The Rise & Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World by Alister McGrath

Not an easy book but a good read. In charting the rise and fall of agnosticism in the last 300 or so years, I learnt a lot about the way atheism has shaped modern belief and my beliefs! I keep realising how secular and "enlightenment" my thinking is.

The book is an excellent refresher course on the big Philosophical players in the era (What's the difference between Kierkeguaard and Nietzsche again?)

The best idea in the book: is the way McGrath argues that atheism failed because it didn't provide an engaging alternative especially at the level of aesthetics and the imagination. This didn't seem persuasive when it was first proposed, but by the end of the book McGrath has made a pretty convincing case.
The best review of this book is by Rory Shiner in The Breifing.

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

Back from Thailand Mission. I read a couple of books (mainly on the plane there and back).

First, "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. I read it because a number of people at church have been unsettled by Richard Dawkins and his new book looked like being a bigger splash than anything he's previously done. I wanted to be able to be part of conversations about the book that would inevitably arise at church. Interesting - I haven't met a non-Christian yet who has read Richard Dawkins - seems like hes getting rich from Christians reading his books.

The book sets out to argue that there is no good reason to believe in God (of any kind). Dawkins does not just argue for agnosticism (he attacks this position) but that the existence of God is so improbable as to be virtually unbelievable. Further than this he constantly wants to say that religion does great damage and the world would be far better without it.

Dawkins is funny, acidic, and deligfhltfully engaging. Like Bill Bryson in his Breif History of Everything, Dawkins takes difficult scientific ideas and explains them clearly and interestingly. But more than this he is a great debater. Reading Dawkins is like those conversations where you realise what you should have said the next day. Its only afterwards that you start to see that his arguments aren't as rock solid as they first appear. In many ways Dawkins is like the typical fundamentalist preacher he so loves to lampoon - say it confident enough, often enough, loudly enough, make it funny enough, and everyone will be nodding along in agreement (or even shouting Amen).

Overall, I found the book interesting but surprisingly shallow. Dawkins rattles off a long list of reasons for believing in God and then demolishes them one by one. However most of them are arguments no-one really bases their belief in God upon, such as Aquinas' "logical proofs" or that "God answers prayer". He then dismisses a couple of major arguments in a few superficial paragraphs. The historical reality of Jesus and his resurrection is dismissed in a disappointing half page (p XX). Likewise see his two paragraph dismissal of the Trinity because it doesn't make sense (p XX) implying that only a simpleton would not be taken in by the obvious contradictions - I'd love to see him discuss the apparently contradictory particle and wave properties of light and then dismiss the existence of light all together.

The best things to read if Dawkins does seen persuasive are John Dickson, "A Spectator's Guide to World Religions" (keep going until the last chapter which demolishes a Dawkins-like approach) and Alistair McGrath "The Rise and Fall of Unbelief" (who directly inteacts with Dawkins).

The most thought provoking section is his critique of the "separate magesterium". That you can't measure the existence of God with a thermometer, that Science tells you 'How', Christianity tells you 'Why'. But Dawkins argues that Christianity is constantly making claims that ought to be measurable - that impinge on the material world. We believe that God answers prayer, and so on. More about this in a later blog.

The second half of the book involves a long disciussion on memes. Please read Mervin Tinkler (The Breifing December 06) who has done a much better job of describing and demolishing this stuff than I could ever do.

The most annoying things about Dawkins - he constantly sets up straw men. He cities the example of someone who mistook a bird call for the voice of God and then went to the mission field, the implication being that all religious experience is just people imagining things, and all religious conviction is deluded. When I went back and re-read the "most convincing" sections again I constantly noticed the way things he hasn't proved get implied, and ideas and impressions get smuggled in and all sorts of things never proved get implied. Very disillusioning.

Sunday 17th Dec Church in Khorat

Went to Suebsiri Church with Tong. We did the Kids Talk & Jonathan Graham did his testimony. A warm congregation of about 40 people. Sermon was translated for us line-by-line.

Farewell Chiang Mai Thurs 15th Dec

Ah, don't you love false advertising? Boarded the 6pm over-night "sleeper" train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. "Sleeper" is not a good name. Arrived at 6am to take a 30 min taxi ride to the bewilderingly huge bus terminal (one of three in Bangkok) just in time to board the bus to Khorat (3 hour trip) Friday lunchtime. The team has arrived absolutely exhausted.

Hill Tribe School Assembly - Wed 14th Dec

Spent the day teaching English (and about Jesus) at a combined schools mega assembly. Seven "hill tribe" schools came together for the day. Pictured here are Year 5 & 6. The "hill tribes" are distinct ethnic groups wityh their own culture and language (so for most of these kids Thai is their 2nd language and English is their 3rd). Historically the hill-tribes have been more receptive to the gospel than Thais and a number of kids identified themselves as Christians. We presented each of the principals with a thai-english dictionary and bible which was warmly recieved.

Language Buddies

One of the special things this week has been spending time each afternoon for 2-3 hours with our "buddies". My buddy is Ouu (pictured). They are new Christians or non-Christians investigating Christianity connected with Grace Church. They are teaching us some (very basic) Thai language and culture (esp. over dinner). We are teaching them some basic English. We are interesting to them, not just because we are westerners, but also because we are Christians - in an overwhelmingly Buddhist country they don't meet that many.

