Why I’m Not A Christian.. if that’s what it means (Part 1)

October 15th, 2009 § 5

Beginning with Bertrand Russell’s essay “Why I Am Not A Christian,” I have made a point to seek out the voices of those most vehemently anti-christian or anti-religious. This is not because I want to ‘know my enemy.’ Instead, I read these works because I regularly find so much commonality with the men and women who write them. Bertrand Russell’s essay challenged some of the foundational misunderstandings I had regarding the practice of my own faith. His criticism was an instrument that freed me to see more clearly that there were things about “being a christian” that don’t really have anything to do with actually being a christian; and that, if ‘being a christian’ meant holding to those external things, then I must be something else. I suppose it’s fair to say I see the work of God in and through these men and their work. Their challenge chips away at what is very often superfluous in religion; a theme that runs through the album Deconstruction.

I really believe that atheism, agnosticism and deism are pieces in a conversation much larger than any one of those platforms of belief alone. For this reason, I’m looking forward to seeing Collision. From what I can tell from previews and whatnot, it seems to be a pretty well balanced (fair and balanced? lol.. hehe.. ahem…) take on this piece of that conversation: