In July 2019, Andy Bannister was one of the keynote speakers at the RZIM Canada Summit, All Nature Sings: God and the Natural World. In the video below, you can watch Andy’s opening talk, exploring why the environment is a key apologetic topic that Christians need to think about—and a natural (pardon the pun) way to open up evangelistic conversations.
Andy Bannister
Why is Religion So Divisive?
A recent survey revealed that many people harbour incredible negative attitudes to religion: 46% of those surveyed said that “religion is a major part of the problem in our world” whilst 42% think it’s not religion per se but “people of faith” who are the problem.
Why are people so down on religion? Why do so many imagine with John Lennon that a world “without religion” would be more peaceful, more tolerant, more inclusive and more harmonious? What’s the problem with religion?
Miracles in an Age of Science
We live in an age that’s very sceptical about miracles. A culture that shouts at us through the media and a myriad other channels that science can explain everything and that to believe in the miraculous is positively medieval. There’s no such thing as the supernatural, we’re told, just the natural—a universe where the naturalistic laws of physics, chemistry and biology can explain everything.
The End of Tolerance
In Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, the detective-ghost-horror-who-dunnit-time-travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic by the British comedy writer Douglas Adams, the eponymous private investigator, Dirk Gently, has had a major falling out with his secretary, Janice, who is preparing to storm out of the office in a rage:
She retrieved her last pot of nail varnish and tried to slam the drawer shut. A fat dictionary sitting upright in the drawer prevented it from closing. She tried to slam the drawer again, without success. She picked up the book, ripped out a clump of pages and replaced it. This time she was able to slam the drawer with ease.[1]
A few days later, faced with a client to whom some events have occurred that are, quite literally, completely and utterly impossible, Dirk happily remarks:
“Luckily, you have come to exactly the right place with your interesting problem, for there is no such word as ‘impossible’ in my dictionary. In fact,” he added, brandishing the abused book, “everything between ‘herring’ and ‘marmalade’ appears to be missing.”[2]
If I could remove just one word from the dictionary it wouldn’t be ‘impossible’, nor ‘pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis’ and especially not ‘marmalade’, living as I do in Dundee.[3] No, if I could remove just one word from the dictionary, it would be the word ‘tolerance’.
Is Christianity Just a Psychological Crutch?
A friend once caught a taxi one Sunday morning after church. Seeing her Bible, the driver sneered dismissively. “Religion is just a psychological crutch,” he opined, “something for weak-minded people who lack the self-reliance to take responsibility for their own lives. People believe in God because it makes them feel good.” Realising he’d probably blown any chance of a tip, he attempted to recover with: “What’s a nice girl like you need religion for anyway?”
Psychology is everywhere. We’re told psychology can explain everything from what we do in the bedroom to our religious preferences: psychology can explain sects as well as sex. The claim is not a new one, however: it goes back to Sigmund Freud (d. 1939), the father of psychoanalysis. Freud believed religion arises when we project our fears into the sky (especially the fear of death) and invent God to give us comfort in the face of our mortality.
Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God?
Modern Britain is increasingly pluralistic: many of us live in cities surrounded by hundreds of different faiths and belief systems. And that diversity raises lots of issues – not least how as Christians we relate to friends, neighbours and colleagues in other religions.
In the UK, the second biggest religion is Islam, one that is frequently on the front pages of the newspapers, often for all the wrong reasons. Now some people have suggested that one way to foster peace between moderate Muslims and Christians is to acknowledge that Allah, the God of the Qur’an, and Yahweh, the God of the Bible, are the same God — that Muslims, Christians (and Jews) can be pooled together under a label like “Abrahamic Faiths”.
I’ve been working among Muslims for over 20 years and I confess when I began sharing my faith with Muslims, that was my assumption — that Muslims and Christians worshipped the same God. But during those years of talking, sharing and studying, my views have changed. Let me explain why.
Is Religion the Cause of Most Wars?
Religion is the main cause of wars, isn’t it? Some atheists certainly claim so. “Look at Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland, ISIS, 911!” they say. In episode 34 of the SHORT/ANSWERS video series, I ask whether it’s true or not and explore an alternative solution that could get to the real heart of the problem.
The SHORT/ANSWERS video series is an initiative of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity — check out the amazing new book they have just published.
Dialogue Without Diatribe
How can we learn to disagree without being disagreeable?
I was recently speaking at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, where I’d been asked to address the topic “Does Religion Poison Everything?” During the lecture, one student at the back of the lecture room gesticulated wildly every time I made a point with which he disagreed. At the end of the talk, there was a time of Q&A and this student was among the first to raise his hand. He began by self-identifying as an atheist and then proceeded to ask a series of increasingly complex questions about moral philosophy. After the event was over, the student found his way to the front and continued his questions and we went to and fro for about half an hour across a range of issues: Can you be good without God? Do you need God for moral values? What does the good life look like? Finally the student shook my hand and said, “I’ve disagreed with almost everything you’ve said in the last 90 minutes. But this has been the most fascinating conversation I can remember and you’ve given me much to think about. Thank you.”
Can We Be Good Without God?
Some useful resources connected to my recent dialogue at the University of Alberta
On Tuesday 23 January 2018, I had a dialogue with Dr. Howard Nye at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. We had a wide ranging conversation covering atheism, Christianity, goodness, justice and a wide range of other topics.
Here are a few resources for folks who want to follow up on some of what we talked about:
- Why, Despite All The Protests, We Really Can’t Be Good Without God
- Can We Be Good Without God?
- Atheist Arthur Leff’s famous essay on why morality without God fails
- “Human Rights: A Non-Religious Ground? — a fascinating essay by Professor Michael J. Perry of Emory University School of Law
Science and God
“Science has buried God!” an atheist friend remarked to me. That’s a claim I hear ever more frequently in the media, online, or on the lips of celebrity atheists. A few years ago I had the chance to interview one of the UK’s leading atheists, Dr. Peter Atkins of Oxford University, who put it bluntly: “Science gives you the promise of understanding while you’re alive. Religion offers the prospect of understanding when you’re dead.”
