Crash the Future

Today has been a flurry of activity. This week we moved out of our initial temporary offices and into our intermediate offices. This Sunday will be our first service back on-site since the fire, and we had to clear out of the classrooms where our temporary offices were set up and into recently cleaned offices nearer the damaged area. That happened Wednesday. Yesterday and today were spent preparing the building for Sunday. It's definitely still a construction zone, but it's much improved over the charred and sooty place it was a month and a half ago. (We've got about 75% of the building back.) With all the prep, I'm looking forward to having a day off tomorrow. But I'm looking forward, even more, to when our church comes together on Sunday for the worship service. It is going to be awesome to have us all together again at our building for communion. I expect it to be a glorious morning!

So, I've gone ahead and posted a new link in my sidebar. It's one that I've long enjoyed, but for some reason have never posted here. Peter Kreeft is a professor of philosophy at Boston College. His site includes some good basic introductory items on philosophy and the reason for belief, particularly in Christianity. He writes well, explaining philosophical arguments for God's existence in clear, everyday language. It's a fun thing to read through. Anyway, I highly recommend checking it out. I've enjoyed rereading various articles on his site, and I suspect some of you might as well.

So... I suppose I've had a bit of an unofficial hiatus. It's been a month's time since last I posted, and although I haven't kept up with the blog, it has definitely been a full month. With so much time passing since the last post, I'm a bit at a loss for what to write. My mind has been so focused on the various tasks and necessities of the ministry at the church, in this time of transition, that it's been hard to shift my mental gears.

I haven't done much reading thus far this year. I've only read a handful of books, and considering two or three of them were "scouting" potential books for premarital counseling, I won't go into those here. (I'm going to be performing my first wedding this summer, and so I'm taking a couple through premarital counseling. Fun stuff!) I've read almost the whole Book of Mormon this past month because Sarah and I have been repeatedly meeting with a few LDS missionaries. They know that I'm a pastor at the church, and we have some very honest, yet respectful conversations. And so far they keep coming back. It's been a good series of meetings, and I might take some time to reflect here on the LDS faith and how it differs from biblical Christianity (though Mormons consider themselves true Christians). But I'll leave that for a future post. For now another book comes to mind.

At the very end of the year, 2008, I read what I consider to be one of the best books ever written for the skeptic mind. Tim Keller's The Reason for God was excellent. He doesn't set out to prove the existence of God, which is a refreshing perspective for Christian apologetics. It may come as a surprise to some people that a Christian pastor may say this, but the existence of the biblical God cannot be philosophically proven. The existence of God can only be shown to be possible and, I would argue, probable. Tim Keller recognizes this and writes a book in light of that very fact. He starts out not by giving some categorical proof for the existence of God. Rather, he simply asks the skeptic to apply the same level of scrutiny to his own beliefs that he applies to religion, and Christianity in particular. If a skeptic applies the same level of skepticism to his own beliefs that he does to others, he will be forced to admit that his entire worldview is based as heavily on faith as the worldview of the "faithful" whom he mocks as unreasonable. When you "doubt your doubts" you come to the point that you realize that all "reason" is based on a decent amount of faith in something. So the question then becomes, which foundational faith is the most "reasonable". Although it cannot be absolutely proven, Christianity and the God of the Bible definitely becomes at least as "reasonable" as the other alternatives, though Keller (and I) would conclude they are actually the most probable option. Keller's book is a must-read for "believers" and "skeptics" alike. Believers who read this book may find some things which with they take issue. If you read this and encounter some things that you wonder how he could write that, consider what he says, you need not accept it. I still stand by this recommendation. On the other side, skeptics who wish to remain intellectually honest and consistent will be challenged to continue describing religion, particularly Christianity, as "unreasonable." This does not mean that they will be won over to Keller's position. It simply means that Keller makes a philosophically sound and coherent argument for the "reasonableness" of faith and the "faith" of skepticism. All in all, it's a solid book. In fact, I think it's definitely moved into one of the slots of my top ten favorites. It'll become a perrenial read, I'm sure. Anyway... check it out. I doubt you'll be disappointed.