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Anthony's Faith Statement.

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A brief Introduction:

While studying to be a pastor in college I abandoned my faith. In fact, I abandoned everything I thought I believed and rebuilt.

To my own surprise at the time, I found that Christianity was much stronger than I had thought. As I rebuilt my belief system, I realized that there needed to be people out there responding to the questions people have. I had them myself. So, while not continuing on to be a pastor, I have focused on educating people about what Christianity is all about and responding to the various charges and accusations made against it.

There are some obvious challenges to being successful in that capacity, but a big part of it consists not in arguing with atheists and skeptics, but rather in providing Christians with accurate information in the first place to prevent them from leaving the faith in the first place.

Questioning is a very normal and natural part of growing up, and I am convinced that it is not wrong to ask questions of God at any age. God doesn't strike people down. On the other hand, if people are going to reject Christianity, it is my aim to at least make sure they reject the real Christianity and not a false view of it. Also, much heartache can be avoided by educating Christians properly to begin with. My experience has helped me... but it was unnecessary.

Paul said that some plant, some water, and others reap the increase. My job is to go out into the land and move rocks- or break them if necessary- till the land, and struggle through knee deep fertilizer... all in the effort to allow those who come later to plant, water, and reap the harvest. I look forward to the prospects of either serving you as someone who needs to haul rocks out of the field, or as someone who can look at the field, detect problems, and help farmers more effectively plant, water, and reap.

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What did Jesus mean by ‘Faith like a little child’? Dawkins on curiosity

Posted by Anthony on September 29, 2008

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:1-4

Christianity (and religion in general) is often maligned as being anti-curiosity. Passages like the one I just quoted are often cited. This understanding is fueled by two flawed notions. 1. Faith is belief apart from evidence, or in Dawkinian terms, even in spite of the evidence. 2. A child’s faith, which Jesus calls people to have, is simplistic and unquestioning.

Let me first take aim at Dawkins (and the other New Atheists) on this. The man is flat out wrong. I believe that I am the only person to have done the research to prove that either he is a lazy scholar, and outright biased maniac, or a flat out liar, (or evil, but I choose not to think about that) in regards to one of his quotes in The God Delusion where he tries to show that Christianity is outright against curiosity and learning using a quote from Augustine’s Confessions to make his case. The man is wrong. Much of the advances in science and philosophy for hundreds of years were done by Christians- a point he acknowledges by saying that these Christians, had they been born today, would have been atheists. Nonetheless, they were Christians and they were inquisitive. I guess Christianity isn’t incompatible with curiosity after all. Anyway, if you’re interested in my trouncing of Dawkings on this point, read this.

Now let me take aim at the two contentions above, beginning with #2.

Anyone who has kids knows that they ask a lot of questions and they are increasingly more sophisticated. My oldest child is only six and he has already asked me why bad things happen to good people if God is loving and can do anything. If you can find me an adult with anything more sophisticated than that, I’m their huckleberry. I often wonder if people who think ‘faith like a little child’ is ‘childish’ spend much time around children. I know that my experience is not merely anecodotal. As one who was in charge of Sunday School programs and was a teacher at the junior and senior high level and two years of college, I can testify that kids ask a lot of hard questions.

I can also testify to the fact that the difference in the age groups doesn’t have anything to do with sophistication of the questions but rather the attitude in which the questions are asked. A six year old asks a question because he really wants to know. A thirteen year old wants to play gotcha. A senior in high school already knows the answer and knows you’re wrong. A college kid wants to tell you the answer. Sometime in college it begins to sort out so that a person raising the question could be in any of the categories of attitude I just listed. Read the rest of the entry… »