Recently, Pastor Don Prange hosted atheists at St.
James Church for a dialogue with his congregation on “evolution weekend.”
You may fairly ask how one can reconcile an atheist
who does not believe in God attending a church where the congregation does
believe in God.
Pastor Don explained where he thought there was
common ground.
He preached, “Jesus and his followers were among the
first A-Theists, challenging the Theistic claims of Caesar and religious
collaborators … affirming a way of life built around the principles of
compassion, justice mercy and peace.”
“Collusions,” Pastor Don said, “between religious
and political forces have too often created oppressive realities that abound in
the world of today … sometimes contributing to a contemporary spirit of Atheism
we acknowledge today.”
Stephanie Ragusky, from the Beltway Atheists,
explained she “lost religion at 13” and she tried to find faith but she could
not get any clear answers as to “which was literal and which was metaphor in
the Bible.” When she studied biology,
Christians were “discounting what we were learning in school.” Stephanie needed another way to talk about
these things. She found Nobel prize
winner Bertrand Russell’s philosophy instructive. Among other things, Russell found that
religion impeded knowledge and fostered fear and dependency. Stephanie said now, “I’m responsible for
everything I do.”
“Atheists have been misunderstood,” Pastor Don said,
“and have faced hostility in society including right here in Loudoun County,
just as Darwin and the science of evolution have been misunderstood and
maligned by reactionary religious forces.”
Rick Wingrove, the founder of the Beltway Atheists,
said, “Some of you may have heard of me.
Because of the religious displays on the court house lawn in Leesburg, I
am either the most evil or most hated man in Loudoun County.”
Rick criticized those “special rights and privileged
access granted to religious displays on the court house lawn in Leesburg.” He said, it was “granting special privileges
to adherents of a specific religion, but denying those privileges to
non-adherents” and “is fundamentally unfair and patently unconstitutional.” He made it clear that there must be a
separation of State from Church. The
congregation appeared to agree when Rick said, “no one likes having someone
else’s religion shoved down his throat.”
Finding a welcome for his sentiments, Rick said, “So
this is a great honor for me and a new personal best for irony.”
Pastor Don said, “Science and religion ask and
answer completely different questions about the natural world. There is no reason for them to be in conflict
… and we have no reason to be in conflict with those who publicly call
themselves atheists.”
Rick said there was a “concerted attack on the
science of evolution.” He was talking about “the most adamant of biblical
literalists.” He was quick to add,
talking to the congregation, “Not you guys, you guys are awesome.” He asked,
“if Genesis is taken literally, and if you do, ask yourself where Cain got a
wife.” Rick also underscored how to
reconcile these matters: “Many people of faith do recognize that Genesis is
allegory and not a Science book.”
Stephanie told how one Loudoun County Biology
Teacher was told by a student that “only atheists believe in evolution.” The teacher explained that was not true, that
there was a clergy letter project in support of evolution, and, otherwise, that
the student was attending “a science class not church.”
Larry Mendoza, of the Beltway Atheists, explained he
“never felt a spiritual or supernatural connection.” Larry read a lot about reptiles and brought
lizards home, he got interested in biology, had a passion for it, thought
everyone accepted evolution, and then he realized “there was a movement to
discredit what didn’t fit with the theology.”
“I found not every Christian was the same,” Larry
said, “and, if every church was like this one, there wouldn’t be any need for
an atheistic movement.”
“I’m told I’m immoral because I have no belief in
God,” Larry said, “but morality doesn’t require a belief in God. “
Rick charged, “There is an ongoing and determined
effort in this country to remove all teaching of the science of Evolution from
the public schools, calling Evolution myth, calling science ‘lies from the pits
of hell,’ and replacing it with the biblical creationism story …”
When Rick finished these last remarks, he asked if
he could get an Amen – and he did.
The ground common to those of belief and unbelief
was that the State shouldn’t impose itself on either by establishing a belief
system, and that any legitimate belief system had to accommodate science or it
was suspect.
No comments:
Post a Comment