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Welcome to my blog.  This is the first post with the hope of many more to come.  I believe that the most important questions anyone can ask are: Is God real, can I know him, and does it matter?  Before you turn off or dismiss me as “another one of those” could I impose upon you to just read the rest of this post?  Just consider where I’m coming from…

I recently saw a very interesting video of an interview with a guy named Penn Jillette.  You might know him as part of the magician duo Penn and Teller.  Anyhow, Penn is a committed atheist – he is convinced that there is not God.  Obviously, I disagree with him, but I have enormous respect for him.  I’ve heard him speak in other forums, and he is clearly very bright, articulate, and personable.  Seems like the kind of guy I’d like to hang out with.  One of the things I respect most about him, though, is how intellectually honest and fair he is.  For example, in the video I mentioned above, Penn blames some but not all of the world’s problems on religion.  I would agree.

He then continues to say that his real concern has to do with the concepts of objective and subjective reality.  Penn believes that reality is objective, i.e. reality is actually “out there” (not just in our minds) and whatever is going on in our minds does not affect that reality in any way (philosophers call thisrealism – though there are several subcategories – and I share Penn’s view on this).  Therefore, Penn says he is not comfortable with people saying they believe something just because they “feel” like it’s true or because they just want to believe it.  (By the way, lots of people do this – not just Christians.  In fact, many Christians would say they are basing their beliefs on solid evidence…but more about this in future posts).

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But it’s around 3:20 in the video that I really appreciate him.  Since Penn believes in objective truth, he is open to the possibility that certain things he says could be wrong.  He has the humility to invite people to challenge what he says and a willingness to acknowledge when someone has discovered a flaw in his reasoning or his facts.  He says that he wants to live in a marketplace of ideas where everyone has the freedom to challenge one another’s ideas because he is convinced that this is the way we get closer to objective truth.  I agree.

He also believes that this type of discussion embodies true respect.  He’s concerned that what we call “tolerance” is really just being condescending.  He has little respect for people who say, “just believe what you want to believe and that will be true for you.”  That’s why he says he gets along better with “fundamentalist” Christians rather than “liberal” Christians.  [SIDE NOTE: as Penn uses the terms fundamentalist and liberal here, he is making a distinction between those Christians (“fundamentalists”) who hold that their beliefs are objectively true in all spheres of life, and those (“liberals”) who attempt to separate the spheres of spirituality and physical reality.]   Though he disagrees with the fundamentalists’ conclusions about the existence of God, he nevertheless feels strongly that they should have the right to express their views.  He is happy to tell them that he believes they are wrong, and he appreciates their honesty in telling him they believe he is wrong.  For Penn, this boils down to “respect.”  He has little patience for people who say there are many paths to truth and one should just find one’s way, because he thinks this is condescending, i.e. “the way you talk to a child.”

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He concludes by reiterating that he has great respect for Christians who proselytize (i.e. who share their faith with others).  I saw another video he did one time [unfortunately, it appears to have been taken down – otherwise I’d link it], where he spoke about an evangelical Christian guy who gave him a Bible.  Penn said the guy was kind and respectful, but he was concerned about Penn’s atheism.  What I really admired was Penn’s fairness toward the guy.  He didn’t try to laugh at him or dismiss him.  Rather, Penn recognized that this man was acting in a rational manner based upon his beliefs.  The Christian believed that if Penn reject God, he would spend eternity in hell (more about the doctrine of hell in a future post).  Therefore, Penn understood that this man was expressing his concern to him because he cared about him.  Penn made the point that if Christians do not try to evangelize him, they either do not believe what they say they believe, or they do not really care about him.

I appreciate his honesty, fairness, and careful thinking here.  Penn is still convinced that evangelical Christians are wrong about reality, but he is willing to engage them in respectful dialogue with the goal of pursuing truth.  That is my heart too.  I believe that God is real and that Jesus is God.  I want people to have a full and joyous relationship with God.  And, I am concerned about the eternity of those who reject Jesus.  That’s the only reason I am taking the time to write posts for this blog.  You and I don’t have to agree about this.  But I hope we can dialogue honestly and respectfully.  The comments section of every blog entry is open for discussion.  You are welcome to disagree – just please be respectful and thoughtful.  In the spirit of not insulting your intelligence, let me say that my hope is that you will someday become a follower of Jesus (I was also once a skeptic and cynic when it came to the claims of the Bible).  But even if you never become a believer, I hope you’ll hang out here from time to time and engage with me in the kind of dialogue that both Penn Gillette and I believe is essential to getting closer to the truth.  Thanks for reading this far.

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