Recently, about 3,000 students and guests had the opportunity to see Christopher Hitchens debate Dr. William Lane Craig on the topic “Does God Exist?” at BIOLA University. Dr. Craig is often involved in such debates and is a formidable logical thinker and Hitchens is the atheist author that claims not only is faith a faulty endeavor, it is terribly harmful.

It was observed that Craig spoke compellingly from his usual 5 basic arguments:

1. The Cosmological Argument; Whatever begins to exist has a cause. The universe began to exist. Therefore, the universe has a cause. God is the best explanation for that cause.

2. The Teleological Argument; The fine-tuning of the universe is so improbable that law or chance aren’t adequate explanations. God is the best explanation.

3. The Moral Argument; If God does not exist, then objective moral values do not exist. Rape isn’t just culturally unacceptable, it’s actually wrong.

4. The Resurrection of Jesus; The vast majority of historians generally agree that the tomb was empty. Separately, the vast majority of historians generally agree that Jesus appeared to people post-mortem. The hypothesis “God raised Jesus from the dead” is the best explanation of these facts.

5. The Immediate Experience of God; Belief that God exists may be rationally accepted as a basic belief not grounded in argument.

Hitchens said that the burden was on Craig to prove God with some certainty and positioned himself as more of an agnostic and since he doesn’t “know” for sure, his stance of non-faith is safest. Hitchens sites the problem of evil and suffering as evidence that there must not be a God, otherwise, he would prevent or eliminate it. For anyone that has seen Hitchens, it is agreed that he does this with humor and plenty of sarcasm directed at God and at people that might be foolish enough to believe.

It seems that Dr. Craig, by the rules of debate, surely made the better case, but the audience was probably impacted more by Hitchens. If there was any atheist in the audience, they were unlikely to be won over. However, if there were any that had doubts or questions among the “christians” in the room. they were given permission to not believe by Hitchens approach. He understand popular culture much better and he uses wit and presence to make an impression as opposed to proving anything at all beyond the fact that many of us have some unanswered questions about life and the universe.

As a pastor, I see the “church” in the same seat as Dr. Craig. Being right is not the point. Leaders of western Christian movements consistently fail to see that faith intersects the questions people are asking in their hearts, instead we focus on the arguments… which Jesus rarely did.

Ex. You may show someone in a consumer magazine why one product is theoretically the best choice, but the buyer stills wants the “sporty” model, right? As a spiritual leader, I try to explore why someone wants the sporty model…i.e. adventure, not sure about my worth so I’ll compensate with the sporty model, etc. What many “professional” christians don’t like to talk about is the fact that God wants to deliver on those desires as well. He is the answer to those “soul” longings or desires.

Hitchens understands “why” they want the sporty model and he speaks to that.
He brings up the objections of evil and suffering because deep down people want to know that someone cares. We, (guys like me) try to convince people of the “correctness” of God when they really just want to know that they someone cares or that they are loved.

If you can keep that in doubt, you can dissuade someone from faith & hope. You might win them to duty or obligation but not faith.

My thoughts - listen to people and think about the questions there are wrestling with in their hearts. If you carefully read Jesus’ dialogue with people, you’ll see that he speaks to those questions. I find that most people want to believe or they want to not believe and they are all just searching for a little encouragement either way.

