Introduction to "The Myth of Intellectual Atheism"

Introduction

   

              The humor and general content contained in “The Myth of Intellectual Atheism” is not intended as an insult to the scientific abilities or personal intelligence of atheists; rather, they are tools to establish that atheistic views originate from somewhere other than science or personal intelligence. Yes, it is true that a certain amount of intellectual gymnastics, along with the commensurate back flips and flourishes, are attached to the doctrines championed by atheists; however, if these intellectual gymnastics were an Olympic sport, they would not score above a 4.5, except of course for the Soviet judge.

            I am Poet Ntwadumela (In-twy-do-may-la), a Christian writer and minister, but this book is not, strictly speaking, a Christian work. This work will challenge atheism’s basic assumptions, not by defending the Christian faith, but by focusing on and separating atheism’s own Intellectual gymnastics from its attacks on religion.

            Atheism is much like an alternate on a great intellectual gymnastics team—not good enough to appear on the mat based on its own merit. Instead, this alternate must cause the star of the team to fail, and only then, by default, can it enter the arena of human ideas. The star of the team is religious faith, and atheistic arguments are always only negative arguments against religion’s ability to perform. This book will search for and examine the nature of atheism’s own performance as an intellectual alternative.

            In “The Myth of Intellectual Atheism,” the Ideas of “The Jordan Doctrine,” “The Cool Table Atheist,” “The Atheist Buffet,” and more will be explored in order to take atheism through its paces and judge its performance. Atheism’s performance will not be judged as the default alternate to religion but as a stand-alone performer in the intellectual gymnastics of philosophical worldviews.

            I challenge you to explore with me the questions that arise from discussing the atheistic narrative and arrive at your own answers and conclusions in a clear-eyed reasonable way.

     

Poet Ntwadumela, 2013

The Myth of Intellectual Atheism

Harry Potter vs. the Ku Klux Klan

Some Christians are offended by Harry Potter. These Christians say that because Harry practices witchcraft they cannot help but be offended. It would be something different, these Christians say, if there was no such thing as real witchcraft, but since there are real witches trying to war against Christians, a witch who is a hero is offensive. I haven't had time to think about it much myself because I have been working on my own idea...

I am creating a character called Parry Hotter who is in training to be a grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that this character would be offensive, and people would not want to see him because being a Klansman can never be seen in a positive light. Well, that's where you’re wrong. My young Klansman is not one of the bigoted bad Klansman, but my Klansman uses his skills for good. Parry does not burn crosses on the lawns of minority's, he burns his crosses on the lawns of the bad bigoted Klansman. He puts on his white sheet and hood to terrorize these bad Klansman and drive them away to keep the minority's safe. When these bad Klansman refuse to leave, and minorities remain in danger, then Parry has to go to the next level, and he and his friends show up in the middle of the night at the bad Klansman's home and spirit them off, and these bad Klansman will never be seen or heard of again. We must keep in mind that Parry was forced to take this drastic action because the bad Klansman are so evil and bad that they left poor young Parry with no other choice. You should also keep in mind that young Parry is really harmless, to the general public anyway, and is also so cute and innocent looking that no one could possibility be offended by him.

My character Parry Hotter should be no more offensive to the general public than Harry Potter is to Christians because when you are fighting evil, and very cute, whatever you are and whatever techniques you use can never be offensive.

Right?...Right?

Poet Ntwadumela 
From the book Christian Poems and Other Radical Explorations.

Thoughts and Ruminations

                                                                                                                             
1

A Mother is angry. This mother’s son is attending a church of another denomination. Her son and a boy from this other church met at school and became friends. Her son enjoys the other church more than the one he grew up in. She does not trust that other church. If she fails her son may become a passionate witness for Christ at that other church. If she fails her son will not necessarily be shot.
Another mother is angry. Her son refuses to attend any church, anywhere, at any time. If she fails her son may be shot in a drive by shooting.

In this way their worlds are different.


2

God is not a good fortune teller. He does not look into the future. He does not look into the past. God sees and abides in all time at the same time. God lives in the infinite present, which is eternity, as well as every part of the linear progression known as time. Therefore God sees all of time and everything that has and will happen much like we look at a map of the world. God sees the beginning and end of great roads of history, boarders of change, intersections of conflict and more.
The most important to him are small, short side streets.

Your life is a small short side street.


3

Pharisees, Sadducees and teachers of the law have taught us many lessons. One of the most important lessons is that religion and or religious culture can live separate from, antagonistic to or even the enemy of the life of Christ.

