Addition: pointed and poignant article here in the Telegraph.
Quite a bit of gloomy news this week, with disturbing terrorist attacks on Christians, a devastating earthquake in Pakistan, and NZ in danger of mass hysteria, probably leading to depression rather than manic celebration.
But all is not doomed.
Thinking Anglicans reports the election of a woman to be a bishop in the Church of South India.
Out of Egypt comes a strong conviction that Egypt Will Not Implode. Ramez Atallah, General Director of the Bible Society of Egypt argues that,
"Egypt is not on the verge of civil war! On the contrary, most Egyptian Muslims and Christians are more united than ever in their common vision for the future, as together they have rejected extremist “Political Islam,” and are working towards the noble task of establishing a civil society which recognizes all Egyptians as equal citizens."
The God of Jesus Christ is up to good work in the world!
Of course not everyone believes that God exists. For a nifty argument that the lack of scientific evidence for God's existence is no reason to be an atheist head to NZ blog M & M which offers a lovely argument cunningly titled There are probably no duties. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life here.
That's a good, accessible, succinct critique of duty! On the other side, here's a helpful atheist critique of the idea that all things are permitted without belief in God:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/04/17/3478816.htm
Kierkegaard comments on the subject of divine providence - "concerning that subect we are most ill-informed"
ReplyDeleteRhys
Ramez Atallah is right that Egypt is not on the verge of civil war. We do thank God that the security situation in the country is on the improve. The Bible Society is a wonderful organisation that does great work here in very difficult circumstances.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Egypt is on the verge of a return to a pre-2011 military state, together with a dictator in waiting who would romp it in if he nominated for the presidency. Banning Islamist groups, media restrictions, arbitrary arrests and economic collapse are hardly a recipe for building a democratic, prosperous country. And the vitriol directed at the Islamists and people like me who want human rights for all is hardly helping either.