Religion
Related: About this forumThis Profile of Bart Campolo Shows How the Best Parts of Religion Can Still Work Without God
December 29, 2016
by Hemant Mehta
This weekends New York Times Magazine will include a wonderful story by journalist Mark Oppenheimer about Bart Campolo, the Humanist chaplain whose father is an evangelical Christian icon. The story went online earlier today and its a must-read. If organized atheism has any sort of future, itll look more like this.
Ive had the good fortune of speaking with Bart before. Theres no one like him. He knows how to take the best of what Christianity has to offer (the community, the inspiration, the human connection), toss out the fiction, and apply it in a non-religious setting. Its the sort of bridge that would help so many people on the fence about their faith hop over to our side
if only they knew people like Bart existed. Im thrilled his story is finally being told.
But as he took stock of the rest of his life, Campolo decided that there was no reason an atheist couldnt still be a minister too. Instead of comforting people with the good news of Jesus, hed preach secular humanism, a kinder cousin of atheism. Hed help them accept that were all going to die, that this life is all there is and that therefore we have to make the most of our brief, glorious time on earth. And he would spread this message using the best evangelical techniques the same ones he had mastered as a Christian.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/12/29/this-profile-of-bart-campolo-shows-how-the-best-parts-of-religion-can-still-work-without-god/
1:04:56 audio at link.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)In fact, it is not reliant upon atheism at all.