holy Spirit led me to faith. Then my life, thoughts and emotions were changed. The difference is the feeling of love and trust. These emotions, for me, changed a belief in God’s existence to a faith that he loved me as his creation and that I could commune with him and ask his guidance and try to understand what he would have me do.

Religion

Religion is based on a core faith and belief. It is basically humankind’s way of expressing that faith and putting it into action. Then, over time, religion develops further beliefs and practices around that core faith. Most of these beliefs, or doctrine, arise from study and interpretation of the scriptures, from inspiration from God and some unfortunately, in my perception, arise from worldly consideration. Inevitably there is discussion about these further beliefs and practices and whether they are fully in accord with the faith. And then inevitably there are disagreements and one group splits off, still holding the core faith but wanting to do things a bit differently. That is why we have a number of Christian denominations, all with the same faith in God and Jesus Christ, but wanting to worship differently or having a particular belief on whether something is or is not in accord with the scriptures. This is both a weakness and a strength.

It is certainly a weakness when members of a particular denomination declare that theirs is the one true faith and the others are apostate. That shows a complete misunderstanding of the fact that we are all one in Christ and all have our different parts to play. The New Testament of the Bible has a number of references to “the body of Christ”, of which all the faithful are part, and that we are all different parts of that same body but with our own particular functions.

A strength of different denominations is that the faithful can find a “home” where they are spiritually comfortable. This may be because they are happier worshipping in a particular way, or because their interpretation of the scriptures is particularly in accord with one particular denomination. That is fine as long as we remember that we are all one and all equal.

I attend an Anglican church and am very comfortable there. That doesn’t mean that I accept everything that the Church of England leadership says and does. In fact I think that some of what they say and do is wrong. But most of that doesn’t affect the life and love so evident in our particular church. Unfortunately some political pronouncements on matters where there is no absolute right or wrong, and on which people hold strong and divergent views, can turn people off the Church of England and, by extension, Christianity as a whole. A lot of politics is a matter of choosing the least bad option and there will always be disagreement as to what that is.

Religious Wrongdoing

Another problem with religion is that some of its adherents do things that are egregiously wrong by any standards. Whether the acts are individual or collective, atheists love to trot out examples to “prove” that the religion and therefore the faith are false. Even worse are the individual cases where those in authority have tried to sweep it under the carpet. Unfortunately, any attempt to explain is seen as an excuse.

Christians certainly accept that humankind is imperfect and that we are individually imperfect. Which is one of the reasons that we are so grateful for our faith. The Bible gives us many examples of wrongdoing (sin) and redemption. “Sin” of course is an emotive and pejorative word that is seen as judgmental, but in reality is just a conveniently short word to use for anything that would be displeasing to God. None of us is free from it. As Jesus said when the adulterer was sentenced to death by stoning (John Ch.8), “Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone”. Nobody did because nobody was. Jesus said to the woman “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more”. What wonderful compassion! One of the many reasons why our faith makes us so happy.

But why these terrible acts? Evil spirits? The devil? At one time I would have laughed at the idea that they existed, but now I am inclined to believe they do. If you wanted to destroy the Church, how would you go about it? Making it illegal has only ever driven it underground. Logical argument against it doesn’t work. Scientific argument doesn’t work. The brilliant physicist Stephen Hawking had to rely on a giant non sequitur to “prove” that God doesn’t exist. No, the only way that would succeed, but for God, would be to try to destroy it from inside. To exploit the weakness of its members, to have them speak or act in such a way as to cause revulsion or indifference towards the Church. I really do believe that is what is happening today. On the one hand attacking the Church from within, on the other hand enticing people away with material things so that they have neither the time nor inclination to think about the spiritual.

I really believe that the tide will turn when it becomes more evident to more people that the current way of the world is just not working for them.

Judgmental?

Christians are often accused of being judgmental, which unfortunately some are in spite of the direction “judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matthew Ch.7). But it is more often a case of Christians being judged. Just do an Internet search on what people think of Christians. It is quite eye-opening, fortunately not all negative, though much is. Every one of our misdeeds is used against our faith. I found a really good article about this online (See it HERE). I was actually searching to see if there was anything about what Christians think of non-Christians, but only found what people think Christians think, as well as their thoughts on Christians.

Command and Control?

On top of this, we see the archaic view that religion is about “command and control” – keeping the peasants under the thumb of the elite. Not realising that that is actually one of the evils of the modern secular world and almost completely absent in Christianity.

The world is becoming more and more polarised with power in the hands of the “elites” whether that elitism is through the power of money, government, industry or whatever. More or less the people who turn up to the World Economic Forum in Davos every year. We have even got to the point of thinking of self-serving misanthropists as philanthropists because they tell us that is what they are. If only more people could see that Christianity is about freedom and not command and control! We try to do what is pleasing to God because of our love for Him and His love for us, not because we are commanded to. Yes, we fall short. But we get up and keep on going because we know it is right for us and for the world. I’ve mentioned before The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan because it is such a beautiful allegory of the Christian journey. A tale of learning, of success and failure, of fear and joy, of trials and tribulations, and of following the wrong path and then getting back on track.

Summary

Faith is immutable and comes from God and is true. Religion is humankind’s attempt to define and follow that faith, and as such is subject to human frailty and weakness. The failure of people is not the failure of God and has no bearing on God’s existence.

Gratitude

This is one of a series of three posts on connections between faith and healing. The others are on Meditation and on Love. These three are not of course exclusive to the Christian faith, or even to faith at all, but they are integral to the Christian faith. And they all support healing.

You might well think “I’ve got cancer, what do I have to be grateful for?” Actually for quite a lot, probably including the cancer.

Gratitude is scientifically proven to have health benefits. Quoting from the Mayo Clinic website ” Expressing gratitude is associated with a host of mental and physical benefits. Studies have shown that feeling thankful can improve sleep, mood and immunity. Gratitude can decrease depression, anxiety, difficulties with chronic pain and risk of disease”. Who would have thought it?

