Lori Bourne

Can Atheists and Christians Ever Get Along?

The other day, I got an email notification that someone had left a comment at this blog. Since I don't get many comments here, I was interested to see what someone wrote. When I clicked on it, though, I was really surprised to see that it was a nasty insult about me being religious (of course, I'm not religious at all, just a Christian, but that's another post). I won't repeat the comment here, but I was taken aback to read it.

Anyway, I emailed the person who left it and basically asked him why he did. I didn't say anything rude in return, just that I was curious as to why. He replied and said it was because of a video that he thought I had posted to YouTube. He said this video was a stupid attempt to disprove atheism. Intrigued, I went to YouTube to watch the video.

Of course, I've never posted any videos to YouTube, but someone with a very similar name to mine had, and when he Googled that name, my blog came up. The most recent post at my blog mentioned God, so he assumed this person was me.

I won't link to the video, but I watched it and was basically a very poor attempt to try and prove that atheism is false. In other words, it wasn't anything that I would ever remotely do or be a part of. Not only was it overly emotional and illogical, but it was full of grammatical errors (as a teacher, this part bothered me most!). As a Christian, I was embarrassed for the person who made it. It's precisely this kind of thing that gives people the wrong idea about Christians.

Okay, so video aside, one thing really intrigued me. It's the fact that this man called me names for using, as he termed it, "circular logic" to try and prove a point. He's right; the video did do that. But I guess it never crossed his mind that he was also engaging in a logical fallacy: that of personal attack. It's probably one of the most common logical fallacies that I see all across the internet. People do it so frequently, they don't even realize that they are.

After a few civilized and enlightening emails, we discovered that we're both Digg users, so we befriended each other on Digg. Strange world, isn't it? I wish that atheists and Christians could have more interesting, intelligent discussions without resorting to name calling or any other logical fallacy. After all, there are valid points to be made on both sides. Most Christians I know (especially me) have questioned every aspect of the Christian faith over the years, never content to just accept conventional wisdom when it comes to eternal matters.

I'm glad that this guy mistook me for someone else. I think it worked out much better than if he found the other person. God works in mysterious ways, don't you think?   

A Time to Celebrate

As many of you know, my dad is the Senior Pastor of The Moody Church in Chicago. Our church building was completed in 1925, and is a stunning work of architecture. If you're ever in Chicago, try to stop by (it's right across from the Chicago History Museum, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood).

About a decade ago, the church decided that our existing facility wasn't big enough to meet our needs. Thus began a long campaign of planning and fundraising to build a new building right next to the old one. Actual construction began about a year and a half ago. Finally, on Sunday, May 20th, the new building was ready to be opened to the public and dedicated.

Although my husband and I now go to a church much closer to our house, we made sure we were there for the dedication of the Christian Life Center (CLC). It was our first look inside the new building, and we were really impressed. The thing I like best about it is how seamlessly it transitions from the old building - on each floor, it flows from one space to another as if the rooms and hallways had always been there.

Needless to say, my parents are quite relieved and delighted to be done with this huge project. Here's a picture of the church from the front; the old building is on the left and the new one is on the right (they look slightly different, although they are similar - the brick of the new one is lighter):