In a recent press report the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Glenn Stevens, was reported as linking his Christian faith with aspects of his work during a speech he gave at a Christian gathering.
There was the usual run of silly comments that press articles attract (very rarely to they attract reasoned debate, of any kind…they’re akin to the local bus stop for quality of observation and argument), but one that took my eye was this:
There was the usual run of silly comments that press articles attract (very rarely to they attract reasoned debate, of any kind…they’re akin to the local bus stop for quality of observation and argument), but one that took my eye was this:
“Oh great, another one in a position of power that believes in the magic man in the sky”
This represents a typical line of cynicism that is used with some frequency in recent times: cute but pointless;
Well, almost pointless, because there is a response.
Christians don’t ‘believe in a magic man in the sky’. For a start we don’t believe that God has a spatial characteristic. Perhaps criticism of Christian belief should start with an understanding of its text, the Bible! Then you may as well develop a clear understanding of the meaning of the distinction between the Old and New Testaments.
I'd say something like this:
"You don't act as though God doesn't exist (that will get most atheists worked up!): Why? You act as though your thoughts have real meaning and signfiicance; if there was no God and material was the ultimate basis of all that is, I don't see how anything would have genuine significance; after all, it would all be mere material, and as we know, material has no thoughts."
If you have no belief in God, in Christian terms: that is the creator and sustainer of the cosmos who is the author of life, relationships and volition, then your thoughts, intentions and love only have accidental utility and no significance beyond a random collision of material particles; for a Christian, they have genuine validity and are reflective of the ultimately personal; that mind produced matter, and not the other way around.
If mind comes from matter, then it matters about as much as matter itself does: not much.
If matter comes from mind, then we know that mind matters above matter, which is how we mind our matter in the first place.