This is yet another area in which healing parallels faith. The Holy Bible has a vast number of statements or exhortations concerning giving thanks to the Lord in both the Old and New Testaments. As a Christian, I am so fortunate in being able to thank God for the wonder and beauty of His creation and for all the blessings I have received in my life. When the cancer or its treatment gets on top of us, it may be hard to think of the things we have to be grateful for, but there is always something or someone to be grateful for.

I try to make it a habit at the end of each day to think of everything that I have to be thankful for that day and thank God for the things and people that have been a blessing to me. If you don’t believe in God and believe the universe created itself, your health will still benefit from gratitude for the good things and good people in your life. Gratitude is an overwhelmingly positive emotion that drives out the negative emotions that hinder healing.

And we must remember to thank people personally for the good things they do for us. When Jesus healed ten lepers, only one bothered to go back and thank him. We must make sure we are the one in ten. The person we thank invariably appreciates it too, so they benefit as well as ourselves.

What rather surprised me was that a number of people who specialise in treating cancer said that patients were grateful for their cancer. It forced them to take stock of their lives, reassess priorities and recognise what was most important to them. So yes, some people are even grateful for what their cancer has done for them. Certainly, however dire our situation, we need to be grateful for the good. Concentrating on the good generates more good.

One way of training ourselves in gratitude is to keep a “gratitude diary” in which we jot down things and people that we are grateful for at the time. Then when things are bad, we can look back and see that there is a lot to be grateful for. Training our mind to be positive through Meditation, Love and Gratitude can only improve our lives and our health.

Love

This is one of a series of three posts on connections between faith and healing. The others are on Meditation and on Gratitude. These three are not of course exclusive to the Christian faith, or even to faith at all, but they are integral to the Christian faith. And they all support healing.

Dr Flavin wrote a lovely article on Love and it’s role in healing. I strongly recommend reading it HERE: In particular she emphasised loving ourselves. And illustrated her article with examples of people who unconsciously sabotaged their healing by not thinking they were worthy of it. Here again, health connects with faith. Christians absolutely believe that God loves each and every one of us. So who are we not to love ourselves? (And others!)

This is a bit of an eye-opener. Love in relationships is already well-documented to have a beneficial effect on health. But there isn’t so much on the importance of loving oneself and feeling worthy of love and worthy of healing. The importance of the mind in healing the body is now well-recognised, so we need to do everything we can to make our minds healthy, so as to promote healing rather than hinder it. I hope these three posts – Meditation, Love and Gratitude will help. These are things that we have to work on ourselves, all the time. They are the perfect medicine – without harmful side effects.

A necessary part of loving ourselves is also forgiving ourselves for the things we wish we hadn’t done (to put it mildly). But as Christians, we believe that God forgives us. So our reaction has to be to forgive ourselves and, where possible, apologise to those we have wronged and make amends where we can. Of course people may still not forgive us. It took me a while to recognise the blunt truth that it’s their problem. As we say in the Lord’s Prayer “Forgive us our sins (trespasses) as we forgive them that sin (trespass) against us”. That makes very clear our responsibility to forgive others, and this is now known to be essential for our mental and physical health.

Not forgiving leads to anger and resentment, which only hurts the person who doesn’t forgive. If we can make it easier for others to forgive us, we should do so, but ultimately it is their responsibility to themselves. Forgiving ourselves is not always easy, but we have to learn to do it. Guilt is a very negative emotion that can sabotage our health or prevent healing. It helps to be able to confess it to the Lord and ask for forgiveness and for help forgiving ourselves.

Loving ourselves means wanting to be the best we can be. We all have different gifts and different limitations, so we need to make the most of what we have and the least of what we don’t have. If we are sick, it means striving to be well and making the most of the life we have. It is not a case of “I’ll be happy if ….. “. Happiness is knowing where you are going and taking the journey. I am reminded of The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. Christian starts on his journey which is filled with joy, learning, struggles and mis-steps. And he gets to his destination. Not everyone does, but you have to love yourself enough to keep on trying.

Meditation

This is one of a series of three posts on connections between faith and healing. The others are on Love and on Gratitude. These three are not of course exclusive to the Christian faith, or even to faith at all, but they are integral to the Christian faith. And they all support healing.

According to healthline “Meditation has been shown to offer many benefits. Although it’s well known as a technique to reduce stress and anxiety, research shows that it may also help enhance your mood, promote healthy sleep patterns, and boost cognitive skills.”. And there are other potential benefits too, which you can search on the internet. But even without digging further here are 3 or 4 major benefits for the cancer patient – reduced stress and anxiety and better mood and sleep.

The Bible has many references to meditating on God’s word and in the words of Psalm 46.10 “Be still and know that I am God”.

In the case of Christians, we can meditate on Scripture. I recently read a book on Biblical Meditation, which advocated meditating on a verse or short passage of the Bible, and finding that helped to receive better understanding of the passage and meaning for our lives.

Also, we can meditate on the glory of God and His creation and all the wonderful things He has done which brings us back to “Be still and know that I am God”.

Prayer too can be a form of meditation. Prayer is not just a matter of “asking for stuff”, but a matter of communicating with God. Thanking him for His blessings, recognising where we have fallen short, and requesting His help. And staying still to understand His response.

Inevitably, I think of meditation in a Christian context. But if you are not a Christian, you can still obtain benefit from meditation. There is a lot of on-line help to do that. And while you are meditating, God just might speak to you if you ask Him. Who knows? As with all things, keep an open mind.

The human body, including the mind, is a wonderful thing with a huge capability of healing itself. Think of all the injuries and diseases that we overcome without medical intervention. When it more seriously breaks down, as with cancer, then we need to marshal all our body’s resources to combat it. Our mind is such an important part of our healing and we have to give it our full attention, That is what these three posts are about – Meditation, Love and Gratitude. in the words of the Roman poet Juvenal “mens sana in corpore sano” which translates as healthy mind in healthy body. We need to strive for both.

Separate Faith and Cancer?

It was suggested to me that perhaps I should separate this blog into two blogs – one for Faith and one for Cancer. Here is some of my rationale for keeping things the way they are:

Healing

Every holistic healer and many in the medical profession will say that the mind is an essential part of healing. In fact there is evidence that mental trauma can make you sick in the first place. It is generally recognised that mental well-being is essential to physical well-being.