This past Sunday, Mosaic Seattle experienced a very bad sermon. Now think about that… sermons are bad enough as it is, but a long, disorganized one? Too much to endure. Not sure who the guy was, maybe some visiting “fill in” preacher.
Thankfully, due to technical difficulties, the egregious ramblings of the poor guy were not captured and posted as a podcast. (I think it was cast somewhere else).
So today, please consider for your reading and contemplative pleasure… the replacement sermon! We begin in the Gospel of Mark chapter 13.
Innocently enough, the whole thing begins with an observation of amazement – one of Jesus’ apprentices remarks how awesome the temple is and the phenomenal engineering required to arrange such humongous stones (jokes are totally inappropriate here).
Jesus then answers, “Yep! They’re really something but one day, this whole thing is going to be gone, not one stone on another!” Wow! Jesus drops this bomb and then just keeps on walking to the hill where the olive orchard is outside of town, near where they are staying. As you can imagine, some of the crew are greatly disturbed by hearing this, maybe some are even intrigued by the prediction. In any event, they approach Jesus and ask how they can they know when this is going to happen.
Jesus then gives some warnings –
If you are going to watch for signs, don’t get fooled by people that will try to exploit your expectations, hopes and fears.
How relevant is that today! How many of you watch the stock market every few minutes to see what is happening? What about return rate on treasury bills? How many of you count the “for sale” sings in your neighbor hood? We all want to know what is around the bend and how it is going to affect us. We watch the talking heads on cable news, the financial news shows, we read the books, we get the newsletters of people claiming to know what is happening and what will happen next.
Did any of you see the interview of Jon Stewart and the financial guru? They kept showing clips where his predictions failed miserably. It was embarrassing!
Jesus also says delivers that classic “wars and rumors of wars” line.
As I write this, North Korea is threatening to test a nuclear missile, a Taliban terrorist says D.C. will be attacked soon and they’re telling us that pistachios can kill you right now because they have salmonella! It’s enough to think this is the end of the world!
Still, Jesus says that it is not. In fact, it might get worse. You might even become an enemy of the state. Yesterday, our president just fired the head of a car company. Ooops!
Jesus, who I theologically sometimes refer to as “God in a bod,” gives two piece of great advice about panic and perspective.
1. Concerning panic, he says, “Don’t!” Don’t make choices in a panic that you will regret later. How does this sound? “We’ve got to do something! And we’ve got to do it fast!” Now, I’m an action kind of guy. I like the Fire, Ready, Aim approach to life but we can allow circumstances and other people to force us to live life only in the right now. Urgency is a very different thing than panic. Panic just starts pushing buttons, hoping that something will start working or stop the alarm from pounding in our ears. Urgency, sees the course to take, sometimes in an instant, and then acts, without hesitation, driven by a conviction that your actions are bringing about a better reality for others.
2. Perspective is the view that even though we live in the right now, we got here through choices in the past and the decisions of today have implications in the future. Can you see the future? If you stand right where you are and look back at the path your life has taken, you can sometimes turn and see where that “trajectory” will take you. Couple of things to consider:
a. what if you don’t like the direction you are going? No problem, change it! But know that it will not change by itself. You and I must change our choices so that they begin to lead somewhere else.
b. The other factor may be that you don’t know where you are supposed to go. If you don’t choose, you will just float down the stream in the current of the present culture or the culture of the company you keep. If you don’t know where to go, consider that maybe, just maybe, the God that created you with such amazing uniqueness and incredible abilities has a direction in mind for you. In fact, the story of scripture is that this happens quite often. The stats are somewhere in the 100% range that each person has a purpose and a destiny that is part of an incredible plan.
Jesus tells us that even our difficult future trials and tribulations might move into a place where great things can be accomplished. He give the example that some of the people following him at that moment might get arrested and stand before people that Jesus has been wanting and hoping to have an opportunity to hear the message of love, faith and hope! How cool is that! Maybe even ironic!
