One criticism I have of Bertrand Russell\u2019s famous essay, \u201cWhy I Am Not A Christian<\/a>,\u201d is that it offers a no more sophisticated or academic a treatment of stories in the New Testament than fundamentalists would.<\/p>\n The story of Jesus sending demons into pigs is criticized. This story seems to me to very obviously be an example of political satire<\/a>. This story from Mark\u2019s Gospel is about the casting out of a \u2018host\u2019 of demons who call themselves \u201cLegion\u201d. The story is the equivalent of one that could have been told during occupied France during World War II, in which a French exorcist drives out a host of demons from a French man. The demons identify themselves as called \u201cPanzer division\u201d and beg not to be sent out of the country \u2013 the latter is exactly what these \u201cRoman demons\u201d beg Jesus in Mark! To make matters funnier, the demons take the role of (anti-)exorcist, invoking a higher power (God) to adjure (a technical term used in exorcism) Jesus not to cast them out. Then, whereas exorcists usually demanded a sign that the demons have left, the demons themselves ask to show they have departed by being sent into a herd of pigs \u2013 unclean animals according to Jewish Law. This is the icing on the cake \u2013 in the WWII parallel, the German demons would beg to be allowed to leave this French man and enter instead the opera company down the road that is performing Wagner! I discussed this passage in a treatment of satire as a neglected Biblical genre on my old blog once before<\/a>.<\/p>\n Similarly, the other story he mentions is Jesus cursing a fig tree for not having any figs, when it wasn\u2019t even the season in which to expect them. Most interpreters would suggest once again that the story is symbolic, with Israel the fig tree having failed to bear fruit and coming under judgment.<\/p>\n So why am I a Christian? A short answer would be that it was within a Christian context that I had a life-changing religious experience. But given that I do not espouse Biblical literalism and inerrancy, some might ask whether I am still a Christian, and my answer would be that taking the whole Bible seriously is certainly no less Christian than quoting it selectively while pretending to believe it all and take it all literally.<\/p>\n I find very helpful an answer to this question that Marcus Borg has also articulated. I am a Christian in much the same way that I am an American. It is not because I condone the actions of everyone who has officially represented America, or that I espouse the viewpoints of its current leaders. It is because I was born into it, and value the positive elements of this heritage enough that I think it is worth fighting over the definition of what it means to be American, rather than giving up on it and moving somewhere else. In the same way, the tradition that gave birth to my faith and nurtured it is one that has great riches (as well as much else beside), and I want to struggle for an understanding of Christianity that emphasizes those things. And just as my having learned much from other cultures is not incompatible with my being an American, my having learned much from other religious traditions doesn\u2019t mean I am not a Christian. Christians have always done so. Luke attributes to Paul (in Acts 17:28) a positive quotation from a poem about Zeus (from the Phainomena<\/a> by Aratos<\/a> [sometimes spelled Aratus].<\/p>\n
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) atheists differ depending on what sort of faith they have cast aside.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-8443317629289818846?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\")
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