Alien Drums

It’s strange when a Christian throws another Christian an idealogical curveball and then equally strange when a athiest gives the believer something about which to say a hardy “amen.”

My first reading of John Shelby Spong accounts for the Christian curveball. I love his questions, his probing of conventional Christian wisdom; but sometimes he makes big jumps of seeming logic. In other words, sometimes he says A + B = C, but you’re not so sure.

It reminds me of being in geometry back in high school. The teacher kept talking to us about using the proper “proofs” to solve a problem, but it all seemed a bit arbitrary to my mind, which loved algebra. (Geometry caused me to cancel my plans for calculus and trig, and I’ve always blamed my geometry teacher; surely my struggles were no falt of my own.)

I’m going to blame Spong, as well; surely it’s not me. When he says evolutionary theory pulls the rug out from under traditional Christian notions of an external, personal God, I’m just not sure it does. I think I can deal with that reality if evolutionary theory really does what he says, but, convince me. To be fair to Spong, I’m not through reading the book, Why Christian Must Change or Die, but he didn’t have me from “hello.”

Then comes famed aitheist Richard Dawkins in the Oct. 5 issue of Newsweek, and he gives me a little unintended affirmation. In a Q&A titled “Darwin’s Rottweiler,” Lisa Miller asks him, “Are those incompatible positions: to believe in God and to believe in evolution?”

Dawkins: “No, I don’t think they’re incompatible if only because there are many intelligent evolutionary scientists who also believe in God. …”

That, to me, is a pretty weak proof since intelligent people are not the same as inerrant people, but I’ll take it. I’m not an intelligent evolutionary scientist, but I think there must be something to this evolution stuff and I have no problem seeing truth in it while also believing in God.

So, thank you Richard Dawkins, for helping me have faith for another day.