There is no doubt in my mind that my Christian faith contributes massively to my mental well-being. Two very powerful contributors that faith provides are Gratitude and Forgiveness.

Gratitude is so healthy because it is so positive. We are grateful for what we have and not anxious or envious of the things we don’t have. Christians are indeed extremely grateful for the redemption offered by Jesus Christ. Gratitude goes beyond that, for the beauty of God’s creation, for shelter, for warmth, for food, for other people. As I write this, I am additionally grateful for the warmth of the sun on this slightly chilly autumn day and for the beauty of the flowers outside the window. As I prepare to go to bed at night, I thank the Lord for all the blessings of the day.

Forgiveness is absolutely essential. If we do not forgive, we can become bitter, resentful and angry. All very negative emotions that damage our health. I remember a few years ago I was angry with the police for falsifying their testimony to make it appear that I had committed an offence that I didn’t commit. It made my blood boil, I lost sleep over it, it affected my whole life. I didn’t know it at the time, but I already had kidney cancer and I do not doubt that my mental state made it worse. Then I became a Christian and learned to forgive and put it behind me. Not forgiving hurts us and not those we don’t forgive.

We are forgiven by God through faith in Jesus Christ, so who are we not to forgive others? Like many others, I have difficulty forgiving myself for. things I have done that hurt others. But that is something we have to learn too – make amends where we can and ask forgiveness where we can, and then put it behind us. God doesn’t forgive us for us to feel guilty, but to feel free.

Mental Outlook

Gratitude and Forgiveness are two essential ingredients of mental well-being. But faith gives us more than that. I was diagnosed with a tumour in my brain stem. A devastating diagnosis, except I wasn’t devastated. I put that down to my faith which the Lord had given me just a few months before. What my faith gave me was acceptance. Not acceptance that this was fate and let it take its course, but acceptance that I had to do what I could to get well. And if I didn’t get well, so be it. That was over 2 1/2 years ago, since when there have been a few ups and downs with beneficial treatments and medication side effects. And a lot of learning too about cancer and the causes of cancer and about alternative healing, both the scientifically sound and the scientifically unsound.

All the while, my faith has given me a positive outlook. Of course, I am not absolutely joyful when suffering medication side effects, but extremely grateful for all the times when I feel better and have energy. Not only do I pray for healing, but also that the rest of my life will be useful. When I first prayed for healing, the answer I got was “Why?”. That is a very good question and if we are sick, we need to know the answer. That question did rather change my outlook.

Body, Mind and Spirit

Our body, mind and spirit are inextricably linked. Our bodies will not be healthy unless our minds and spirits are too. And that is why I have linked my cancer and my faith together in this blog. Although old in years, I am young in faith and continually learning, and some of that is reflected in this blog. All blog entries are categorised by Cancer or by Faith, so you can just choose to read one or the other. This post falls into both categories, and I hope helps the reader recognise the importance of making the whole person healthy,

The Lord’s Prayer

I was sitting outside in our garden this morning, at a not very warm for July cloudy 14 degC but there were breaks in the clouds when the wonderfully warm sun would shine through.

And as I was contemplating the beauty of God’s creation and how my partner Lyn had made our garden so beautiful, I got to thinking of the Lord’s prayer – especially of the last sentence called the doxology which was added early on but not part of the original biblical texts: “For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen” in the traditional version. And as I said this, the sun burst through the cloud embracing me with its warmth. I love this traditional version because it sounds so powerful and, for me, puts things in the right order – First God; second His magnificence; third His eternity. To me the modern version is weak in comparison: “For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and for ever. Amen.”. The original texts are Matthew 6.9–13 and Luke 11.1–4 in the New International Version.

Both contemporary and traditional versions of the Lord’s Prayer are on the Church of England website.

Back to the garden. As with so many things, God provides the raw materials and leaves it up to us to work with them to make things of beauty to glorify Him. Lyn has done a wonderful job, with a bit of manual labour from myself, because when we bought the house a few years ago, the back garden was a sea of gravel with a couple of trees and some bamboo spreading out of control, she has now created a space with beautiful flowers and foliage and fruit and somewhere that we can dine under shelter and somewhere we can sit and relax (in the sun when it shines) for much of the day. God has truly blessed us and we need to be mindful of that and share his blessings with others.

This kind of leads on to all the other wonderful raw materials that God has provided. Metals of all kinds, from the precious metals, gold and silver, to the more mundane metals required to manufacture the things that we use every day that make life easier and more pleasant. Stone from which we can make jewellery and from which buildings and carvings can be made. Fossil fuels which powered the industrial revolution and so much more, giving us a high standard of living (and of which we now need to reduce our usage so as not to spoil it all). We need to be ever mindful of the fact that we have a duty to conserve everything for future generations and a duty not to exploit everything for profit now with consequent loss in the future.

Alternative Cancer Therapies – Part 3

I have been on a combined therapy of Everolimus and Lenvatinib for metastatic kidney cancer in my lungs and brain since November 2022, so about 7 months. In that time my appetite has been badly affected and I have frequently felt nauseous. As a result of which my weight has reduced from 80kg to 68kg, which is quite a shocking reduction, seeing as how I wasn’t overweight to start with for someone of my height and build.

Added to my woes, I am just starting to feel better after 3 whole weeks of feeling really bad. It started with flu-like symptoms of headaches and aches and pains, then I developed a swollen and sore throat, badly affecting my voice, and then developed a mucus cough which I am at last getting over. A compromised immune system is one of the effects of the drugs and I assume that is why I have felt so bad for so long, with the sort of thing one expects to shake off within a week.

I had my regular meeting with the oncologist 2 days ago, on Thursday 6 July, and told him that I wanted to go off the medication for a bit so that I could get to feel normal again and hopefully repair my immune system. He agreed, but cautioned me that if I go off them too long, he will be unable to resume the same treatment, and he would have to start me on another drug.

At the same time, I have been looking at alternative therapies that might be kinder on the body and let me live a more normal life. I was learning particularly that some doctors are having impressive results treating cancer naturally as opposed to the traditional treatment of “cut, poison and burn” as surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are popularly known. I have had all those, though the chemo is via a daily oral drug rather than being hooked up to a machine periodically.

Natural therapies make so much sense with three main components:

  • MENTAL, EMOTIONAL, SPIRITUAL wellbeing. These are widely recognised as having a major impact on our healing and health. I know in my own case I have had a bad time with anger, unhappiness and toxic relationships. Many people have experienced these or had other mental or emotional trauma. I manged to put much of it behind me when I became a Christian – being forgiven makes it so much easier to forgive. God forgives us but people may not be so forgiving, in which case all one can do is apologise and see whether there is any way to make amends. Sadly, if people are not forgiving and are angry and resentful, it only hurts them and ultimately hurts their health, as it undoubtedly did mine.
  • DETOXIFY. We are surrounded by toxins. They make us ill. They stop us from getting well. We need to detoxify our lives as far as possible and this means getting harmful chemicals out of our lives – things like cleaners, cosmetics, weedkillers, insecticides and so the list goes on. we should look at the ingredients of everything we use. Some things are hard to change – such as the impurity of our tap water. Although there are stringent requirements for the amount of various impurities in parts per million, there are so many impurities that added together, they form a substantial amount. So not only do we have to minimise ingesting new toxins, but we have to detoxify to get rid of the ones that remain in our bodies. This is something that I am researching how best to do and will update with my experience.
  • DIET. The consensus seems to be in favour of a mostly vegetable diet. Some advocate Vegan, some Vegetarian and others cutting down drastically on meat. There are differing opinions too on eggs and dairy. Where there is unanimity is on drastically cutting down on sugar and processed foods and refined grains, with an emphasis on buying organic where possible, which can unfortunately be expensive. Many doctors recommend various natural foods and food supplements with known anti-cancer properties

I am still in the process of researching and learning. Two websites that I like are the following. The people who started them are very generous with the information that they make freely available and both have plentiful experience successfully treating patients. They are:

What I particularly like about Dr Conners’ website is that it starts with a quotation from the Holy Bible, which is very apt and which well describes his philosophy.

I will provide updates as I go along and have some experience and results to share.

Atheist Delusions

I have just started reading Atheist Delusions by David Bentley Hart. While reading the first paragraph of the first chapter, I realised that I was going to like this book, both for its style and its content. It was published in 2009, but is perhaps even more relevant today. The paragraph starts with the fact that today newspapers and book publishers have never before been so open to those who will denounce faith in general and Christianity in particular because it is such an easy target. To quote:

“As I write, Daniel Dennett’s latest attempts to wean a credulous humanity from its reliance on the preposterous fantasies of religion, Breaking the Spell, has arrived amid a clamor of indignant groans from the faithful and exultant bellowing from the godless. The God Delusion, an energetic attack on all religious belief, has just been released by Richard Dawkins, the zoologist and tireless tractarian, who – despite his embarrassing incapacity for philosophical reasoning – never fails to entrance his eager readers with his rhetorical recklessness. The journalist Christopher Hitchens, whose talent for intellectual caricature somewhat exceeds his mastery of consecutive logic, has just issued God Is Not Great, a book that raises the wild non sequitur almost to the level of a dialectical method. Over the past few years, Sam Harris’s extravagantly callow attack on all religious belief, The End of Faith, has enjoyed robust sales and the earnest praise of sympathetic reviewers. Over a slightly greater span, Philip Pullman’s evangelically atheist (and rather overrated) fantasy trilogy for children, His Dark Materials, has sold millions of copies, has been lavishly praised by numerous critics, has been adapted for the stage, and has received partial cinematic translation; its third volume, easily the weakest of the series, has even won the (formerly) respectable Whitbread Prize. And one need hardly mention the extraordinary sales achieved by Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, already a major film and surely the most lucrative novel written by a borderline illiterate. I could go on.”

Of these, I have only read Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. I do not consider that I was a Christian at the time I read it, though as stated elsewhere in this blog, I did at the time believe it probable that God existed. This book was so bad that it tended to reinforce my belief rather than consider it a delusion. I do not doubt that those already of an atheist mindset thought that it justified their opinion.

Christopher Hitchens I have heard in debate, but I have not read anything of his. I did not find him particularly convincing.

His Dark Materials was turned into a television series, and I only know it through having watched a few episodes. It was clearly a fantasy for children and, for me, unwatchable. I did not see enough to know whether it was “evangelically atheist”.

I saw the film of the Da Vinci Code, which was clearly nonsense and it in no way encouraged me to read the book. I was not a Christian at the time I saw it, which is perhaps why I did not see it as overtly anti-Christian, even though it is.

Resurrection

Still in the first chapter of Atheist Delusions, David Bentley Hart goes on to say something that is very important and that we should never forget:

“Harris is quite correct to say, for instance, that Christ’s resurrection – like any other historical event – is known only by way of the testimony of others. Indeed, Christianity is the only major faith built entirely around a single historical claim. It is, however, a claim quite unlike any other made, as any perceptive and scrupulous historian must recognize. Certainly it bears no resemblance to the vague fantasies of witless enthusiasts or to the cunning machinations of opportunistic charlatans. It is the report of men and women who had suffered the devastating defeat of their beloved master’s death, but who in a very short time were proclaiming an immediate experience of his living presence beyond the tomb, and who were, it seems, willing to suffer privation, imprisonment, torture, and death rather than deny that experience. And it is the report of a man who had never known Jesus before the crucifixion, and who had once persecuted Jesus’s followers, but who also believed that he had experienced the risen Christ, with such shattering power that he too preferred death to apostasy. And it is the report of countless others who have believed that they also – in a quite irreducibly personal way – have known the risen Christ.”

Beautifully expressed. I like this book.

Addendum

I have now finished reading this book and am very impressed. I certainly liked the way he dismissed the pronouncements of prominent atheists. As the book goes on, the author clearly outlines many of their errors in logic and their lack of knowledge of history. David Bentley-Hart is amongst other things, both a historian and a philosopher and he has put together an enthralling history of Christianity – the good and the not so good – in the context of the times. A very scholarly work.

