Dawkins Again and Consolation

I stayed up late last night to watch Richard Dawkins on The Hour. George Stroumboulopoulos was okay, but I always find it frustrating when such an important figure and a vast topic is speedily addressed between commercials.One thing Dawkins said that I totally agree with:

Just because it is consoling it doesn’t mean it’s true!

He’s right. And one of the things I’ve learned as a pastor and just as a human being is how quickly we’ll cling to a consoling thought and insist on it’s truth simply because it consoles us. I think we are vastly addicted to such consoling thoughts. I remember once a young woman came to church with another man and her husband was sitting on the other side of the church. When I asked her about it later that week, she said that she fell in love with this man and kicked her husband out. I challenged her on that, and she said that because it made her feel so good, it must be from God. It ended her marriage and destroyed her family. Which is why Paul in Romans said, “Should we sin so that grace can abound?”, meaning that we cannot, just because something feels right, go back and say God willed it. I’m sorry for the vivid illustration, but we all do it to some degree. We all find what brings us comfort and pleasure. Then, no matter how twisted our method of getting that, we thank God for it in the end. This is what Dawkins was talking about: even if it isn’t true, if it consoles us, then we’ll believe it to be true. Just some thoughts.

You can catch the video HERE.

The fine art photograph is the creation of my friend Mark Hemmings.