The Skeptical Deist?
This comes from a site which I love. I think they do a huge service to mankind and hopefully will accomplish their goals of getting people to think rationally and critically in the future. It is often that I come to a dilemma when reading about "skepticism" and "free-thinkers"...when the people who uphold these ideals and ways of thinking seem to want to disabuse me of my beliefs. I, however, see nothing in my beliefs capable of being disabused and this article, posted on one of the greatest skeptic's website, shows that I need not fear the combination of my skepticism and my love for Christ Jesus. Although I'm not a Deist, I think the article does justice to my point.
The Skeptical Deist?
By Hal Bidlack, Ph.D.
I have long admired Mr. Randi. I remember his remarkable skills as a magician from my youth, his many performances on the Tonight Show with Mr. Carson. I reveled in his exposures of Geller and especially Popoff. In recent years, I have had the privilege to spend time with him, and he now does me the high honor of allowing me to call him friend. I greatly enjoy my work with the JREF, and had a hoot as the master of ceremonies for the Amaz!ng Meeting, and look forward to seeing everyone again in Las Vegas. I have never had a cross word with Mr. Randi. (oh, and as an aside, I never, ever call him just plain "Randi" in spite of his request that I do so. I just wasn't raised that way, he is of my father's generation, and it would be far too forward of me to do so).
And yet, there is one area in which we are in profound disagreement, the issue of faith. Mr. Randi is an atheist, and I am not. I am not a Christian, but I pray, I believe in God, and would generally fall in the category "deist." I see God as like a Jeffersonian clock maker, winding up the Big Bang, and watching the universe slowly tic down, governed by the remarkable laws of physics, of thermodynamics, of biology, and of time. Yet I pray, though I think it unlikely God will spend too much time adjusting the life of one person. So I am not completely consistent in my thinking, perhaps.
But I count myself as a strong skeptic. I glory in the debunking of nonsense, and make a monthly pledge to the JREF to help in some small way to continue the work. Is this a problem? Can a person be both a skeptic and a person of faith?
The answer is, Mr. Randi and I agree, a resounding YES. Nothing the JREF does has anything to do with religion, either formally or informally. True, many of the claimants bring religion into it, but in terms of the tests and the evaluations, the trials are faith-free. And you will note that while Mr. Randi is a gentle atheist, he never preaches that (if you will pardon the word choice). Rather, Mr. Randi willingly states that a scientific mind, an inquiring mind, a logical mind can also be a religious mind.
This distinction is, I think, all too often ignored within the skeptical atheist community. At the Amaz!ng Meeting I happened to remark from the podium that I was not an atheist, and that "atheism" is not a synonym for "skeptic" in my book. I did not intend to be terribly profound with that comment, but given the number of folks who came up to talk to me about it later, I can only assume that I did strike a nerve. Most remarked how glad they were I had said that, as they had felt, at least to some degree, unwelcome, before that comment.
Thus, simply put, I believe strongly that you can believe strongly in both God and skepticism. I do mean that, of course, in a very broad way. I think if you believe Oral Roberts raised folks from the dead, and that Peter Popoff's earpiece is just a hearing aid, well, then, maybe we do have some differences. But in general, I think we do ourselves a disservice as skeptics if we try to maintain that the only "pure" skeptic is an atheist skeptic.
posted by Russell @ 2:02 PM
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