Posted by
Greg England on Saturday, September 13, 2008 11:12:27 AM
I have started to read the Bible again.
As a secular Brit living in a largely secular society, it is very easy to end up in an existentialist hole. Before you know it, you are listening to Radiohead, drinking too much whisky (having said that, I do like a fine single malt) and ... erm ... well maybe I also need to get out more.
I don't pretend to fully understand the Bible.
However, I have never encountered a book which speaks to me with such authority, and I have read a wide variety of books. It also has a positive and healing impact in my life, which particularly important given some of the difficult family events that have occurred over the years.
Here's a question for you though:
I can easily understand atheists who don't believe in God because ... well, they just don't. Why believe in someone you can't physically touch? If you have never had a spiritual connection with something greater than your own existence, why would you buy into a religious worldview? And life's hardly a bowl of cherries is it?
But how do you explain the current growth in materialists?
You know, people who brush aside all subjective experiences as being irrelevant for their understanding of the Universe. They claim that everything can be explained through physical processes (e.g. chemical reactions). So we are all just a bunch of chemicals. We don't even exist, we are just robots. Hahahahahah!
It doesn't even have to be religious or spiritual experience
For example, when you love someone, it's not just a feeling. It's a connection to that person.
You feel their presence, sometimes even when they are not in the room.
Everyone understands that ... don't they?
How do we defeat the zombies?
Why are scientific materialists so intent on mocking "concepts" like "love" and reducing them to chemical processes?
What do they hope to achieve by imposing such a narrow and frankly absurd monist view onto a complex pluriverse?