Last Monday I posted a story about how tired I was with Christians explaining Atheist beliefs to Atheists and visa versa. Everybody, feel free to tell your own story, but don’t try to tell me my story. Please. 

I got one long response on LinkedIn more or less repeating the original notion that Christian Theology isn’t a legitimate academic subject. To quote the person, “‘Christian Theology’ is a “non-subject. It is empty. Vacuous. Devoid of coherence or content.” Okay, he went a bit further expressing his feeling that Christian Theology isn’t worth studying¹ So, he kind’a missed my point.

Blanket statements castigating Theology as being the same as someone attempting to do a serious study of fairies or unicorns is itself more vacuous name calling. It paints all of Theology with the same brush. Maybe this person didn’t understand when I commented that what one hears from many church pulpits differs greatly from what I learned from the Jesuits at Loyola Marymount and scholars at Biola University.² Also, it should be noted that there are academics who study Viking and Mesoamerican lore, not in the sense of recovering some lost truth as much as all academic studies of ancient peoples and belief systems. In the same way, except for the fundamentalists³, academic scholars approach theology and religious studies with the same drive to better understand ancient peoples and their literature. I should have some understanding on this subject. I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Biblical Studies. 

Finally, Science does science and theology doesn’t. That doesn’t mean that Theology isn’t worth studying. I certainly wouldn’t study Theology if I was looking for medical cures in the same way that I wouldn’t expect to figure out orbital mechanics studying Plato or Kierkegaard. That hardly makes Theology incoherent or unworthy of studying, in the same way that one can have a doctorate in literature and it isn’t any less valid than someone with a doctorate in the medical sciences. Both count. To believe otherwise sounds monolithic, like there can only be one side to the exploration of Truth. 

I’m tired of hearing why my side is the best. I understand the need for like-minded individuals to band together, especially when living or working in potentially hostile environments. And I’m always interested in all the different ways that we become who we become. But don’t take it personally if I don’t see your truth as the one universal Truth. Even if you are solely dedicated to Scientific Truth, when it comes down to it, we’re all just approximations trying to survive and thrive in a very big universe that none of us understands perfectly. And please, don’t try to tell me my story. Really. 

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1. Here’s the full response comment that was posted on LinkedIn:

   Most atheists (atleast in the US) were christian.. so they know the doctrine well.  Im atheist and typically know more about the bible than 19/20 christians I talk to..

   Christians presuppose that there is something in Christian theology to be ignorant about.   And no offense here… but “Christian theology” is a non-subject. It is empty. Vacuous. Devoid of coherence or content.

   I imagine that reasonable Christians would gree with me in expressing disbelief in fairies, astrology, Quetzalcoatl and Thor’s hammer.

   How would they respond if an astrologer or Viking accused them of ignorance of their respective subjects?

   The Bible as literature should be a part of the curriculum.. you can’t understand English literature and culture without it. But we should devote as much time to studying serious theology as we devote to studying fairies and unicorns

   The achievements of theologians don’t do anything, don’t affect anything, don’t achieve anything, don’t even mean anything. I’m not really convinced that  ‘theology’ is a subject at all

   Science has eradicated smallpox, can immunize against most previously deadly viruses, can kill most previously deadly bacteria

   Theology has done nothing but talk of pestilence as the wages of sin.[↩]

2. As an aside I have to agree with one of the first things he said. It’s true that most Atheists I’ve met who were raised in the U.S. had some Christian background, whereas Christians only know about Atheists from what they hear other Christians tell them. And a lot of Atheists on their way to leaving Christianity really studied their Bible because they needed to convince themselves that their direction away from Christianity wasn’t just some emotional response but based on some greater Truth. But that’s not all former Christians, and however much they “study” is only going to be relevant to their own particular Christian experience or heritage. And finally, again, personal study is not the same as academic study of the kind that I did when working on my B.A. and Masters in Theology. [↩]
3. Fundamentalists do not speak for the whole religion, in the same way that I would not want an insane relative speak for my family. For example, only modern Christian Fundamentalists read the first three chapters of the Book of Genesis as a literal description of how the universe was created. Even one of my professors at Biola quipped that the name Adam is Hebrew for “Man” and Eve is Hebrew for “One who gives life,” hinting that this is not modern reportage but mythic tales of old.[↩]