In this initial episode we hear a chaotic discussion between the hosts, Michael Patton, Clint Roberts and Carrie Hunter, about the nature and direction of what exactly the podcast will be. This is the planning phase so be patient! We are testing the waters but we will get our sea legs eventually!
3 replies to "Apologetics Unplugged – What’s Wrong with Religion?"
I think the cliche “Christianity is not a religion; it is a relationship” is a quick way to set Christianity apart from any other religion. It grabs your attention (if you have not heard it 100 times), but, it needs a lot of explanation. I have as much problem with the second part as with the first. What does one mean by “personal (often added) relationship?” My relationship to Christ is not like any other personal relationship I have. It is a relationship with a person I cannot see, cannot hear, cannot touch. Communication is largely one way, in that he doesn’t answer my questions or even respond like another person. There is no eye contact, no body language. Hello? Are you listening to me?
“What if departments of religion around the country suddenly got rid of all their Christian professors in an acknowledgement of the fact that Christianity was no longer a religion?” — Voddie Baucham (http://www.gracefamilybaptist.net/blog/christianity-religion-2012-01/)
I actually don’t think that secularists and hipster Evangelicals dislike the term “religion” for different reasons. I think both of them have essentially the same core reasoning for rejection of religion.
Both of them have bought into an ethic of:
1. I do whatever I want
2. No one else gets to tell me what to do
3. I know what’s best and no one else has anything they can tell me
4. I don’t like dealing with people who have flaws
5. I have an overinflated sense of my own opinion and competence
6. I have a tendency to blame all of humanity’s flaws on institutions and feel that distancing myself from those institutions is a good way to avoid moral accountability
7. God or the “Good” is equivalent with my own personal preference
Bonus 8. I’ve bought into an incredibly shallow analysis of the past and tend to buy into the idea that people in the past (and their institutions) were morally inferior to myself.
I’ve seen all these assumptions in BOTH atheists, and Evangelicals. From my standpoint, there isn’t a lot of difference between the two.
Hipster Evangelicals are basically religious-flavored secularists. Atheists, with a lot of religious lingo.