Many churches continue this lesson today.


4

When we first come to God he follows us and is with us always. No matter where we go or what we do he loves us and ever desires to be closer to us and bless us. In all things he was crucified for us.
Then things may change.
When our love for God becomes deep enough we follow him and are with him always. No matter where he goes or what he does we love him and are ever desiring to be a blessing to him. In all things we are crucified with him.

The second way is more excellent than the first I think.


5

A pastor must grow his church. He recruits Christians from other churches. He recruits people from the world he is familiar with. He studies the latest business models. He drives past the crack house every day.
They are not good recruits neither are they mentioned in his business model. They have not been invited. They are in very good company. The spirit of God has also not been invited.


6

I once owned a dog that was known as a fear biter. Fear biters are dogs that are insecure and therefore always intimidated by people and other dogs. This makes them unnecessarily dangerous and destructive because they will attack innocent people and dogs based on their own unwarranted fears. These dogs always feel vulnerable and threatened even when no threats exist. They are especially dangerous when facing the unfamiliar or something they do not understand. A fear biter that perceives a nonexistent threat will attack viciously to protect itself and its territory.

Note to self: I must always and in every way endeavor to be better than a frightened dog.


7

Christians, the really good ones, know better than and therefore take great care not to be associated with, be seen in the company of, or risk their reputation with the sexually immoral, drunkards, thieves or anyone else of ill repute. In this way Christians, the really good ones, know better than Jesus who had the unfortunate circumstance of being called the friend of tax collectors and sinners.


8

Augustine is intelligent. Augustine has studied many books for many years and has many answers. One of Augustine’s answers is that if there is a God at best he can only be understood through a complicated philosophical journey and at worst is unknowable. Augustine is not aware that he and his books have found many answers but that none of these answers spring from the correct questions. Many years later Augustine has become St Augustine and he says, “Understanding is the reward of faith so seek not to understand that you may believe but believe that you may understand.” In this statement we see that St Augustine has learned the most important question and its answer.


9

The enemy of all souls works hard to shape this world in his image. The enemy of all souls also works very hard to disguise his hand in this shaping. This world provides more food than is needed but people go hungry. This world provides more land than is needed but we have war. This world kills adults and children with preventable diseases. This world provides humans with opportunities and training to perform limitless forms of wickedness and cruelty from our early life to our death bed. In all the history of humanity we have never been able to slow, much less stop, this systematic degradation.
The world as OZ…

Please pay attention to the mind behind the curtain.


10

See our God. He is laughing loudly. He is laughing in heaven and he is also here on earth.
The nations are very angry. They are so angry that they point their water guns at God and squeeze the trigger. He laughs even more. The nations go into a rage. They call our God rude. They say that to laugh while someone is trying to disbelieve you is extremely impolite. They threaten to disbelieve him more and also to shoot him again. This makes God hysterical. He almost doubles over with laughter. The nations have imagined a vain thing. They have imagined that to disbelieve God is to make him not exist. So they wave their water guns violently and disbelieve harder. This makes God slap his knee and vibrate laughing. Our God is laughing. Our God who longs to be their God is laughing.
Our God is laughing to keep from crying.

Poet Ntwadumela
From the book: "Christian Poems and Other Radical Explorations"

Christ or karma

Definitions of karma

The above link takes you to the actual definitions of karma most people do not mean any of these definitions when they invoke the name of karma in their or another’s circumstance. Especially in the United States, karma has come to mean getting what you deserve. This and other pop culture definitions have become popular because we feel less of a need to have any idea of what we are talking about. Do not get me wrong, the world society in general and the U.S. in specific, have increased knowledge exponentially. With the internet going mobile and global it is possible for people who do not have running water to have access to quantities of information only dreamed of a short time ago. The speed with which we are bombarded with information every minute of our lives has led to a kind of informational malaise. We take much of the information given to us at face value and usually do not dig past a superficial understanding. If what we think we know is incorrect it is of little importance to many of us, as long as that incorrect knowledge will fit into the standard popular cultural interpretation of life events.