Bible Teaching Day in Chiang Mai - Mon Dec 11th

Spent the day (10am-3:30pm) talking to a group at Grace Church about understanding the OT. Line by line translation made it hard work. Absolutely blown away by how excited and enthusisatic everyone was to understand the Bible. They worked hard all day. How many Aussies would spend a holiday monday working hard like this? (Esp. doing the translation thing)

Then joined the team at an orphanage run by two Christian couples at church. My Charles Dickens stereotytpes were blown away. Amazingly joyful and warm Christian enviroment for about 30 kids who would have a very bleak future otherwise. Kids with no fathers have found in Christ not just a heavenly father but many brothers and sisters as well. The kids soaked up the attention with glee - not many visitors let alone Westerners. Many of the kids come from Hill Tribe ethnic groups - very isolated jungle villages.

Church on Sunday in Chiang Mai - Sun 10th Dec

Spent the day at Grace Church. Team members did testimonies & and a kids talk thing. Picture is Ben Harris (towering over his translator) doing his testimony. Big laughs when he gave his name - "Ben" is a common name in Thailand.

Spreading the Glorious Gospel of Rugby

Made it from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. No sign of bag. No text message from Sydney airport as promised. Have bought second pair or underwear. Getting by.

But Jon & Denise Dickson are organised! Wow a busy program.

We have had two great days at Don Ping school teaching English and presenting the gospel by talking about the Christmas story. Started the first day with an assembly with Year 3-6 for 2 hours! The classes all day Did Year 7-9 the next day. Apparently the school is named after a famous Thai boxing promoter. First day was scary (and a few teething problems). Second day was fun. Gospel presentation was much clearer! We have finished each day with some Aussie sport (see offical team blog for more details). First day was cricket - some guys on the team were up into the wee hours making cricket bats out of 4 by 2 planks.

Second arvo...ahh the rugby ball is in that bag still doing circles on the conveyor belt in sydney... amazing work by Linden at DPC to get 5 rugby balls couriered to Chiang Mai in 24 hours. Arrived early at our un-numbered, unsign-posted address. Amazing. (We are using a disused office in an industrial site as our head quarters.) Although a spare shirt for me would have been good. The students didn't get to learn the finer points of the rolling mall or the long lineout, but they were pretty excited to play some touch football.

Ahhh... welcome to the third world. Thailand Mission Monday 4th Dec

Ahhh... welcome to the third world. Chaos. Technology that doesn't work. Incompetence. Buearacracy. Yes, thats right, Sydney airport.


Due to a conveyor belt failure my bag, including gifts for various people, all my clothes, electronic equipment, notes for talks, etc.. don't make the plane. Lost in Sydney airport.


But the team keeps its composure (as you can see) by focussing on the seriousness of our mission. The team blog is here.... http://thailandmission06.blogspot.com/

Street Fair Sunday Dec 3rd

Had a great street fair and carols night at DPC. Numbers same as last year despite the nasty weather. a great vibe and continuing building of good relationships from last year.
(picture Geoff Neil in the crosshairs)

What am I listening to right now? (Nov 2006)

What am I listening to right now?
Best talks I've listed to this week has been by Mark Driscoll & Tim Keller from the Desiring God 2006 conference. For Americans they make a suprising amount of good sense. Just a warning for sensitive ears - Mark is known as the "cussing pastor" but I think this talk is fairly safe. Almost anything Tim Keller says is worth the time to listen to. Both speak on the need to rethink how Christians reach people with the gospel in a post-Christian (and post-modern culture). They challenge both 'traditional' evangelical Christianity and also criteque the 'emerging church' as a false solution.

Mark Driscoll talk
Tim Keller talk

packing list for Thailand

It's been a big week with lots to do. AFES mission. Getting ready to go to AFES National Conference in Canberra on Fri & Sat. Preaching twice this Sunday. But I've attended to the most important things first. Here is the thing you've all been waiting for - my packing list for Thailand. (see if you can spot the picture with snoopy in it)

Our Drummoyne Christmas Mission Got Off to a great start

Our Drummoyne Christmas Mission Got Off to a great start.

The team:
back row: Matt, John, Rory, Jonny
front row: Mandy, Jessamy, Sandy

Rory Shiner spoke on the End of the World. listen here

The schedule for the week is here

Why are we going to Thailand in December 2006?

I'm leading a Short Term Mission team from church to Thailand.

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Why are we going?

15 people are going (not all present in the picture). three kinds of people are going - people who are already thinking about os mission and want more experience, people who should be thinking about overseas mission themselves, and people who may not go themselves but will be all the more enthusiastic about os missions and mission support for the experience.

My experience of short term tours and missions run by mission agencies is that they tend to only expose you to what they are doing, you spend a lot of time getting to know the "strangers" on your team, you aren't neccesarily looked after well while OS or when you come back. We thought we could do a lot better taking a group from church. While we will need to mindful of our limited usefulness (language and cultural barriers, etc.), we want to be as useful as we can, and be an encouragement to the missionaries and churches we visit, and an encouragement to each other.

Where are going?

We will spend half our time at Chang Mai and half at Khorat (on your Thailand map it’s a city to the NE of Bangkok called Nakhon Ratchasima). A big contrast Chang Mail is relatively well off and used to westerners, Khorat is poor and Westerners less common. Chang Mai we work with Aussie Presbyterian Missos, Khorat we work directly with two local evangelical churches.

Our itinerary is here: http://www.drummoyne.org.au/thailand2006data/details.pdf

Our team blog is here: http://thailandmission06.blogspot.com/(There is lots of detail!)

Click on the "Thailand" label on the top left side of my blog to see all my blogs from the Thailand trip...

My Blog Has Started

Hey, I'm here at last.

If anyone is interested I'm already in a blog conversation at http://thailandmission06.blogspot.com/(the team I'm leading to Thailand in Dec 2006) and http://pcnswsc.blogspot.com/ a blog for discussing PCNSW Standing Committees.

The church I'm part of is www.drummoyne.org.au

Craig.