Jesus goes on to describe pretty horrible circumstances. We think they will be signs of the very end. Maybe, maybe not. I read to day where a brother killed one sister and then decapitated another right in front of the police officer kicking in the door hoping to save a life. Then the brother was killed as he tried to attack a third sister. How could things like this go on? Jesus seems to be saying that this is what happens when we live life apart from hope and perspective. It gets worse and worse.
More advice: Hold on! Don’t give up!
A few weeks ago, 4 football players went out into the Gulf of Mexico to fish. Their boat was capsized by rough waters. All four went into the cold water. One of the men, swam under the over-turned boat and retrieved 4 flotation devices. They spent several hours clinging to the hull of the boat while the waves pounded them into the boat and knocked them away from it’s fragile safety, over and over. Then the cold water began to take it’s toll as their stored fat was quickly used for energy and burned up. Hypothermia was setting in. Reality began to become fuzzy. First one and then another somehow decided they could not hold on any longer and took off their life jacket and allowed themselves to be swept away under the waves. This haunts me. How could they do this? Surely they knew their best chance of survival was to hold on to the boat and stay together! What was going on in their mind?
Only one man was found holding on to the upside down prop of the motor. His hands, chest, knees and ankles were traumatized from being pounded into the boat. Yet somehow he held on and he was saved. I wonder if there was a conversation before the others decided that it was better to let go? Did they even know what was going on? Could it have been sop bad that not only did they lose touch with reality but did death seem a relief? Could they have been tricked into thinking such a thing?
I think some of you are thinking the same thing right now. You have been pounded for a while now. Maybe it would be easier if you just slipped under the surface? Especially since it looks like that is going to be the eventual outcome anyway… why suffer longer?
Jesus tells his followers that they will witness the worst thing they could possible imagine. They will see the worship of God turned upside down so that the very worst of humanity is lifted up. How can a people continue if everything is the opposite of what it should be!
Still, Jesus says it is not the end yet. He advise them and us to look back and see where God has come from, the path He has walked, with us, leading us, chasing us, wooing us to return to Him, warning us about the things that will bring death to our lives. And if we turn and look forward we can see the trajectory of where God is going. In this chapter of the Gospel of Mark, it is noted that it is God’s plan that this message of faith, love and hope would reach al people, all nations. Yes, the ones that are committed to the destruction of others, the ones that hate, the ones that are firing up the launch pad, the ones that are dying in the streets, the ones that are running from Him, the ones that are pretending to run to Him, all of them, every single one. He is planning on reaching out to each one. That is God’s future. Are you in that future?
Do you see your life through that perspective?
Jesus then gives us a couple of metaphors to close out the moment.
1. The fig tree – just like the new leaves tell us that the fruit is coming, we can pay attention to what is happening and see God at work, we can even see how our own path is syncing up with God’s path and we can know that there is growth in our hearts and that we are moving towards the future that we dream of, the one that God dreamed when we were born.
2. He also shares that we are like servants whom God has given instructions to as He goes away for a while. When he returns, we will not want to be found asleep or not doing the thing we were supposed to. I don’t think this is a fear based motivation. The instructions God has given us is actually for our benefit and for others. They are the instructions for having a wonderful life. He has shown us the oath we were meant to walk, the one we dreamed of, our destiny. How sad would it be if I did not take that step.
Follow up – Here’s a couple of thoughts to help you on your way:
Where have you been? Can you see that God has done anything n your life?
Where are you going?
Can you see a future? What does it look like? Any details?
Could your present difficulties be a strategic step in that direction?
Does any of this resonate with you?

