Remember, Remember the 5th of November.

This weekend was hard on me for some reason... I wrote about it a little in my class blog but I'm assuming none of you read that all though if you do its fine. I just got to feeling a little overwhelmed and bored (or rather sick) of college, its about that time when the semester seems to drag on forever, i miss everyone from home but they seem to become distant, and i just would rather be anywhere but here.

But i spent a good part of last night and this morning seeking for the fire and passion that i felt so strongly at the beginning of the semester to be renewed. I think it has, not in any sort of amazing way but i just feel a little more at ease and realize that this is almost over and I'll make it.

So this morning in chapel during worship i was reminded of the V for Vendetta and that today was in fact the Fifth of November. I started wishing i had some big reason to remember it, or some opportunity to speak and intertwine the saying with a challenge. But no such opportunity presented itself and I'm sure i would hardly have been prepared if it did. I did however take notice that instead of wondering and questioning like i had been all weekend, i had just "wished" or "fantasised" about ministry... i know this is weird.

But then the speaker in chapel was Dinesh D'Souza and i was blown away. He is the author a quite a few books and has been involved in many debates with atheists as of late. His latest book "whats so great about Christianity" offers Christians knowledge of how to defend their faith out side "christian lingo" many people when faced with questions about their faith simply quote the bible and cant comprehend that if the person asking the questions doesn't believe the bible it therefore has no authority and to justify your answers based on the item in question is just plain circular reasoning and a fallacy. Which is something i have thought for years and tried to convey to a few people.

His idea in the book is not to attack the weak points in atheism but to attack the strong points. He made some amazing points and i really wanted to read the book where he obviously can go into more depth than just the brief overview in a 45 minute chapel setting. But it was 25 bucks and I'm poor, however i found it on eBay for 16 and bought it with my credit card! lol. But although all his points were good i don't feel the need to type them all instead i will write about the one that struck me the hardest.

The question he was addressing goes something like this, "as an atheist i can do everything a christian can do without being a christian" "a christian can give food to the poor or help in hurricane relief, but so can a non christian, so where is god in that? how is it different for a christian?" His answer (and I'm sure I'm not giving it justice, i just want to show you the point that hit me, I'm sure reading his book will give more clarity to the argument) was that though you don't need to be a christian to do these things, they are still christian "practices" and it just goes to show that Christianity has permeated even into the non christian. I'm so not giving it justice. He went on to talk about how in the ancient "godless" nations there were terrible things that occurred, but that as much as our society might be "non-christian" or even an "atheist" culture we still have "christian" values that have found their way into the lives of many people that don't claim to be Christians.

Ok in an effort to make my thots clearer to you, think about it like this, although we can get caught up on hypocritical ism in the church and the so called Christians, think about how much good there is in our society. Ok ok god forbid i try to make it sound better than it is, but what I'm trying to say is that even though these people might not be in right standing with god, or even denounce him, or simply choose not to follow him, even they are compelled to do good. I know our country is far from perfect and crimes are still committed but think about the majority of people, your teachers at school, the people you work with, family members, I'd say on a whole their all pretty good people. although some would willingly do some thing immoral like get drunk or sleep around, how many of them would murder, or rob someone. If we were in a godless society i would argue that there would be no boundaries, if these people truly thot there was no god why would premarital sex be any different than rape, and if you answer morals, or an inner knowing that a human is born with. I think you are mistaken. I think his point and my point now is this, our culture supports the idea of a god, if you do charitable deeds like feed the poor or help in hurricane relief you are doing so because of morals instilled in you from a (on the whole) moral society that supports the idea of a god. To say that you were born with the notion to help others, and that god has nothing to do with it is hardly credible.

I think it is amazing to see that although our nation might not be christian or even close to right with god, even in those who wish to destroy our faith and refuse to believe god is at work still, over all these years, through all our hard work, through all the lifestyles that have been lived, through every lesson taught from generation to generation, good has been instilled, seeds have been planted, and god is alive and working.

Maybe something like this is worth remembering the Fifth of November. That is if in remembering a date, we can remember a God that is at work even in a society that tries hard to stray from him, but still finds itself stuck and unable to run so far from that God to be able to intelligibly say he does not exist.