Golf, Atheism, and the Invention of Glue

I chuckled this past Easter Sunday as the Masters golf tournament concluded and the champion, Zach Johnson, sat in Butler Cabin being interviewed by Jim Nantz. He made sure to thank his "Lord and Jesus." So, he botched his line a bit; it was only his second tour victory. I'm sure he meant to say "Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" or simply "Lord Jesus," but that's not why I chuckled. My chuckle was because I thought of poor Sam Harris, the atheist author of The End of Faith and more recently of Letter to a Christian Nation. I pictured Harris somewhere enjoying the Masters as a perfectly pagan diversion on a religious holiday of such significance. And just when Harris was pondering the question on everyone's mind, "Who is Zach Johnson?," here comes Zach's truncated profession of faith like fingernails on a chalkboard announcing that he is just another of those idiots Harris likes to write about. He had to think, "Is there no respite from these Christian whackos?" That's what I thought, and so I chuckled.

The reason Sam Harris was on my mind is that I had just read last week's "God Debate" in Newsweak between him and Pastor Rick Warren. The thing that struck me about the debate was that, for an atheist who says "the basic point is that evolution by natural selection is random genetic mutation over millions of years in the context of environmental pressure that selects for fitness," Harris sure does make an awful lot of value judgments.

This point is wonderfully expanded upon in Douglas Wilson's brand new book Letter from a Christian Citizen, which is a direct answer to Harris' Letter. I strongly recommend that you click here to read the fantastic introduction by Gary DeMar and the first ten pages of chapter one. The book is in a big font, so it reads quickly. If that's not enough, you can listen to a radio interview of Wilson by DeMar here. And lastly, if you haven't figured out why this post's title mentions the invention of glue, start clicking!

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