Pillars of Christianity

While pondering conversions to Christianity, I also looked at conversions to Islam to confirm that they were different in nature. In doing so, I was reminded of the 5 Pillars of Islam – Shahaadah (Profession of Faith); Salaat (Prayer); Zakat (Almsgiving); Sawm (Fasting); Hajj (Pilgrimage) – which got me to wondering whether there were considered to be any Christian “pillars”.

Although those 5 “pillars” appear in Christianity, although differently, they are not considered pillars of the faith, only as something that we will naturally do, or might do in the case of pilgrimage.

Then when I thought about it, I realised that Christianity is built on a rock. Far more substantial than pillars. When Jesus asked his disciples whom they say He is, Peter said “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16v16). Jesus replied “on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it”. So there we have it, Christianity and the Church is built on a rock, and has not been overcome in spite of many attempts from within as well as from without. Praise God.

Anyway, I thought it might be useful to discuss how the confession of faith; prayer; almsgiving; fasting; and pilgrimage appear in Christianity.

Confession of Faith

There are 2 commonly recited statements of faith, the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. The former is the one most commonly said in our church and is as follows in the original version with which I am most familiar from my childhood:

“I believe in God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried, descended into hell, rose again from the dead on the third day, ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty, who will come again to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen”.

My memory is old but that seems to me to be the way it was. The words “crucified, dead and buried” have been replaced by “crucified, died and was buried”. The Church of England currently incorporates a couple of minor changes: ‘creator’ in place of ‘Maker’ and ‘he descended to the dead’ in place of ‘descended into hell’. The first change seems a bit unnecessary, but interesting in that many North American indigenous peoples believe in ‘the Creator’. The latter change presumably because there is some question as to the exact meaning of ‘descended into hell’. Also the “quick” have been changed to the “living”, effectively just a language update. The ‘holy catholic Church’ is the universal Christian Church, not to be confused with the Roman Catholic Church, so often abbreviated to Catholic Church.

So the first part of the Creed is the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Next the belief in the Holy catholic Church. This is important to recognise that we are all part of the same universal body of Christ, regardless of what denomination Church we worship in.

“The communion of saints” got me thinking. This is clearly not the Holy Communion or Eucharist or Lord’s Supper. So I went back to basics. A definition of “communion” that I like is “a close relationship with someone in which feelings and thoughts are exchanged”. So who are saints? They are not necessarily those who are designated as Saints by churches. The word saint comes from the similar French word which is derived from the Latin word ‘sanctus’ which means Holy and is the root of the word ‘sanctified’. Here is a nice article on ways we are sanctified: 3 Ways Christians Are Sanctified. Several times, Paul refers to church members as saints in his epistles. So my interpretation of the communion of saints is the close relationships and exchanges which we need with other church members. I believe that group Bible Study is a good example of this, where we exchange our thoughts and experiences.

Just as an aside, that is my interpretation and may differ from an “approved” interpretation. I believe the Holy Spirit gave me the idea of this blog so as to clarify and share my faith. As a relatively new Christian, I may be totally misinterpreting some things, in which case I shall be delighted to receive comments to put me straight.

The forgiveness of sins is an example of the amazing Grace and Mercy of God. It is one of the tenets of our faith that Jesus dies for our sins and that we are forgiven them through our belief in, and love for, Jesus

The resurrection of the body I do not fully understand. Yes, I believe that we will have a resurrected body, but not exactly the one we left behind, although I am sure it will have a close relationship to it. Whether we are buried or cremated, atoms of our body are dispersed into the environment and potentially become part of plants or animals or other people. Check out the words of “On Ilkla Moor Baht ‘at” (aka. On Ilkley Moor Without A Hat) to see how that can happen. But then everything is possible with God and we won’t know until we do. As Paul said “Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face”.

The life everlasting is the final belief of the Apostles’ Creed. That is indeed the promise. Is that a motivation? Jesus is asked what someone has to do to achieve everlasting life, so it is not completely under the surface. On the other hand, it is not something I think about, even though I am in my 80th year, because it doesn’t affect my daily life or my love of God. For me it is a reassuring fact, very much in the background.

Prayer

Prayer, talking to God, is an essential part of our faith. Although there have been suggestions that Christians might pray at specific times of the day, the reality is that God is everywhere all the time so we can pray anywhere at any time. The advantage of having multiple set times during the day, means that you are constantly reminded of God’s presence, if you need a reminder. The disadvantage is that it may start to feel a duty, rather than a joy. I frequently thank God and praise him for things through the day, as well as trying to put aside time for specific praise, thanks, apologising for where I fell short, and making specific requests.

Alms

Since the beginning of Christianity, Christians have been giving to support those less fortunate than themselves. Many hospitals were founded by Christians. There are alms houses all over this country where people’s faith has moved them to help others. Giving is and always was a part of Christianity. The principle of tithing is mentioned in the Holy Bible and is emphasised more in some churches than in others. Paul in his epistles refers to giving a number of times and also makes clear his appreciation of churches that have collected to finance his ministry. He also makes requests for donations to relieve poor churches. There are examples of Christians giving away 50% to 90% of their income according to their means, but this does not belittle the giving of those who can afford less. Jesus makes this clear when he says the widow giving her mite is giving more than those who ostentatiously give large amounts they can easily afford.

Fasting

Prayer and fasting gets several mentions in the Holy Bible and is recommended but perhaps doesn’t get the emphasis that it needs. It can be both healthy and spiritual but should be done at times to suit the individual’s physical and spiritual needs, rather than at set seasons. I have fasted for several days for health reasons in my pre-Christian life, but not since. I am resolved to combine prayer and fasting as soon as I have resolved my problems with nausea from the meds. I did fast for 24 hours and then had a meal which almost instantly came up again,, and I am not anxious to repeat that. I am currently trying CBD to deal with the nausea and it seems effective so far, but I am only a week into it.

Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage is more of a Roman Catholic tradition than a Protestant one, though some Protestants will make a pilgrimage to a place such as Iona where there is an opportunity for Christian fellowship, prayer and meditation ‘away from it all’. Might be a very good idea, but I’m not sure I would be up to it at my age. Lourdes is a popular pilgrim destination for those in search of healing and not only for Roman Catholics. There are confirmed stories of healing there and I am unable to comment on whether they are conveyed by the waters or by the pilgrim’s faith. As Jesus said to the woman who touched his garment, believing that it would give her healing, “thy faith hath made thee whole” (Matthew 9 v.22).

In some respects, pilgrimage seems unnecessary with God being everywhere all the time. But never having been a pilgrim, I cannot really comment. Perhaps the travel is important – I can see that it would be very beneficial to be focused on the journey and the destination. And I can imagine the peace and tranquillity and closeness to God that one might feel having arrived at a Holy place. I think I might almost talk myself into making a pilgrimage.

Talking about pilgrimage, I have just recently read “The Pilgrim’s Progress” written by John Bunyan in about 1680. And a wonderful book it is too, being an allegory of the Christian faith journey with struggles and diversions and temptations on the way. I even felt a bit weepy at times when reading parts that particularly resonated. The pilgrim, named Christian, started out with a heavy burden of sin locked to his back, weighing him down as he began his journey. And it was beautifully released when he came to the Cross. Happy to say he reaches the Celestial City at the end of his journey. Part 2 is the journey of his wife and children when she realises how wrong she was not to accompany Christian in the first place. I highly recommend this book.

Conclusion

I am not trying to draw a comparison between Christianity and Islam, which is essentially anti-Christian in its denial of Jesus as the Son of God. We talk of Judaism, Christianity and Islam as the three major “Abrahamic” religions (there are others), which they are in terms of the number of adherents, but they are totally different of course. Christianity follows on from Judaism in that the prophets foretold the Christ Jesus, though He wasn’t what Jews expected, so many rejected him, though of course, the first Christians were Jews. I am hard pressed to see a reason for any religion to follow Christianity because Jesus with His teaching, with His crucifixion and with His resurrection showed us God in all His glory and all His love and all His mercy. It is true that mankind has periodically corrupted the message and people have twisted it to their advantage, but it continues to shine through in its original form. As Gamaliel said in the Sanhedrin, about the Apostles brought before them: “Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.  But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” (Acts 5.38/39). After 2,000 years, I believe that says it is from God.

Breakfast

One Saturday in each month Christ Church, Brownsover holds a men’s breakfast. A full English breakfast for adult males only. It is usually attended by about a dozen people, sometimes more, and is open to men who are not members of the church and who are not necessarily Christian. After eating we have a discussion about Christianity or about Christian life. The topic is chosen by Simon who organises the breakfast. I like going because I rarely have a cooked breakfast otherwise and the discussion is always interesting. A while ago, we discussed the question of what God expects of us or wants us to do.

It was made interesting by the presence of someone who did not believe in God and who essentially held to the humanist philosophy which has the tenet that you can “be good” without God. In its atheistic view of course it does not accept that God gives us a sense of right and wrong. It is interesting that the forbidden fruit in the “Garden of Eden” was on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis ch.2 v.17).

Humanists

From the Humanists UK website: “Humanists are people who shape their own lives in the here and now, because we believe it’s the only life we have. We make sense of the world through logic, reason, and evidence, and always seek to treat those around us with warmth, understanding, and respect.”. Elsewhere on the website it states “They have trusted to the scientific method, evidence, and reason to discover truths about the universe and have placed human welfare and happiness at the centre of their ethical decision making.”. So it reads like a godless religion, with statements like “we believe”. And they talk about ethics and moral values which have no anchor other than that they stem from Christianity. A fact which they conveniently ignore.

Humanists have “trusted to the scientific method ….. to discover truths about the universe … “. Their trust runs out when it comes to creating a universe out of nothing. Or indeed to creating anything out of nothing. There is no “natural law” to explain it and they can’t even explain why there are laws of nature in the first place.

To be a humanist requires assumptions about humanity and requires a leap of faith, though they will likely not admit it.

Evidence for Christianity

Clearly I should also subject my Christian faith to the same brief critical analysis but quite frankly I find that difficult in that I didn’t get here by trusting to “the scientific method, evidence, and reason”. The fact is simply that I didn’t really believe until I did. I believed that there was most likely a God, in that the arguments against His existence were pretty weak, and the argument for the creation of the universe was pretty strong (humanists seem confident that science will work out how the universe created itself out of nothing). But it didn’t affect my life in any way until I felt the strongest urge, which I take to be the working of the Holy Spirit, to get a Bible and read it. Then everything just fell into place. It really comes down to two questions: “Is there or isn’t there a God?”, and “What should one do about the answer?”. The humanist would answer the first question with a ‘No’ and the second, apparently, with ‘Invent a substitute set of beliefs’. A Christian would answer the first question with a ‘Yes’ and the second with faith and a resolve to love God and love one’s neighbour (see my blog post on the Good Samaritan). Before I found real faith, I would have answered the first question with ‘Yes, probably’ and the second with ‘Do nothing’.

There is certainly evidence to support Christianity. In Jesus’ time there were religious cults that melted away when they lost their leaders. This is recorded after Jesus’ death and resurrection when the apostles were called before the Sabhedrin (Acts 5).

33 When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. 34 But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honoured by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. 35 Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: ‘Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. 36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. 37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. 38 Therefore, in the present case I advise you: leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.’

It was indeed from God and the message is still going strong 2,000 years later. But for the resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit, the disciples would surely have dispersed. They were dejected and demoralised after the crucifixion until they were aware of His resurrection. Then Jesus sent them the Holy Spirit. They were so energized and transformed that they preached the Gospel and gladly faced death. Their actions alone are convincing evidence of the Resurrection and divinity of Jesus.