Mark seems like a collection of facebook entries. This week, Mosaic Seattle commented on Chapter 2
Recap - the whole chapter has an “others” feel to me.

1. The faith of friends and friendship itself is a powerful force! It wasn’t the faith of the paralyzed guy, it was the others.
2. Jesus is looking for people on the outside and we are like him when we care about them too! Jesus never, ever forgets about the “others.”
3. Jesus has little patience for the “religious” that think everything is about them. Fasting is not about how good you can do… it’s to help you not be dominated by your physical appetites.
4. Same with the Sabbath. It’s a way to structure time into your life where the focus is not on ourselves and our needs.

Sure we all have them (needs), but if they drive us then they own us and we are slaves. Don’t be a slave! Be free! Be William Wallace!

Deeper: Can you identify OTHER ways that religion focuses on the external-physical when it seems that Jesus/God is concerned with the internal-spiritual? Fasting and taking Sabbath are supposed to have an internal-spiritual impact on us. Yet, over history we get locked in on the physical actions as an indicator. Are they important? Yes! Should we observe them? Yes!
But we should look into people’s hearts and talk with each other about our hearts?
What would that look and sound like?

That’s the title of a new teaching series I’m working on.<a
Yeah, I know that sounds kind of cheesy. but here’s the deal…
I saw the story about the guy that posted the “atheist proclamation” in the capital rotunda in the state of Washington. He was expressing his right to be free from religion. One of the last statements written on his placard was that “religion only enslaves people and hardens hearts.”
I remember thinking, how ironic! That is exactly the opposite of Jesus’ message. Yet, this man’s perception of God was shaped by history and bad experiences with people claiming to follow Christ.
In fact, I have discovered that many people, inside and outside the world of faith have a view of Jesus that Jesus doesn’t claim about himself.
What does this have to do with facebook?
Facebook has allowed me to connect with people from far away and long ago and to some degree, keep up with what they are saying and doing… depending on how often they update or post.
Then it occurred to me that it would be cool if we could facebook with God. And then I thought, “wait a minute!” we can facebook with God.
In a way, that’s what scripture is. Instead of waiting for Al Gore to invent the internet, God posted what He’s been up to for a long, long time.
anyways… that’s what we’re doing with the teaching series… we’re going to log on and see what Jesus is saying and doing, paying close attention to what he says about himself and the universe.
At Mosaic, we’re doing that by going through the book of Mark.
What are you doing right now? (that’s at the top of every facebook page)
Each week, we ask, “what did Jesus say and do?” What is He saying and doing today?” What am I doing right now?

There is so mush in each chapter of Mark’s account of Jesus’ life and teaching. In fact, it will be hard to get to everything. But this incredible story shouldn’t just be part of our lives on Sundays. So… one of the ways you could “facebook” with Jesus is to dig in a little more. For those of you that would love to continue the discussion you can join the Mosaic facebook group.

Last Sunday – chapter 1
Couple of important issues to consider:
Early in Jesus ministry, he heals many people. A very personal example happened when he went to Simon’s house. (Jesus later starts calling Simon, Peter because of because of his rock-like belief of Jesus being the Christ). While at the home, Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law. The whole town is seeing this and they began to bring people in a continuous stream of need.
Two interesting things happen…
First Jesus warns the demons he is rebuking to not reveal his identity. Why would he do this? I would love to hear your thoughts about this.
Secondly, Jesus gets up early and goes off alone to pray. When his followers find him they inform him that plenty more people have come to find him. The implication is probably that they want to be healed or they want to watch the healings. Here’s the twist – Jesus then says that they must move on to other places so that he “can preach to them, too. That is why I came.” Wow! What does that mean? What do you think about that? Why would Jesus pass up an opportunity to get a crowd together?
I’ll give my thoughts later… you first!

Chapter 6 in Erwin McManus’ book, Wide Awake, is about being an Activist. The title of the chap. is actually “Create.” I think for some of us, it may be easier to think along the lines of “producing.”
We don’t like to think of us, humans, being able to create, but that is what God made us for.
Not to create out of nothing, but to create, nonetheless.
What are you creating? Or producing? What kind of life are you creating?

Jesus told these 3 certain stories:
The Bridesmaids
The Three Servants
The Separating of Sheep and Goats (you don’t want to be a goat)

Go read these for yourself. What do you think they say to us?

Here’s my take…
1. Some of the bridesmaids were ready for the wedding and some weren’t. They all were excited about being in the wedding but only half of them prepared ahead of time so that when the time came they could join in.
The lesson for us is… Stay Awake and Be Prepared!
Some of us aren’t producing anything (or much) in our life because we don’t prepare to do that. Education, debt, training, health, whatever… are all things that can keep us form being able to do some things that we dream of. Don’t settle for whatever is easy. Prepare!
2. In the second parable, the third servant takes the resources he was given and just buries it so that he won’t lose it. His strategy is defensive and driven by fear of failure more than the possible good that he could do with those resources. We have been given time talent and treasure. Are we being creative about how we can use it for good or are we trying to maintain what we have and not take any risks? If we only seek to hold onto what we have, it usually has a way of slipping away from us. Use what you have! Even if it’s only a little!
3. The last story is pretty serious. It’s the one where it’s decided, “who’s in and who’s out.” The big difference between the “sheep and goats” was that one group reached out to people in need and one group did not. What ever you are creating… or whatever you produce… you must ask yourself, “is this about me, or, is this about others?” It has to be about people!

What’s your take?

