Still thinking about those atheists and their advertising campaign. Still shaking my head over their insistence that they are "good"! That (and their claiming the mantle of "reason") makes the whole message seem so very arrogant.
In many ways, the "god" they do not believe in is a god I do not believe in, either. It's a human being writ large, not so different from the Olympians; as if the mythic language of some of the Scriptures were taken to be the bald facts.
Fact is, the only real image we have of God is Jesus. (Wasn't it Augustine who said, "If you can understand, it is not God"?) It all comes down to Jesus, the "image of the invisible God."
That doesn't mean that faith in God revealed in Jesus is a given. Well, it is a given, in that it is only a gift. We can't convince ourselves into believing (though faith is an act of will); it has to be given to us. And not every dear soul we meet or associate with will have been given that gift of an explicit faith in God. Maybe that's how it is supposed to be. Maybe we really are supposed to be the Jesus they meet.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
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4 comments:
I am a cradle Catholic but my brother, Doubting Thomas, became an agnostic in college and an atheist in adulthood. This pains me but on the other hand, Tom is morally upright and conforms his life to ethical conduct, goodness, kindness,and generosity with his time and treasure to those in need.
Is Tom not good?
It makes me mad when people who don't believe in God start trouble. That happened in a message board weeks ago.
My mother has told my siblings and me that God exists. Just look around you. Where did the flowers come from? Etc. :)
Have a wonderful week. :D
Tom is good. But then, is "good" good enough, particularly when the "good" deny the existence of God?
Sure, Tom is good! His goodness is from God, whether he acknowledges that or not. So we who believe in God owe Him praise for all that participated goodness we witness, not only in inanimate things, but in our neighbors, too: all good is a presence of God.
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