The empirical evidence for Christianity is vast. The conversion experience and immediate transformation in many people’s lives alone is convincing. Indeed I don’t think any other religion has such profound conversion experiences. If they were bogus and purely emotional, then surely all other religions would have similar experiences,

I did check out some videos of conversions to Islam which confirmed my hypothesis that they were not the same. I make no comment other than that they are different. What I found rather sad was that Christians who converted to Islam, including those involved in leading and teaching young people in church, did not have a good understanding of Christianity. They had been brought up in the Christian faith but somehow missed out on the joy and the freedom it gives. The moral here is that Christian parents, bringing up their children as Christians does not make them Christians. Becoming a Christian requires a deliberate act of faith.

How Great Thou Art

“How Great Thou Art” is one of my favourite hymns and reminds us how awesome and magnificent God is. When I contemplate the wonders and beauty of this world and the universe, I am in total awe.

The world in its uninhabited state shows great beauty – the sky, the vast plains, the great forests, the magnificent mountains and the wonder of the weather. Admittedly mankind has damaged some of it, but has enhanced it too. As I look out at our garden I am struck by the beauty that can be created by working with nature.

An evolutionist would say that we are perfectly attuned to the world we live in, whereas a creationist would say that God has created the perfect world for us to live in. I believe the latter, but I don’t know whether it was done by creation as outlined in the Holy Bible or by creation of a universe that would evolve they way it has. There is a tendency to think of Biblical creationists as scientifically illiterate, but they include very intelligent people and their arguments are not without merit. I am prepared to keep an open mind, in the knowledge that we will ultimately know. As St Paul wrote “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face:” (1 Corinthians 13 v.12 KJV).

I don’t have the brain to understand the science of the beginning of the universe. Extrapolating the observed data back in time, only gets back to 1 second after the supposed Big Bang. Now, as I understand it, something called inflation preceded the big bang. What nobody has come up with is any scientific explanation of the creation of something as awesome as the universe out of nothing. As St Paul wrote “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God”. And I am left in no doubt that God created us the way we are and the world the way it is. I don’t of course have any problem with people trying to find out more about God’s creation. So far, all discovery has made me more in awe of what God has done.

We are clearly responsible for looking after this world and for many years conservationists have been reminding us of that responsibility, as well as doing invaluable conservation work. I am very impressed with the work of Allan Savory (see his talk on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI), showing how land can be restored and carbon absorbed from the atmosphere. Interestingly it involves the introduction of grazing animals, which, of course, provide food which is necessary to cure hunger in so many parts of the world. So veganism may meet the moral and health requirements of some, but it is not an answer to climate change.

Birth of Moses

In Bible Study last night we looked at Exodus Chapter 2, which describes Moses’ birth, rescue and early years. The story in a nutshell: The Hebrews in Egypt were getting so numerous that Pharaoh was concerned that they might be a threat; first he enslaved them, and then decreed that any new-born Hebrew male should be killed. So Moses’ mother kept him for 3 months, then to save him she waterproofed a basket and hid it among rushes at the bank of the river Nile, where Moses’ older sister kept watch from a distance. It was the spot where Pharaoh’s daughter bathed and she heard the baby crying and decided to keep him, even though she knew he was a Hebrew boy and that her father wanted him dead. There were just so many ways that this plan to save the baby could have gone wrong. What it does show is that if God has a plan, He will make it happen. We see this same thing throughout the Bible and in our lives too – especially when people’s lives take an unexpected turn.

That was very evident in a book that I have just been reading: ‘I dared to call Him Father’, written by Bilquis Sheikh. She was a high-born Muslim woman in Pakistan who, against all the odds became a Christian. It wasn’t only her family and friends who tried to dissuade her. She had threats on her life and evil forces against her. But she and God prevailed and she became a Christian missionary.

Miracles

Wednesday 22 February 2023 marked the start of Lent. Throughout Lent, our church Curate will be leading discussions on the miracles of Jesus recorded in the Gospel according to John. These discussions are held at the church of The Good Shepherd in Newton. The church I attend, Christ Church in Brownsover is part of a “Benefice” comprising 3 churches – St. Mary’s, the Parish Church of Clifton-upon-Dunsmore, The Good Shepherd in the same parish and Christ Church, the Parish Church of Brownsover – under the one Priest in Charge.

The Good Shepherd, Newton

The Wedding of Cana

The first miracle, that we discussed on Wednesday, was Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana. My first reaction was that we know all about that. Jesus had the wash jars filled with water and turned it into wine. “End of” as they say. Except when you study it, thinking about the culture of the time and place, it shows the enormous compassion of Jesus, and showing it in a way that it was known only to a few people at the time – the servants who filled the jars. And lots more learning and inspiration too.

Present Day Miracles

This led on to a discussion about miracles in general, and whether we see any today. My own thoughts are that all the workings of the Holy Spirit are miracles in our lives. “Coincidences” all stack up to the point where there is no reasonable explanation other than the working of the Holy Spirit.

More recently, in my life they include my move to the Midlands. So when my kidney cancer was discovered, I was under the care of one of the best surgeons. I was near Coventry, where the University Hospital has an excellent Oncology Department with excellent Nurses, Doctors and facilities. I was drawn to God just months before my brain tumour was discovered. When it was discovered, I was within easy reach of Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, which is the centre of expertise for the type of radiotherapy I needed. And, unable to drive because of my brain tumour, I found a wonderful church within easy walking distance. Then, when walking became painful, I had a bike and found that I could ride that without pain.

A New Miracle

The day after this discussion of miracles, Thursday 23rd February, was a miracle day for me. I had an Oncology appointment in Coventry and got the great news that my brain stem tumour had shrunk from 22mm to 16mm. And my pain left me so that I was able to walk a whole mile, for the first time in a very long time.

I thank God for this great improvement. Thanks too to all my Christian brothers and sisters who have prayed for my recovery and to the medical team at University Hospital.

It is easy to say “It’s all down to the medical team” and I can’t fault them because they have been wonderful, nurses and doctors. But we believe in the power of prayer and that God uses and guides medical skill. And there are just too many coincidences, outlined above, for me to believe that God doesn’t have a hand in everything. I feel blessed.

