Christians Do Enjoy Life

Some people in England who do not believe there is a God recently went to a lot of trouble, and cost, to advertise on London buses with the slogan "There is Probably No God, so Stop Worrying and Enjoy your Life!".

I do confess to having a certain respect for the evangelical zeal of the atheist. Possibly it is something that we Christians could learn from.

If there is no God, what exactly is the problem? Why go to such extraordinary lengths to announce the fact from the top of a double decker bus? Why not just get on with your enjoyable, non-religious life and allow us simple souls our harmless superstitions?

Me thinks thou doest protest too much.

But I would challenge the bizarre assumption clearly held by the slogan-makers that being a Christian is somehow incompatible with leading an enjoyable life. Does committing oneself to Christ condemn one to a life of misery and unhappiness? Certainly not in my experience.

The invocation only works if by "enjoyment" the atheist actually means sin. Or let me put it in less biblical terms - it only works if the atheist is equating happiness with stealing, murder, deceit, infidelity and all the other things that a good Christian, or for that matter a good non-Christian, would seek to avoid.

I'm flattered that somebody somewhere is sufficiently concerned for my happiness and well-being to want to spend such a great deal of money trying to persuade me that they know best. But if it's all the same by them I'll stick with my faith. And I will enjoy doing so.

Who the **** is Alice?

I was always a fan of rock legend Alice Cooper in my youth and felt confused and even threatened when I heard certain Christians calling for him and his music to be banned due to the dark and "subversive" influence that it allegedly wielded.

It was reassuring then when I discovered recently that Alice himself is a Christian. I think it demonstrates that we can sometimes be over-sensitive about some of these things, after all his act was only ever theatre. Take a close look at the values this man cherishes and the lifestyle he leads and you could only conclude that he is a force for good.

Watch this fascinating video and see what you think:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oim4OWMANZ4

Techno Joe?

I've been asked by my Church to manage it's web presence and its new Facebook and Twitter accounts. In the land of the blind, and all that...

Sorry it's been so long

Well I guess the down side of working to pay a debt is that one doesn't find the time to do other things. Like maintain a blog!

But Holy Joe is back now and raring to go.

A big thank you to those who have been visiting for updates, I'll try now to make up for lost time.

Ask and it shall be given unto you

When I wrote this item I was at my absolute lowest ebb. I was actually raging at God, imploring him, if I had done something wrong, to punish me and not my son. Nothing was going right for me and I felt abandoned, even by the Saviour.

Yesterday, out of the blue, I received the news that my son would be given a bursary. Better still, that his school would give me ample time to pay off what I owe this year. Although I will still struggle for a while, a massive weight has suddenly been lifted from my shoulders.

I don't think God's plan involves just awarding material wealth to anybody who asks for it. I can't see how that would benefit society, not to mention the precedent it would set. But there are occasions and circumstances in which he hears the cry. And my immediate thought now is to repay him by not being so sulky, or irritable with my family, friends and others in the community, and by reacting to the fact that I am under less pressure by increasing my physical and spiritual commitment to my Church.

First I gave thanks, now I recognise I have a duty. I guess that's the way it works.

The science of Christianity

I had a very interesting conversation yesterday with a good friend who considers himself to be a "scientific Marxist".

Being both scientific and a Marxist he does not believe in the existence of God, and gives me an impression of being quite disappointed that I do. However much I disagree with his views (although I have nothing per se against either scientists or Marxists), I would concede that he is very much an intellectual.

To a certain extent any attempt to counter cold science with faith, or for that matter vice versa, is fairly pointless. The two exist upon different planes. If the metaphysical could be explained by reference to a mathematical formula then it would no longer be metaphysics, and similarly God's power exists outside of scientific comprehension.

As I have stated elsewhere on this blog, infinity and eternity are two concepts that science has not been able to satisfactorily explain. Oddly my friend disagreed with this, but the evidence he used to support his case either went clean over my head or, as I believe to be the case, was not really evidence at all.

A preacher who used to visit my Church once told me about a friend he had, who was a surgeon. A man to whom, in other words, a thorough grasp of science was an imperative. The preacher relayed to me how the surgeon had marvelled at the complexity and precision of the human body, and concluded that only a divine creator could have devised such a thing.

Perhaps that's why even Darwin, having (we are told) debunked the creationist theory, never went so far as to describe himself as an atheist. My Marxist friend protested that this was only because his own (Darwin's) wife had been a Christian.

Not a very scientific argument, I thought.

We all need friends

Over the past few days I've been making some wonderful new friends on Facebook.

I say wonderful, I've never actually met any of them and I can't really say with any certainty that are all, truly wonderful. But friendship is a wonderful thing and it is nice share greetings, stories and interests even with complete strangers, especially when we are united through faith.

I hope some of my new Facebook friends will drop by here from time to time, leave comments or even submit articles (e-mail to holyjoe@live.co.uk please).

This blog is your resource, every time you leave a comment or write a piece it goes up in the search engines and more people will visit.

Please help me to build this resource and spread the Word.