[Note: This is one post in a series on Greg Boyd’s book Letters from a Skeptic: A Son Wrestles with his Father’s Questions About Christianity. The aim of these posts is to help you start conversations with people in your community. Invite someone to read this book with you and discuss it together. You don’t need to agree with each other or the author to benefit from doing this type of activity.]
For this session, we’ll cover Correspondences 8-10
SUMMARY
In correspondences 8-10, Greg and his dad dive deep into questions about the existence of God. The exchanges provide a great illustration of what it’s like to engage in deep, meaningful discussion with someone. Both men write letters from places of passion and reason, but they openly acknowledge as much.
Edward wonders how we might square our existence with the notion of a personal God. He argues that God does not seem to personally care about creation, because of the atrocities we face. You can feel the weight of this argument when he recounts the tragic loss of his wife when Greg was a child. If you have ever faced such a personal tragedy, you will likely resonate with the questions Edward asks.
Rather than rely on philosophical arguments, Greg spends time discussing the experiential parts of his faith that enabled him to move along the path of emotional healing. Too often, Christians imagine that all questions stem from intellectual issues of the faith. If only people really understood what Christians think, then they wouldn’t object to the faith. This completely ignores the real life tragedies people face. It does little good to make intellectual arguments and deny the power of emotional experiences.
INTRIGUING QUOTES
“I admit that you’ve to some extent cleared away some of my obstacles to believing in the Christian God, but it’s starting to feel sort of like a game to me.” (Edward, August 4)
“Why believe in God in the first place? I have a lot of reasons, Dad. Some of these come from the head, while others come from the heart. Some involve very sophisticated philosophical reasoning, whole others come “straight from the gut.” (Greg, August, 21)
Evil tends to propagate evil, individually and societally. And this is part of what is meant in Christian theology by “original sin.” (Greg, June 18)
“I was torn between two opposing convictions. The world, with all of its beauty, design, intricacy, and personal characteristics, demands that there must be a God. But, I thought at the time, the suffering of the world says that there can’t be a God.” (Greg, November 23)
CONVERSATION STARTERS
Do you tend to rely on emotional arguments or intellectual ones? Is there a better balance than the one you strike?
What are you thoughts on the contrast between the beauty of the creation and tragedies in life?
What argument about the existence of God do you find most (or least) compelling? Why?
If you’d like more questions, make sure you pick up a copy of the book. It has several questions for each correspondence.
Next week we’ll cover correspondences 11-13.