The current popular idea of what karma is and what it means is a perfect example. It is hard to engage a group of people in a conversation for long without someone essentially telling us that everything will work out in the end because karma will pay everybody back for what they have done. This has become especially annoying because the praises of karma seem to be expressed just as much by your average Christian as anybody else.  To be a Christian is to, by definition, live your life by the revealed Word of God. Even a very basic understanding of the Bible would lead one to disbelieve any of the definitions of karma, even the made up pop culture one. I am a Christian and can say that there are very few people as annoying as a Christian who has no idea what they are talking about. It is one thing to not bind yourself to a belief system and surf through the minute by minute tsunami of available information without of clue, but to have a specific all-inclusive knowledge base, the Word of God, and be clueless to what it says, but pretend to have many of the answers to life’s questions is excruciating. Encountering someone who is that clueless but pretends not to be is at once like hearing your fingernails on a chalkboard and having those fingernails pulled out one at a time. 

We do not have enough room here to explain in depth how the Bible contradicts any of the ideas of karma but take heart. If you read the New Testament for, on average, twenty minutes you will come to understand how the Bible disagrees with Karma - the differences are just that basic.

No, I am not saying that Christians have to be all knowing representatives of the theological and philosophical Christian world view but we should have at least a basic understanding of the Bible which will filter out anything that is blatantly contrary to the Christian idea.                     

Please my brothers and sisters, just in case someone expects you to say things that are true, and actually assesses what you say, have an idea of the meaning of the concepts you proclaim. It is hard enough with people attacking the Christian life when it is accurately represented. We cannot afford to add any pop culture concepts to the Word of God. Its Christ or karma it cannot be both.

Poet Ntwadumela                    

A Christian Reply to the Reasonable Atheist: Introduction

One day a young African maiden from an important river village approached the village elders with a question. “We all know you are wise, and your guidance of our village is above reproach. What is the source of your mighty wisdom?”

                  The elders replied, “We get our wisdom from all around us; we are surrounded by it every day.”

The maiden then asked, “We know that you use this wisdom in giving names to all the new maidens born in our village. How does your wisdom know what to call us? How do you arrive at our names?”

                 The elders replied, “When we rise in the morning when the day is still new and the scent of the African violet permeates the air around us and a maiden is born, we name her ‘Beautiful Flower.’ Or when we rise in morning when the day is still new and the scent of the River Congo is in the air all around us and a maiden is born, we name her ‘Fertile River.’ But tell me ‘Very Fresh Hippo Droppings,’ why do you ask?”

                  This book seeks to change how the Christian faith is given its name among the atheist community.

                 Many atheists feel a deep, passionate, visceral rejection of the Christian faith, and a surprising number who do so were formerly Christians. Why would so many people, including a great many former Christians, reject the Christian idea and take up atheism in a world where access to Christianity is everywhere? The explanation is simple, inoculation.

               Medical inoculation is “the exposure to a dead or weakened version of a virus to create a strong resistance to said virus.” In our society, people have suffered a religious inoculation as a result of their exposure to dead and weak versions of Christianity. Dead or weak does not mean “inactive or limited,” so this exposure is far-reaching and varied. From un-biblical fanaticism, like the burning of a Koran, to tepid pseudo-psychological preaching made available every day, people are constantly exposed to dead or weak versions of the Christian faith.

               What makes these versions of Christianity dead or weak is not a lack of fervor or commitment; these versions seem to have no shortage of that. Instead these versions lack an authentic ministry of God’s Word in the experience. A Christian faith without a vibrant, consistent and credible Bible foundation is not a Christian faith at all.

                In light of this, I am fearful that many atheists have developed their passionate resistance to all things Christian-based on something other than a living, Biblical Christian faith. Most atheists have questions that can easily be answered for them from an authentic Christian perspective.

In A Christian Reply to the Reasonable Atheist, an authentic Christian narrative will be explored, using the first three chapters of Genesis as a launching point. The question of evil, Hell, the origin of religion, and more will be explored as this treatise seeks to change how the Christian church is named among atheist.

                This book is not a theological treatment of the Bible; there is no shortage of such books. Rather, this book is designed as a Biblical framing of an authentic personal faith—a framing that will convey the Biblical heart of Christian beliefs in a personal, intimate way.

                 It is my prayer and belief that many of my Christian brothers and sisters will benefit from the Biblical explanations contained within the pages. This book, however, is not designed as a Christian self-help book; there is no shortage of those books either. This book is designed to provide an alternative to religious inoculation to any reasonable person, but more than all, it is intended as a Christian reply to the rational, reasonable atheist.

–Poet Ntwadumela 2013

http://www.amazon.com/Christian-Reply-Reasonable-Atheist-ebook/dp/B00FIXF8PQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1380809830&sr=8-2&keywords=poet+ntwadumela