“There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” This is what the theologically-minded buses are saying. Let’s pass over the weird first sentence and look at the second. Most religious reactions to this slogan have objected, with some indignation, to the assumed link between religion and worrying, and atheism and enjoyment. How dare you suggest that we believers are nervy, anxious, joyless types? We’re jolly relaxed, you know – you should see us on the weekend in our zany knitwear!
I think this is the wrong riposte. It makes more theologically sense to accept the atheists’ claim that they’re cooler than us, more laid-back. Yes, we religious types are prone to take life quite seriously, and to get all het-up about stuff.
When God revealed himself to Noah he said the very opposite of ‘Stop worrying and enjoy your life’. He said, ‘Stop enjoying yourself and start worrying, and, in fact, build a big boat’. What he said to Abraham was not along the lines of ‘Easy, Abe.’ In fact according to the scriptures he told no major patriarch or prophet to chill out and have a good time. He told Moses that he had rather a lot of work to do (Moses understandably suggested that he try using someone else, but God refused). This trend continues with the prophets: Amos, for example, was a restless, disaffected type, angry that people were boozing and feasting while the poor suffered. Isaiah and Jeremiah kept bothering people with a highly irritating vision of perfection. And the Psalmist – oh dear. Maybe Prozac would have helped.
Jesus was in some ways pretty chilled out. In fact he told his followers not to worry about material things. But he also told them to fear Satan, to strive for perfection, and to give up everything for the sake of this vision of the kingdom of God. Not very laid back. And, like the prophets, he signally failed to enjoy his life in the way that the atheists seem to recommend. He could have been a doubting donnish rabbi, full of ecumenical diplomacy, instead of a fatally bold troublemaker.
So the atheists have a point: God is keener on unsettling his chosen than relaxing them. The available evidence suggests that he is not very interested in our ability to take it easy.
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