WIRED article: The New Atheism

I read an article this morning in WIRED magazine..... it's chilling to realize that our society is nearing that point where Christians are pushed to the side, marginalized, and even tortured/abused for their faith. Although past times have seen these same extremes (early church, Rome) of Christian-hating, it seems we're nearing that time prophesied in the Bible.

My first encounter with this "no religion" idea came when I lived in New York back in '99. A co-worker and I were discussing faith and eventually, I saw a poster he had in his apartment. This diagram showed all the world faith symbols in a circle. In the middle of this circle was some type of symbol which stood for no religion. This guy was big into Joseph Campbell et al.

From what I've experienced and re-examined after this article, intelligence is the new atheism's god. Indeed, they DO have a faith: in humanity, intellectualism, science and logic. It's funny, because to me, if you look at things logically, there MUST be a God because we are finite. There must be something bigger than ourselves. I think it's so tempting in our day and time to reject God because of all the advances we've seen and are still seeing in technology, science, etc. However, to do so is arrogant and short-sighted. We will all die and our lives will end at some point. We can't go on forever; we can't control our destinies past the time we're given.

All of this reminds me to stay humble and dependent on God. Humanism's rise is creepy, but when I realize how big and all-powerful the God of the universe is, all these somewhat frightening "figures of the new atheism" seem silly. I pity their spiritual blindness and realize they are the ones the Bible speaks of when it says "their minds were darkened."

Another interesting note is how, in the article, they say you can pick apart Christian theology and scripture easily. When you get into details of wording and picking apart how this word might mean this or that, you easily take your eye off the WORD and get your focus onto microscopic linguistic subtlties. It must always be kept in mind that as a believer in Christ, the Bible is inspired by the Spirit of God - it is a living, breathing text. The Spirit illuminates your spirit as you read. Jesus IS the Word. You can't break apart a Person into meanings.

It's all much bigger than rules, fund-raising, and "religion." It's living life with God, in relationship, day to day.
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