COMMENT ON SCIENCE ADVOCACY

I have been accused of being an evangelist for science.  I’ve decided that that’s probably a bit strong, as the term evangelism is generally reserved for efforts to convert others to belief in the Christian gospel.  Let’s just say that I am a strong advocate for the advancement of science.  And briefly here is why.

THEODICY: THE PROBLEM OF PAIN AND SUFFERING

Q: Theodicy is the Christian apologetic defense of the seeming contradiction between the belief that God is omnibenevolent, and yet he created a world with a surfeit of pain and suffering.  This seeming contradiction has been one of the primary reasons why individuals turn away from belief in a theistic god.

A: In my case my apostasy was the result of an irreconcilable conflict between the evidence of science, on the one hand, and the fundamentalism of the Seventh-day Adventist church in which I was raised, on the other.  It was only later that I came to think about and to understand the logic problems inherent in theodicy.

THOUGHTS ON THE FUTURE OF NONBELIEF

A recent Scientific American article points out that the number of Americans who state that they are “not religious at all,” has continued to rise.  In the most recent Harris poll, conducted in 2013, that percentage had risen to 23%, up from 16% in 2007.

UNDERSTANDING THE CRUCIFIXION NARRATIVE

For Christians, Christ’s sacrifice is fundamental to the salvation narrative.  Christ’s death was a necessary condition, a requirement for God’s forgiveness of human sinfulness and for humans’ salvation.  Simply put, salvation would not be possible without Christ’s crucifixion.  When I was taught this narrative as a child, no one provided any rationale for it.  The logic of the narrative was just assumed to be self-evident.  But it isn’t self-evident; it isn’t even rational.

When as a teenager I lost my belief in God, I rejected the salvation narrative as being part and parcel of a set of false beliefs: Because there is no God, there is no Christ, no sacrifice, and no salvation.  It was only years later that I thought to analyze the rationale underlying the salvation narrative, such as it was, and found it to be, well, wanting.  For me, it raises a host of questions.