Chapter 6 in Erwin McManus’ book, Wide Awake, is about being an Activist. The title of the chap. is actually “Create.” I think for some of us, it may be easier to think along the lines of “producing.”
We don’t like to think being us, humans, being able to create, but that is what God made us for.
Not to create out of nothing, but to create, nonetheless.
What are you creating? Or producing? What kind of life are you creating?
3 Parables:
The Bridesmaids
The Three Servants
The Separating of Sheep and Goats (you don’t want to be a goat)

Go read these for yourself. What do you think they say?
Here’s my take…
1. Some of the bridesmaids were ready for the wedding and some weren’t. They all were excited about being in the wedding but only half of them prepared ahead of time so that when the time came they could join in.
The lesson for us is… Stay Awake and Be Prepared!
Some of us aren’t producing anything (or much) in our life because we don’t prepare to do that. Education, debt, training, health, whatever… are all things that can keep us form being able to do some things that we dream of. Don’t settle for whatever is easy. Prepare!
2. In the second parable, the third servant takes the resources he was given and just buries it so that he won’t lose it. His strategy is defensive and driven by fear of failure more than the possible good that he could do with those resources. We have been given time talent and treasure. Are we being creative about how we can use it for good or are we trying to maintain what we have and not take any risks? If we only seek to hold onto what we have, it usually has a way of slipping away from us. Use what you have! Even if it’s only a little!
3. The last story is pretty serious. It’s the one where it’s decided, “who’s in and who’s out.” The big difference between the “sheep and goats” was that one group reached out to people in need and one group did not. What ever you are creating… or whatever you produce… you must ask yourself, “is this about me, or, is this about others?” It has to be about people!

What’s your take?

curious said…
“So from what you said, I gleaned, correct me if I’m wrong, was that God created earth mainly for people but meant for us to take care of each other and everything else he created. I remember you once said something to the effect of it’s a pretty egocentric view on life to believe that our purpose in life is to find our own happiness. Do you not think it is an egocentric view on life to believe that the world is made for humans to enjoy and take care of? ”

my response:
…concerning the egocentric view of seeing creation as being for humanity to enjoy… I see your point. Think of it this way, when life is good or good comes to us, we can view that as deserved or as our “right” OR… we can respond with gratitude and thankfulness. This is one of the ways I see the goodness of God’s heart.
For me, that is one of the basics of my understanding of how the universe works - God is good and he wants good for us. If we started with that assumption, it would help us see and understand so much else.
Sometimes, we question whether God is good if our personal situation is not good but that is back to the egocentric view, right?
Other times we question God’s goodness because of how He has been represented by people that claim to follow him or churches or other stuff.
If we find some event or word in the scriptures that seems to put God’s goodness in doubt, usually all we need to do is just zoom back a bit and see the bigger picture and listen to what God says about himself.
again, one of our big problems as humans is that we tend to zoom in on our own situation in that moment… “what about me?”
Thanks for the dialogue!

I’m giving a series of talks called “rethink.” The idea is that maybe we have some faulty assumptions about how the universe works.
This last week, I talked about rethinking the rules… our present understanding seems to be that if you can follow the rules, everything works out… right?

A couple of things I wish I’d said:

1. Life is not in the rules, nor is your identity.
However, the rules are not to be thrown out. They position us to live life. They put us in proximity to God and help avoid being cut off from life or destroyed… they’re like guardrails.

2. Asking what’s right and wrong is too small of a life.
We should ask ourselves, “what’s the most courageous thing I could do?” “What’s the most generous thing I could do?” “What’s the wisest thing?” (more on the courageous, generous and wisdom guided life, read Uprising by Erwin McManus)
If we simply ask, what’s the right thing or what’s the wrong thing, we reduce life to some arbitrary line of morality. and seemingly, the goal is to live just on the other side of that line. If we seek to do the “most” thing, then we find ourselves living way above that line.

3. You can do whatever you want to do.
We are free to choose how we will live. Jesus seems to point out a few realities for us as a guide. “If you make this choice, it leads here. “However, if you choose this, you end up here.” But… you must choose. You can do whatever you want but you can’t cheat the process. Christian karma = “You will reap what you sow.”

What do you want to do?

I’d love to invite you into a conversation. It’s private, so I ask that you respect that. But at the same time I think it is the same conversation many of us have in our head or with the people in our lives. This is a person that doesn’t have a history of being connected to any structured faith system, yet I believe they are deeply spiritual and searching for what is real. Feel free to add your thoughts.

