Dialogue with an atheist - Part 4 - by P.K.Odendaal - Determinism and Agnosticism - December 2012

Dialogue with an atheist - Part 4 - Determinism and Agnosticism -by P.K.Odendaal - December 2012

Our Protagonist's acronym GLC stands for God Loving Creature. 

What is an atheist really

GLC:        Hi Atheist, interested in another session with me, about things material and immaterial? Or shall I say physical and meta-physical? Or what about this one ... carnal and spiritual?

Atheist:   You have this funny effect on me - I detest you, but still I cannot help but listening to you - the same effect as people like Dawkins and hitchens have on Christians.

GLC:        I do not mean it to be a sort of punishment, but rather an excursion into realms and domains where you would feel ill at ease, but still domains which exist. I know you are a materialist, and that you only believe in physical things, but leading a life of bondage in only one domain must cramp your lifestyle immensely.

Atheist:   Ok, go ahead, what do you have in store today?

Dialogue with an Atheist - Part 3 - Gravity of the situation

Dialogue with and atheist - Part 1 - by P.K.Odendaal - October 2012

Our Protagonist's acronym GLC stands for God Loving Creature.

Gravity of the situation.

GLC:        Hi Atheist, I did not know that you would come back for another session of our dialogue. You looked very perplexed last time.

Atheist:   You left you too much to think about, although I cannot get myself to think where you got it wrong - but wrong you surely got it. So I might redeem myself today with some fresh new arguments.

GLC:        And speaking of redemption. Why would you want to redeem yourself. Where did you get lost or lost your faith or your self-composure. I thought that only Christians looked for redemption.

Dialogue with an Atheist - Part 2

Dialogue with an Atheist - Part 2 - by P.K.Odendaal - November 2012

Our Protagonist's acronym GLC stands for God Loving Creature.

Less tangible objects.

GLC:        Hi there, Atheist, where are you hurrying to?

Atheist:   I am off to some business at the bank.

GLC:        Why did you all of a sudden remember to rush off to the bank just when you saw me?

Atheist:   I do not like you Christians. You think the world belongs to you. Everywhere you have people in high places trying to dictate policy along Christian principles, which the rest of us do not like.

GLC:        You are not perhaps talking of some church going people who wish to force their church dogma onto you?

Atheist:   Yes, exactly.

Zwischenzug - 2 - What does that mean?

Many thanks to the USA who were the largest readers of my blog this week  - I appreciate it and I hope I can make a contribution to debunking the lies, doubts, misconceptions and mis-understandings of our world of today.

It made me think of the Conference on Sustainable Development, held in South Africa some five years ago, in Durban. It was not the climate change one which become known as the Durban Disaster, but might well have been.

When the conference started, each delegate received a question on a piece of paper (I am told) which read like this :

What, in your honest opinion, is the solution to the shortage of food in the rest of the world. 

Delegates had to hand in their replies before the end of the conference. When none were handed in, the organisers wanted to know why the delegates did answer it.

Someone gave this reply:   

It was because nobody fully understood the question.

The delegates from West Africa did not know what honest meant, those from Russia did not know what an opinion meant, those from the Middle East did not know what a solution meant, those from Europe did not know what a shortage meant, those from the rest of Africa did not know what food meant, and those from the USA did not know what the rest of the world meant.

Dialogue with an atheist - Part 1

Dialogue with and atheist - Part 1 - by P.K.Odendaal - October 2012 

Our Protagonist's acronym GLC stands for God Loving Creature.

This is a continuation of my previous dialogues, and like the others, this is also a hypothetical dialogue. Not that it is fictional. It is a summary of all the discussions and arguments I have had with atheists and agnostics over many years, and of the principles of their unbelief written in many books I have read. In this dialogue my own words will be prefixed by the acronym GLC meaning a God Loving Creature. 

GLC:        So Atheist, what do you believe in?

Atheist:   I can better tell you what I do not believe in. I am an atheist and I do not believe in God. I only believe in things that I can see or observe - things material and physical. Things which I do not believe in is anything else. I do not believe in the meta-physical world or something intangible.

Adult Sunday School - Part 17 - The Dead shall rise

Adult Sunday School - Part 25 - The dead shall rise - by P.K.Odendaal - October 2012. 

Ouch! ... that's a terrible blow to atheists. They think that they can just die one day, and never live again - and never answer for their deeds on earth or anywhere else. How convenient. Atheists believe in determinism which states that each cause has an effect. But, they omit to state that it is only they who are free from this injunction, as their lives and deeds - and death - has no consequences or effects. How inconsistent is that belief? Enough of that. I am here to bury Caesar, not to praise him, lest he should rise again.

But there is a way you may rise again.

Adult Sunday School - Part 16 - The Sign of Jonah

Adult Sunday School - Part 16 - The Sign of Jonah - by P.K.Odendaal - October 2012

Jonah is one of the shortest books in the bible, but so full of meaning and prophecy, that one can hardly ignore it. In fact - it is one of the first books newcomers read, being such a wonderful and even far-fetched story of someone being swallowed by a whale and later spit out on a beach.

So whilst it is a miracle, we will not stop there, but probe deeper into the underlying meaning, especially since Jesus Christ told us that He was giving us the sign of Jonah, when asked for a sign (by the people). Mat 12:39  But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: v:40  For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

From the Grave

From the Grave by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

When the first sere leaves of the year were falling,
I heard, with a heart that was strangely thrilled,
Out of the grave of a dead Past calling,
A voice I fancied forever stilled.

All through winter and spring and summer,
Silence hung over that grave like a pall,
But, borne on the breath of the last sad comer,
I listen again to the old-time call.

Zwischenzug - 1 - Thank you

As a 'zwischenzug' (an intermediate neutral move in chess) between articles, I wish to thank everyone for reading my blog. I appreciate it - and please feel free to question or support my arguments. 
 
I have been surprised this week with two unexpected outcomes.
 
The first one is that my latest article, Adult Sunday School  - The Lamb of God, reached unexpected reading statistics, pushing it up to sixth place overall within six days. It inspires me to extend this series.
 
Secondly, I was surprised to find that for the last week, Russia was my largest audience. That really means something for me, due to the history of that country. I always maintain that  South Africa (the country I live in) and Russia have very similar histories. South Africa has a short, sad and sorry history, and Russia has a long, sad and sorry history - both tainted largely by suffering, greed and the monopoly of power, combined with unnecessary wars. But then, is that not the history of every country in the world?
 
I feel strongly about questioning everything we accept as normal and at face value - even the simple things, and like to probe its uncertainties with new perspectives - mostly unsuccessful - but here and there I can feel the light breaking though in this twilight between knowledge and ignorance, or between light and darkness.
 
Please share with your friends and acquaintances.

Thank you !

Delila

Delilah - by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

In the midnight of darkness and terror,
When I would grope nearer to God,
With my back to a record of error
And the highway of sin I have trod,

There comes shapes I would banish -
The shapes of deeds I have done;
And I pray and I plead till they vanish -
All vanish and leave me, save one.