{"id":36,"date":"2014-06-26T14:59:25","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T14:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=36"},"modified":"2014-08-11T20:45:47","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T20:45:47","slug":"god-is-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/god-is-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"God is Dead?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Culture and the Death of God<\/em> by Terry Eagleton is an academic world-wind history of the 300-year funeral for God and the search to replace the idea of God with something else. It\u2019s a project that Eagleton argues has failed and will continue to fail. What\u2019s fascinating to me is that one wouldn\u2019t think of Eagleton as a defender of God. After all he wrote, \u201cWhy Marx Was Right<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0and most people don\u2019t generally associate a defender of Marx to also be a defender of God.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve thought about Eagleton\u2019s thesis (and also Charles Taylor\u2019s \u201cA Secular Age\u201d), I\u2019ve pondered why a \u2018Godless society\u2019 doesn\u2019t make sense and why I don\u2019t think it can survive on its on merit, but only as a parasite that draws from the ethos and morals of another ideology, one where God does exist. I do not mean these thoughts to be a defense of Christianity, but more of religion in General. \u00a0Which religion is \u2018right\u2019 is a debate for another day.<\/p>\n

Without God there is nothing that calls one to greatness or even goodness. I have a friend who\u2019s an atheist and he isn\u2019t afraid to tell you about this view of God. I would call him a friend, but I would also say that he is absorbed with himself and is cynical about anything related to other people. More often than not you hear words of criticism and disdain rather than anything that remotely\u00a0resembles something that is generous or kind towards someone else.\u00a0 In a world where God does not exist, this isn\u2019t only normal, but should also be expected.\u00a0 It might even be something to be proud of. I can\u2019t imagine a world where this person is the standard or norm, someone that our children are supposed to look up to. Now I know people will say that there are just as many people in \u2018X\u2019 religion that act the same way, and I would absolutely agree that those people exist. I also fully acknowledge the worst that religion has done. BUT, most faith traditions would argue that that kind of self-absorbed ideological framework isn\u2019t okay and would seek to transform that person into something else (and have systems and institutions that do so). Many might also argue that there are lots of \u2018good people\u2019 that are atheist and I would agree. But, I think those \u2018good atheists\u2019 have been influenced by a broader culture that has shaped and formed them even if they don\u2019t\u2019 know it, or won\u2019t acknowledge it. Imagine what would happen if we all agreed to stop believing in God tomorrow, the next 40 years might not be so bad because we have this cultural and religious inertia that influences our choices and helps create a common life and mentality. But, what happens 200-300 years from now where any notion of God and being the best version of yourself is long gone? We would undoubtedly expect more of a \u2018survival of the fittest mentality\u2019 where you each person is the center of the world and looking out for ones own interest is paramount. It would heighten the worst parts of humanity. That\u2019s not a world I desire to live in, there are echoes of it enough for me in our time and place between both atheist and religious people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Culture and the Death of God by Terry Eagleton is an academic world-wind history of the 300-year funeral for God and the search to replace the idea of God with something else. It\u2019s a project that Eagleton argues has failed and will continue to fail. What\u2019s fascinating to me is that one wouldn\u2019t think of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,17],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-eagleton","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1350,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/1350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}