<<Dallas Willard has written that the philosophical atheist is living in an
"ontologically haunted universe." I now also see that the philosophical
naturalist is living in a "cosmologically haunted universe," with echoes of
Pascal's Wager ringing like a distant alarm in his mind.>>
Thank you for citing my two favorite thinkers in the whole world. Dallas
Willard happens to be an acquaintance of mine, and he's not just a great mind,
he's a wonderful Christian (imagine, an ordained Baptist minister and
professor of philosophy at USC! Talk about guerrilla warfare) and one of the
best writers on the disciplines of the spiritual life. I've gained so much
from his teaching and example.
Pascal, of course, is in a class by himself. I like the way you put it--the
Wager ringing like a distant alarm. It always does in the human heart. And he
dealt with the naturalism in is usual, inimitable way. As he states in
Pensees:
"For it is impossible that the part of us which reasons can be anything but
spiritual, and even if it is claimed that we are simply corporeal, this would
preclude even more the possibility of us knowing things, since there is
nothing so inconceivable as the idea that matter knows itself. We cannot
possibly know how it could know itself. So if we are wholly material, we can
know nothing at all."
<<I was also reminded of a taped debate between William Lane Craig and Frank
Zindler in which Zindler cited as significant evidence against God's
existence, the fact that God didn't strike him (Zindler) dead on the spot.>>
Boy, that debate was sure a joke. Zindler was an embarrassment. At CBA, I
talked to the guy from Willow Creek who set the thing up and noted my
feelings. He sadly nodded his head, and said they too had pushed for someone
else, but Zindler was tight with the local atheist who was representing the
"nay" side. Poor Zindler looked hapless and helpless, and Craig just mopped
the stage with him. Even so, there was still that crust of disbelief around
Zindler's heart that the laser of reason could not break through.
But there were some "on the fence" for whom the debate was a turning point.
That made it worthwhile.
Jim
"I did not attend his funeral, but I wrote a nice letter saying I approved of
it." -- Mark Twain