Category: atheism

Unbelief and the Two-Storey Universe

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 41 Leave a Comment on %s
I have written extensively about what I have described as a “two-storey universe.”Ā In short, this is a description of how many modern Christians see the world. There is the first floor – the natural world which operates according to naturalist, “secular” rules, and the second floor – the world of God, heaven, hell, angels, etc. The spiritual crisis of much of modern man is the inherent disconnect in these two worlds. Itā€¦

A Faith That Cannot Be Defended

· Fr. Stephen Freeman
There is such a thing as a Christian faith worth defending (in some sense). However, it seems like those who enjoy attacking the Christian faith find its least worthy representatives for the marshalling of their meager intellectual forces. This often means that atheists attack a faith nobody (virtually) believes, and that defenders sometimes defend something less than Christianity. Ā I have seen several recent articles (most notably in the New Statesman) that haveā€¦

Christianity and the One-Storey Universe – Where Do We Begin?

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 23 Leave a Comment on %s
I read an interesting article today on a blog for those who are “de-converting” or in some sense trying to get over their religious past. For some of my readers it may come as a surprise that I find this interesting – but I find it deeply fascinating. I do not think that those who find themselves in that position are terribly different than myself or many others that I know. Iā€¦

Modern Man and Coldness of Heart

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 21 Leave a Comment on %s
I have been listening to a tape of the talk, “The River of Fire,” given by Dr. Alexander Kalomiros in 1980. By now it has become a very frequently cited and discussed document within the modern Orthodox world. Despite the occasional stridency of its tone, I cannot mkae myself disagree with its conclusions. The following is from the opening remarks of the talk – and speak eloquently of the “Christian Atheism” Iā€¦

The Fullness of Being

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 2 Leave a Comment on %s
God is not only unity – He is also the fullness of being. When man seeks life’s riches he instinctively seeks for God. Even material riches involuntarily summon forth in the soul of a religious person the idea of Providence. The infinte diversity of being in the universe likewise turns us toward God. In religious life we seek the spiritual strength that will sanctify the whole of our existence and make itā€¦

Who Am I?

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 34 Leave a Comment on %s
I ask a sensual man, “Who are you?” and he replies, “I am I,” and he thinks of his body. I ask a thinking man, “Who are you?” and he replies, “I see two sides in myself and I make my way between them, associating first with one and then the other,” and he is thinking of his instinctive and conscious soul. I ask a spiritual man, “Who are you?” and heā€¦

What Faith Shall I Defend?

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 47 Leave a Comment on %s
Contemporary challenges to the Christian faith, whether from children’s writers such as Pullman or various scientific voices in the world of mass media, are frequently not challenges to the Christian faith but attacks on the misperceptions of the Christian faith. By the same token, many professions of the Christian faith are not professions of the faith, but professions of misperceptions of the Christian faith. To some degree, one can beget the other.ā€¦

Where Do the Children Play?

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 24 Leave a Comment on %s
I recall an old Cat Stevens song from the early 70’s, Where Do the Children Play? It runs through my head from time to time when I think about the adult world interacting with children. I had the phrase somewhat in mind when I reacted to the recent invasion of Harry Potter’s world by JK Rowling’s world. I stated then that I was sad that children can’t be left out of someā€¦

Christian Atheism

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 40 Leave a Comment on %s
The title for this post sounds like an oxymoron, and, of course, it is. How can one be both an atheist and a Christian? Again, I am wanting to push the understanding of the one-versus-two-storey universe. In the history of religious thought, one of the closest versions to what I am describing as a “two-storey” world-view, is that espoused by classical Deism (the philosophy espoused by a number of the American foundingā€¦

Living a One Storey Life

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 28 Leave a Comment on %s
I have chosen to use language of the “first and second storey” to describe the kind of bifurcation that the modern world has experienced over the past several centuries. Its results have been to smash the religious world into “sacred” and “secular” and to make believing both harder and disbelief more natural. Thus, to many atheists their world view seems obvious, while believers try to make leaps of logic and argument thatā€¦