“So when you say that we are to be “in a relationship with creation” does that then mean that we are sinning according to the bible by polluting, cutting down trees, putting up radio towers which cause the bees to go extinct, etc.? If so, do you think it would be possible in this day and age to avoid it and why would god create humans with the mental capacity to create the technology that would in turn cause these problems with our environment?”

Great question!
First, if we abuse creation, or simply consume with only ourselves in mind, that is a bad thing. God trusted us to take care of it. Sometimes it’s not so easy to define the best course of action. There are those that think it would be a good thing for much of the human population to die off. I don’t think that God wants that at all. It places creation at the apex of everything else.. makes it a god if you will.
You’re right about the mental capacity thing… but think of it this way - God has created us with the capacity to meet the needs of people and care for the environment. We often use that capacity for evil and destruction and simple selfishness. Instead, I think our incredible human potential is meant for good… the good of others. As far as “what’s a sin and what’s not,” I find it better to focus on the relationship of trust that God desires with us instead of defining what’s a sin and what’s not. It’s really hard for us to sit in the seat of judgement, but we can honor the trust relationship and do our best to use our potential for the good of others and self.
We, as humans, tend to draw a line where “sin” is below the line and “not sinning” is above it. Most of us try and camp out just above that line and try to avoid “sinning.”I don’t think the great question will be - did I sin? but rather - am I becoming a better person? am I helping others become better people? am I being a good steward of the life that God has given me? Including the resources, relationships and influence I might have?

If we live that way… asking those questions… I think we end up living way above whatever the “sin line” is. In fact I think it is more of a terrible sin to settle for such a low view of humanity - just above the line.
Where are you living right now?

I never took physics in high school or college but I am getting more interested in the subject as I get older. Maybe that’s because time travel seems so appealing to an old dude like me. Quantum physics is a branch of physics that focuses on measuring things that we’ve never been able to measure before. The word “quantum” itself comes from the latin word that means “how much” or “how far.”
Here’s one of the basics of physics I’ve learned: there is a big difference between speed and velocity. Oh yeah? Despite the urge to ask, “uh…. could you repeat the question?”, just think about it for a few minutes. Speed = rate of movement. I like movement. The more movement, the more speed. Speed is how much somethings moves over time. So… what’s velocity? Velocity is speed measured over a distance. It’s speed with a destination!
This makes me think about my life. Does it have a destination? Or am I just moving around a lot? It seems we can fill our life with more and more activity (speed) but is there a destination? Is it going somewhere? Where?
As a spiritual leader of sorts, I love to ask people, “where are you going?” or “where is God taking you?”, as opposed to, “what are you doing?” In other words, “who are you becoming?”
To properly answer this question, we have to look into the future. (Ah… I knew we’d get back to time travel) For some of us, this is extremely difficult. We don’t easily see ahead. Some of us are oriented to look in the rear view mirror of our life and focus on where we’ve been. What could I have done different? Why did that have to happen? Why did those people treat me that way? How could I have made such a huge mistake? We can and must learn from our mistakes but we had better turn around and see where we are going or else we keep crashing and hitting the same potholes we always do.
I just finished meeting a few other guys and we asked a really weird question, “what do you want said about you at your funeral?” Sick, huh?
But actually, this question forced us to look into the future and imagine something. We each had to try and get a picture or a sound bite in our mind of that moment. Not the death part, but the impression we’ve left on others. Have you ever stared at a lamp or a light and then when it is turned off, it’s almost like you can still see the light for a few seconds. What you see in your mind is sort of an impression left by the light. When the light of your life shines, does it leave an impression on others?
With the men’s meeting, we tried our best to get this “impression” down to a single line or statement.
Now you have a destination! A point in the future to live towards!
Religion is often spiritual activity that doesn’t necessarily go anywhere. That’s just speed… motion without a destination.
Jesus calls us to “follow” him. This verb, “follow” implies that we are to go somewhere.
Where are you going?
There is absolutely nothing that keeps you from becoming the person that you hope people see you as when your gone…except yourself. Only our unwillingness to change and grow can keep us from being the person described by the epitaph statements we hope people say about us one day.
The choice is right there for each of us… be that person… become that person!