The Fshbwl

A number of months ago, I volunteered at an annual event held in Denver called, "The People's Fair". To be more specific, I moderated a stage called, People Speak, which, as the name would imply, is an invitation for people to get up on a soapbox and talk about whatever they want to talk about for five minutes. Part of my role as moderator was to try and put people who were talking about the same kinds of issues together so they could almost have a debate style discussion.

For most of my two hours, things were fairly easy going, however, towards the end, some meaty issues arose. One gal spoke out against coal fired power plants while another man addressed the need for a co-op grocery store here in Denver to prevent major industries from controlling our food supply. A third guy addressed 9-11 as being an inside job and still another, a teenager, defended evolution from a philosophical standpoint. In each of these cases, the presenters put together a logical argument that backed their case.

Then a Christian got up to speak. He opened up by saying that science doesn't matter and that he had no rational argument to make. This was followed by his dancing around spewing out of all kinds of "church talk" and seeing how many syllables he could get into the name Jesus while other Christians started hooting, hollering, and cheering him on. The whole event was quite sad and, as he returned the microphone to me, I couldn't help but think that he'd just offered the crowd a slew of reasons not to believe in Jesus. After all, based on his speech, following Jesus means not thinking and learning how to bounce around while saying words that have somehow added syllables when they go from print to speech.

Oddly enough, not too far away from the People Speak stage were a few booths that Christian groups had set up to share their understanding of science. I remember walking by one of these booths after finishing up my service and overhearing one of the workers talking about how, in his opinion, evolution was complete foolishness from a scientific perspective and that anybody who would believe it obviously lacked intelligence. As I continued to walk along I realized that this scientifically minded person was offering just as many reasons to not be a Christian. After all, he wasn't in discussion, rather his entire stance was, "I'm right and you're wrong." followed by, "I'm intelligent and you're an idiot." In other words, his variation of Christianity demanded that he belittle everyone who isn't like us.

At the Fishbowl, we believe that, when Jesus tells us to love God with our minds, He's inviting us to not only study the Bible, but also the world around us. He's encouraging us to be scientists, historians, and philosophers, trusting that, because all of these things come from God, they will also point us back to Him. At the same time, when Jesus calls us to love our neighbors, he's calling us to a life of humility, compassion, and service in all that we say and do. With IntelligentFaith we seek to do both of those things by entering the world of observation, exploration, logic, and reason, and humbly offering insights on how all of them point us back to the One above them all.