Something you decide because God changes your heart.
The ludicrous idea that believing is something you can decide to do is deliciously mocked by Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, –The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
If I could alter the sentence slightly I would say – It is a ludicrous idea that believing is something you can decide to do. I believe this accurately summarizes the intent of this section of the book.
Can I agree with that? I think I do. God has to change our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. We are totally depraved to use a doctrine of grace. I am not able to believe on my own yet I am responsible. It is quite the conundrum I assure you.
So far I believe he has done a good job of building his book. I did not care for a comment he made about Christianity being founded by Paul of Tarsus. But I gave him a little bit of grace. I can see that Paul of Tarsus was a driving force behind Christianity. I would change it slightly to say that Paul of Tarsus was a founder, if using a word like that is even proper.
During the Roman occupation of Palestine, Christianity was founded by Paul of Tarsus as a less ruthlessly monotheistic sect of Judaism and a less exclusive one, which looked outwards from the Jews to the rest of the world.
I also do not believe he gave adequate evidence to discount the New Testament. He made a few comments about the “other” gospels and inconsistencies in the canonical gospels without really backing it up in the book. There were references to other books on the topic so I may have to read those at some point in the future. We shall see.
Continue on…