Cancer and Faith

To try to make this website useful, I looked for the sort of things that people search for on the internet. One thing that a number of people ask is something like “Why does God allow cancer”. I am by no means a theologian, so this is just my take on the subject as someone who has both faith and cancer.

Free Will

First off, I believe that God gives us Free Will, which means that we are free to go off and do what we want, which is not necessarily what God wants for us and which is not necessarily good for us. We are of course restrained by the law and by discipline in our upbringing, but that still leaves us with considerable freedom.

That is on the individual level. On the group and population level. we have the freedom to mess up our environment, fight wars, massacre people we disapprove of and countless other evils.

We also have the freedom to do immense good and offset the bad things that people do, to alleviate disadvantage, to help others and all sorts of things that are pleasing to God and to humankind.

Causes of Cancer

Many cancers are a result of this free will. It may be what we knowingly or unknowingly do to ourselves – what we eat and drink, the chemicals and pollution we expose ourselves to, and probably other things besides. And then there is what others do to us – atmospheric pollution, toxic factory effluent and so on. So what we do to ourselves or what others do to us can cause cancer.

Why don’t we have immunity to cancer? I have no answer to that although it was recently discovered that some people do have complete immunity. Perhaps it will lead to effective cures. The human body is a miracle of design in its capability, both physical and mental. It is also very resilient – up to a point, after which it breaks down. It is interesting that there are pockets of disease-free longevity in the world, where people live long because of their active lifestyle, good diet and congenial society.

So even if what we do to ourselves and what others do to us explains a lot of cancers, it doesn’t explain cancers in the very young. I can’t remember where it is in the Holy Bible, but I recall a passage where Jesus is about to heal a man born blind and his disciples asked whether the man’s blindness was a result of his sin or his parents’ sin. He replies that it is neither but so that God might be glorified in the man’s healing. Whatever the outcome, a sick child brings out the best in people – the medics, the parents and others and that is certainly pleasing to God. But I don’t know if there are any answers. I certainly don’t know any. And it is distressing when a child dies, whatever the cause.

I don’t know the cause of my cancer, just that if I had done a lot of things differently I might not be in this state now. There are times in my life when my diet has been terrible; I have exposed myself to chemicals and dust without proper protective equipment; I have not always exercised enough. I have smoked and probably lots of other things too. Some of it through ignorance; some of it through being young and feeling invincible. It can catch up with us.

Faith Helps

However, what I do know is that cancer is easier to bear if you have faith in God and in our Saviour, Jesus Christ. In theory my condition is terminal. In practice, through God and prayer and the medical profession, I have exceeded my life expectancy. Praise God. Thank you.

Workers in the Vineyard

Today in church, the parable of the Workers in the Vineyard was read (Matthew 20 v.1-16), in which Jesus likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a landowner who went out to hire workers for his vineyard. Some he hired early in the morning and others he hired progressively during the day, so that the last ones hired only worked for an hour. At the end of the day, when it came time to pay them for their labour, they each received the same amount. At first sight, that seems very unfair, even though the first hired get the reward that was agreed when they were hired. Translating this into heavenly terms, it reflects the different times in life when people turn to God and have faith in Him and in Jesus Christ. The fact that they get the same reward reflects the love and generosity of God. I did have a problem with verse 16, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last”, until I read the interpretation that this is really a caution to the first not to think that they are superior to or more deserving than the last. In faith terms, also bear in mind that the first have had the joy of faith for so much longer, whereas those who come later, and I include myself in those, realise how they have missed out all these years. As I reflect on my life, I can honestly say that it would have been better if I had had faith all those years, even if nothing else in my circumstances were different.

I believe that this works out in human terms too. There is real dignity in work, though that is easy to lose sight of when it gets on top of us and feels like drudgery. As Christians, we can usefully take note of Henry Royce’s saying “Whatever is rightly done, however humble, is noble”. It behoves us to do everything as well as we can and recognise the nobility of doing it. Of course, we do need to have a break, but lounging around all day is debilitating if we are capable of working or doing something useful instead. I can imagine that the latecomers to the vineyard were feeling pretty useless and unwanted as they hung around waiting for someone to give them a job. And they would probably have been willing to put in a full day’s work the next day.

That said, there are currently too many people in the UK who could work but are not working and not looking for work and who would not have the wherewithal to live without benefits. It is unfortunately damaging to them, to society and to our economy. Many reasons have been given for this state of affairs and many are plausible and likely contributors. And there are no easy answers. What I can say with confidence is that anything that we can do in word and deed to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ will chip away at the problem.

I am suddenly reminded of the saying “The devil finds work for idle hands” – something I haven’t heard or even thought of in many years, so I thought I should add it.

The Good Samaritan

The other week, we covered the parable of the Good Samaritan in Bible Study. I’m sure this must be one of the best known parables, but if you want to read it, it is in Luke Chapter 10, verses 25 to 37. I have linked to that chapter in Bible Gateway which is a wonderful resource for looking up Bible texts and gives you a wide range of translations to choose from. The big insight for me was that it started with an expert in the Law asking Jesus “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”. Jesus responded “What is written in the Law?”. To which the man responded “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”. Jesus then said “Do this and you will live”.

The eye-opener for me was that Christianity condenses down to these two things. The Bible therefore ceases to be a “book of rules” as some non-Christians believe, but is a book through which we can get to know God and Jesus Christ better – knowledge of someone being a prerequisite of truly loving them.

The call to love our neighbour as ourselves is difficult, no one can deny. Jesus chose a Samaritan because of the long standing antipathy, hate almost, between Samaritans and Jews. The lesson is that the whole of humanity is our neighbour, including those who hate us, those who do us harm and those who do things we don’t like. But wouldn’t the world be a much better place if we all tried to do this, even if we don’t totally succeed? Imagine if all the hate whipped up by so many “activists” were turned into love for our fellow humans. Our social media are full of one group expressing hate and violence toward another. And if some object of hate is dead, they topple or deface his statue. Living people are cancelled amid a load of vitriol. What brought us to this? Is there a way back? I would like to see more people drawn to Christ, but even if non-Christians were to recognise that we need to replace hate by love, the world will improve. Something to pray about.