In the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. Amen.
For the last few weeks Mark has been mounting a lot of pressure on me to take this opportunity today to defeat Atheism. I believe he wants me to further the gains he has made in the last few weeks engaging with Atheism.
The problem however, is, that, I have a very different perspective on
Atheism. You see I did not grow up in a secular state where secularism is the base norm and religion is a personal preference. I grew up in a theistic society; no one ever questioned the existence of God. That was not a thought that crossed anyone’s mind. The base norm was theism and the personal preference was a choice between, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism,
Sikhism, etc. The idea that the universe somehow came into being out of an act of randomness with no apparent purpose is an atheistic idea promoted by secularism, not a theistic idea, of any flavor. So, for me to engage with Atheism is like you all eating Indian cuisine and then describing the flavor of Chicken Biryani.
I have had some non-Indian friends and relatives describe it as a rice preparation; some as a chicken preparation. Some would say it is chicken curry in rice without the curry flavor. Some would list all the different spices they could taste in the Biryani. Some would speak about the aroma, and then try to list all the spices they could smell in the Biryani. Interestingly, no
Indian would ever describe Chicken Biryani in any of those ways. The taste, the smell, the texture is all assumed, never minutely examined; perhaps it is so because no Indian would like the parsing of Biryani distract them from the known identity of this flavorful aroma-filled Indian dish. In fact, it is the non-examination of the basic components of this dish that give it somewhat of a personality; allowing it to be known as a whole and not by the sum total of its parts.
I feel the same way about Atheism. I cannot appreciate Atheism as a single entity. I have to examine the assumptions on which it is built; the basic spices and ingredients that come together. And I know that those
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who have been raised in a secular society find that exercise just as distasteful and unflattering as the Indian finds his Biryani being described by the flavor and aroma of its individual spices. Mind you the description by a non-Indian is actually dead on the spot, in fact, quite illuminating; but because it takes away the familiarity of the identity of Biryani, most Indians find such description distasteful if not outright offensive.
However, Mark is the boss, and he has asked me to engage with Atheism, so here are the assumptions of Atheism – the individual spices if you will – that simply do not make any sense to me as someone from a non-secular theistic world.
If you believe in cause and effect, which is the basic building block of reason, and your philosophical tradition rests on the works of those who have spoken of God as the “prime-mover”, then, how can you today conceive of a universe where randomness and chaos – the antithesis of order and therefore void of the possibility of deduction or induction – is the
“prime-mover”? It is like saying that reason proves that there is no such thing as reason, because reason leads to the conclusion of the lack of predictable succession.
And if you believe in scientific discovery, this is to say that there was a time that something was not known due to the lack of observation, or lack of tools that helped put together the current completeness of the picture, or whatever the reason maybe for not knowing before; then, how can you hold it as a truth, that the universe was not created but is an act of unknown, unquantifiable, undiscovered, inexplicable, act of randomness? I ask this because inherent to the process of discovery is the very real and plausible possibility of still not knowing the truth. If by the definition of discovery we still do not know the truth, then why in the teaching of science – a secular enterprise, do we assume creation as an unscientific proposition? What if some day we discover -- not by revelation -- but through ordering and piecing together of what we know, i.e., by the process of science, that, we really cannot rule out the possibility of a “prime-mover”?
All this to say, that, by reason alone it does not seem fully possible to assert the rejection of God, or even the resignation of God as only relevant within the framework of a given religious tradition; as is the basic assertion of a secular society.
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Mark had also said, that this was no time to be philosophical. Okay, so let me share with you some very interesting and simple observations. I have observed that people in the church today are much less perturbed when you challenge the Biblical teachings, or even the long held truths about
Jesus, God, Holy Spirit, or anything else that has been believed; than if you challenge the widely held secular beliefs. For instance, if I was to say today that Paul is right in saying that ultimately all religions are false if the final object of worship and praise is not Jesus the Son of God, I would get all sorts of complaints about not showing respect to the validity of other religions! I find that fascinating! People in the secular world today are most concerned about defending the idea that all religions teach the same thing. Why? Because it is a foundational secular assumption through which
God is resigned to the recluse of a specific religious tradition. If this claim was to be rejected, the world would have to accept that there is only one true way of believing and by deduction, all else is false. Very much what
Paul is saying in today’s reading. And what Jesus is saying in the Gospel!
I could go on for a very long time about this, but the point is that when you end up with more passion in defense of secular ideas in a religious congregation than the ideas of your faith, then it is not reason at work or even faithful gentleness, it is an unexamined defense of a culture that seeks to prove itself right for no reason other than to prove itself right.
Why? Because being right makes it valid; giving it a might of its own.
I have said it repeatedly, that it is this might – the hubris, not the might of military power, or economic power, that the theism coming out of the
Middle East today is so unforgivingly challenging. Their critique is not directed against militarization or capitalism, they in fact love and practice both of those themselves, their critique is focused on the hubris in the assertion that human beings have the authority to determine what is true through discovery, consent and consensus.
We may find it extremely odd and offensive, but Jesus in today’s Gospel lesson has the same critique; and he being who he is, invites people to change their mind and accept a new life in which following God’s will is the preferred lifestyle. And if this does not cause too much pain, I have to say that both Jesus and ISIS would agree on this basic premise. But yes they would be polar opposite on how to get to a pl ace of accepting God’s will.
The process, as enumerated by Paul is diametrically opposed to that laid out in Islam and yes, even Secularism. And that is why Paul concludes that ultimately, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who,
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though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
So, as an outsider, sorry Mark, I cannot claim to have defeated Atheism today. Perhaps, I was not even able to score a single goal against the prevailing assumptions. But what I do know is that at times those on the outside – just as the prostitutes and the tax collectors, have a vantage point that illuminates all the flavors and aromas of a heavenly entity, in ways that those in the inside are never able to appreciate.
May God give us a fuller appreciation of the gift of Christian faith.
Amen.
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