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April 23, 2019 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
06:09
#Swindon Debates： How Do I Feel About Christianity？
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Time Text
Okay.
Right, your name?
Marcus.
Marcus, nice to meet you, Marcus.
What's your contention?
Okay, well, firstly, I'd like to address something.
So I think I need a public apology from you because you've been very offensive today.
And yeah, I'd like an apology, please.
I'm sorry that you were offended.
Thank you, thank you.
Alright, so I, yeah, so basically I am like, people call me a hot cross bun because I've got a cross on my head.
So yeah.
So I'm Christian.
Pretty obvious.
I just.
Because you're atheist, right?
I am an atheist, yeah.
Are you agnostic at all?
I don't think there's a God.
Okay.
So I'd like to try and contend with you on that.
I'm actually a really bad anti-theist.
I don't tend to want to take people's religions away from them.
I don't want to tell people what to believe, but I do think that we need a secular state.
So the state, for example, shouldn't be trying to protect the sanctity of Christianity or Islam or Sikhism or anything like that.
We should be free to criticize any of them.
But I just personally haven't got that much interest in doing it.
But go ahead.
Yeah, I'd agree with that.
So the reason I'm Christian is because I think Christianity is separate from all other religions.
There's a big difference because we believe in Jesus, the Saviour, the Messiah, right?
And his sacrifice.
And that he lived a perfect life, free from sin.
Now, all other religions, their leaders or messiahs or whatever, you know, Muhammad, Buddha, they were imperfect men, right?
So that's basically like the main difference.
Because people like to put religion all in this one box and say it's all the same.
But there is actually a difference.
I completely agree.
I think there are definitely qualitative differences between religions.
I mean, you'd be mad to deny it.
Yeah, yeah.
So, yeah, so for evidence for Christianity, I think there's absolutely tons of evidence.
You've got the Noah's Ark.
It's been located with the exact dimensions mentioned in the Bible.
You've got Israel returning as a nation after nearly 2,000 years.
You've got plenty of historical sites in Israel, like Sodom and Gomorrah, they found ash on the historical sites.
And so that's the evidence side of things.
People like to say, oh, if God exists, why doesn't he reveal himself to me?
But actually, if you have faith, if you actually become a Christian, he will reveal himself to you, as he has done in my life.
The things he's done for me are mind-blowing.
See, now, I'm put into a bit of a difficult position here because I don't agree that the Bible does provide proof of Christianity's theological legitimacy, but I don't want to sit here and try and disabuse you of your faith in that.
Like I said, I'm not really about taking people's beliefs away from them.
But I mean, I could make a very, very strong positive argument, I think, that would undermine the legitimacy of the Bible and the things that are said in it.
But I really don't want to do that.
So is it okay for us to agree to disagree?
That's fine.
Yeah, I mean, I just like to relate on a personal level because, of course, I think what you're doing for Christianity is great.
You defend the churches, you know, you state publicly how abhorrent it is.
And I like how you you argue against Islam as well.
I think that's great But, like on a more personal level, I feel I feel like if you were to become a Christian, it would simply enhance your like abilities to as a speaker, as a in more in wisdom and knowledge.
It's entirely possible, but I don't think I could.
I Don't, I think I would be dishonest if I would say I became a Christian because I'm not a Christian.
But I recognize that the the positive moral impact that Christianity has had on the West.
I mean, we come from a very.
It is Judeo-Christian values that actually did set the foundations for enlightenment, thought.
It's universalist values and it.
You can't take that away, you can't say that that wasn't the case, because it's very different to the sort of moral values of other religions that are very much.
This is our in-group and that's their out-group.
You know the heretics the, the infidel.
You know the, the Barbarian, the disbeliever, the Christianity was always a universal religion.
Everyone, you know everyone has value and that it that translated into everyone being equal under the law and being a valued member of society.
So we can't deny the Judeo-christian heritage of the West and it would be foolish for us to do so.
You know, because there are still Christians in the West, like yourself, and I don't see why we should need to try and alienate or oppress them just because there are other religious groups that disagree.
This is a these are Western countries.
These were built on Christian values.
There's no getting away from it.
And can I ask like, have you read the Bible?
Yes okay, that's well, that's good many times actually, because I tell you what, like people don't seem to realize actually quite how exciting like the Old Testament is, like Pharaoh is unironically having a wizard battle with Moses yeah, you know.
And then, and then you get the invasion into Canaan, where it's, it's brutal it's, like you know, an absolute legendary movie, Movie, and then you've got like Moses giving the commandments, and then you've got the golden calf, and he comes down and smashes the tablets that God wrote in anger.
You know, as a story, as a narrative, it's spectacularly entertaining.
It really is.
And I don't believe it in a theological way, but I can appreciate the aesthetic of it.
Yeah, yeah.
I respect that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
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