warchalking...
So I am walking to work tonight and as usual I pass by many sidewalk chalk announcements that frequent the OU campus. Normally they are publicizing a concert or free food at your local Sorority or Frat house. But I say one that caught my eye. It was advertising a meeting for Atheists and Agnostics. Is it just me or does this seem like a waste of time. So they are going to get a bunch of people together and discuss what exactly they don't believe in. Do you think that they are going to learn anything new? It's not like any other religion where you meet to understand more and become deeper in your faith. I think the belief "there is no god" or "I don't think there is a god" is pretty much cut and dry. OK, that's all
PS - sorry for the misleading title. I couldn't think of anything else that had to do with chalk.
9 Comments:
yeah, i saw that a few weeks ago.. i pondered the same thing. but then again, what do they do at gay and lesbian meetings? talk about being gay? im sorry, that was a terrible example. and yes, i was terribly misled by the title
I could see a lot of things to discuss at one of these meetings. I think there are a lot of big, difficult, and engrossing questions that believers too easily answer by saying "God" or "Jesus." How about this beaut. "What's the meaning of life?" Think about it, if you weren't religious how would you answer that question. You could devote an entire meeting to this topic, hell, your whole life for that matter.
Yeah they could, but why would they? They could argue all day long about abstract ideas and whatnot that can only be explained by religion, but that seems silly. They wouldn't know the answer and would just be wasting time. I figure someone with a belief that has a very grim outlook on life would be living their life to the fullest, since there is no life after death, instead of contemplating ideas that have to relevance to their situation.
It's like getting a bunch of people together who have no schooling in math whatsoever and having them do a calculus problem. They could work on it all their life and never know if it was right or not. I think it would be better for them to do something productive.
like a lan party
Well, being right, especially when it comes to theology, is very tricky. What is right for me is not exactly right to a muslim, and not even close to being right for a hindu. It may not be right for a catholic, it may not be right for a methodist. The idea that muslims can never do their own personal calculus seems a bit shortsighted. Maybe they can't do my calculus, but that doesn't mean they don't know how to do their own.
And its not like the atheists have faith in nothing. They have faith in science, in time, the world around them, things like that. They have answers for the deep questions, like the beginning of time and the like, just like any other believer of any other religion has. They just believe differently.
That being said, I can't really agree with agnostics being included on the playbill. A true agnostic doubts the idea of God just as much as he doubts the no God. They really ought not have any ties to atheism, just as they ought not have any ties to organized theology. Or they could have the same ties to both sides, if they want to maintain the true idea of agnosticism.
The author Yann Martel has an interesting take on agnosticism.
"It is not atheists who get stuck in my craw, but agnostics. Doubt is useful for a while. We all must pass through the garden of Gethsemane. If Christ played with doubt, so must we. If Christ spent an anguished night in prayer, if He burst out from the Cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" then surely we are also permitted doubt. But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.
that's a good quote there, evan. i personally disagree that any good could come out of this atheists/agnostics meeting. first of all, they are basing their organization on defiance. starting from the point that there is no God, how can they really go about discussing the meanin of life? To expand on Brian's math analogy, it's like a group of people getting together to work out a calculus problem, but they call themselve the "no f(x) club." how can they possibly work a math problem without a very important part?
guys, we need to get back to what the bible says about these kind of people:
Romans 1:21-25
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.
Bolley, it's not that you have the answers, it's that you have ACCESS to the answers. ie. church, bible, other belivers, prayer... These people are asking questions that you can't answer without religion. That's why people create religion, to answer the unanswerable. The ancient Greeks and Romans couldn't explaing the forces of nature so they created a system that worked for them. I can't imagine any sort deeper discusson without a system of religion to found it on.
Brian, why don't you go to the meeting and find out what they talk about?
when is the meeting?
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