Updates

I've been rather busy lately and haven't had time to write any clever blog posts. Well, maybe they're not so clever... Anyhow I thought I'd bring my friends & family up to speed on what's been going on. The adoption application process is moving forward; we had our first interview with our home assessment writer yesterday, which lasted a couple of hours and was here in our home. She took a tour of our place and sketched out the floor plan (?) before diving into the interview. It was some basic questions about why we want to adopt, our family background, our experiences growing up, medical issues and so on. Some of the questions were on the personal side and we've been told beforehand that they'll keep coming. We meet with our assessment worker three times next week, after which she'll make a recommendation (yes or no to becoming adoptive parents). From there it goes to a committee which will make the final decision either in May or June. So, hopefully by then we will have some happy news. It's exciting but scary at the same time, so please remember us in your prayers.

The second piece of news is that next month I'm going down to Three Hills (which is in central Alberta) for my convocation at PBI. That's right, I'm graduating from Prairie Bible College. Well, not quite yet; you see, they have three grad dates (April, June and December) but only one grad ceremony. And since I'm going to be finished in December and they allow student with a few outstanding credits to graduate, I get to wear a funny hat and robe on the 25th of April. It all seems so surreal, and so sudden too since I found out by accident that I qualify to participate in commencement. I had called Prairie a few weeks ago with a question and casually asked if distance ed student have a grad and, well, the rest is history. I feel a sense of satisfaction and relief that the light's finally at the end of the tunnel, but that also means I have to pick up the pace and get my remaining courses done. It's easy to procrastinate when you're taking correspondence, and so I'm concentrating on finishing everything on time - which is why I've been so busy lately.

Finally, on a depressing note, the first day of spring arrived last Friday. It's depressing because it still looks and feels very much like winter. I'm sure my friends & family overseas as enjoying the blooming flowers while we're still shoveling. If Colin & Galya are reading this right now they may be tempted to e-mail a picture of whatever is growing on the base they're living at. I swear, if you guys do I'm mailing a freezer full of what's in my back yard straight to you...

Cultural Christians and Practical Atheists

A few weeks ago I wrote a satirical post on how atheists can reach out to us poor, misguided believers. Well, a friend of mine decided to post my article on his Facebook notes page for his friends to read, which generated some feedback. I thought I'd let everyone have their say before responding to their views, but before that I want to toss out a few more thoughts on atheism. First, I was interested in what Richard Dawkins said in an article about being a "cultural Christian." Even though he's an atheist he still sings Christmas carols and doesn't have a problem with anything else cultural that Christianity had a hand in.

This just goes to show that "cultural Christians" are not much different from "practical atheists", who are the vast majority of people in western society. By practical atheists I mean people who believe in the existence of God, but that belief has no bearing on their everyday life. They may believe in God but they don't believe God. So Dawkin's view, where a world without the belief in God is a better world, is a fallacy. Second, atheists argue that you don't have to believe in God in order to have a purpose. I agree, because whether or not you follow Jesus God uses us all for His purposes. In the Bible God speaks of raising up Pharaoh for His purpose (Exodus 9:13-17) and calls Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian king His servant (Jeremiah 25:8-12), even though they did not honor God. So Richard Dawkins is the servant of the Lord God Almighty, because he is proclaiming the name of Jesus to a world that is otherwise indifferent to God!

Now onto the responses to my last post. One person wrote that Dr. Dawkins & I were the same in that we both held to absolute truths and that truth was relative; if I believe in God then it works for me, just as atheism works for Richard Dawkins. There are a couple of problems with this view; first, the relativist is just as firm in his beliefs as anyone else. He is certain about his uncertainty and absolute about there being no absolutes. Second, truth is not necessarily truth just because it's practical. We have to define what it means when we say something "works." Dirt can work in satisfying my hunger but it won't keep me alive for long. Poisoned Cool-Aid may work to satisfy my thirst but it will kill me, just as it did with Jim Jones' followers. They were hungry and thirsty people but what they ingested spiritually, emotionally and physically was devastating. For them, or anyone else for that matter, Jim Jones did not "work." I can tell you that atheism doesn't "work" if you want peace of mind, because apparently atheists are stressed out.

Another person took exception to my comment about Christians who believe in evolution; that if you want to undermine a person's faith then you start with a "non-central" doctrine like creationism and attack it. I first want to make a clarification, and that is I firmly believe that we are created beings who were lovingly and deliberately made. Just because I don't take Genesis 1 literally doesn't mean that my faith is undermined. Having believed in a literal six-day creation model I eventually changed my view based on my study and understanding of scripture; this doesn't mean that I'm not open to changing it again. Does that mean I believe in theistic evolution? I'm not sure; there's a lot of unanswered questions and science has barely scratched the surface of human knowledge. To make a hard and fast statement that we evolved from microbes (whether God had a hand in it or not) is, to me, premature. On the other hand we have the fossil and geological record, and we know that micro-evolution takes place which explains the vast variety among all species. All truth is God's truth, whether it's found in the Bible or under a microscope. The bottom line is I'm uncertain about how we got here; I just know why.

The foundation of Christianity is not in what way we were created, but in the finished work of Christ; His death, burial and resurrection is the cornerstone of our faith, hope and love we have in God. We were made for His glory, but humanity fell away from it and ever since then God has been chasing after us, trying to save us from ourselves. By His gift of grace through faith, which we can't earn, we have both life before and after death. We can debate about all of this stuff til the cows come home, because no one can see all things clearly. But, as they say in philosophy, at some point the argument must end. And it will when one day every knee shall bow, believers, cultural Christians and practical atheists alike, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Even Richard Dawkins will do this. The question is, will he (and you, dear reader) confess it now before it's too late?