Atheism, good & bad

awake & linking : Faith House Manhattan blog | posted by Shaun O'Reilly

We've talked recently about looking into the Christopher Hitchens book God is Not Great.  I haven't gone there yet, but I've seen multiple interviews with Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and others in the New Atheism camp.  Sometimes I'm challenged, other times I'm just bored - it hasn't been all that stimulating to me for some reason.  But, today I read a great post HERE from Faith House Manhattan, and have to share.  What Selmanovic shares isn't groundbreaking, but solidly rings true for me - and it's clear (much needed in this discussion).  One piece of his posts reads,

Religion does deserve to be challenged. “Deserves” has two meanings. First, religion deserves the pain of criticism and correction because of its failures to live up to its own ideals. Second, religion deserves the blessing of criticism and correction because it has often been a precious catalyst for justice, peace and beauty in the world. Recent challenges should therefore be welcome by religious people as a chance to see, to grieve, to repent, and then with renewed wisdom act for the common good.

So, much like I listened in on good postmodernism vs bad postmodernism discussions about this time last year -  Samir Selmanovic keeps clear the goodness of the ism's swimming widly around our culture now.  And, for now, I deeply agree with his assessment that, "to end religion, would be to end the imagination."

Comments

[Joe]

This was a really good post. I agree that religion doesn't live up to its ideals, and I think that some criticism would be appropriate and much needed. We have a lot to work on, but I am glad that we are able to work on it in the body of Christ that we have been blessed with.