Citizen Columns
Question
What do you think of atheist ads on OC Transpo buses which say, ‘There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life’?
Answer
As with most advertising, there should be some fine print warning the buyer to beware. The advertisers are free to assert their rather pale fence-sitting view, but in doing so they then make two huge assumptions. First, that those who do believe in God a) worry and b) don’t enjoy life. And second, that those who adopt an agnostic view a) don’t worry and b) do enjoy life. I’m sure most readers could find enough contradictory examples of peaceful, happy believers and anxious, agnostic curmudgeons to undermine both these assumptions pretty quickly.
The ad also reveals its banal and comfortable middle-class origins, as if all there is to life is enjoyment. If you’re in good health, well-paid, have an annual Caribbean holiday and play golf half the year, then that may seem perfectly reasonable. But most of the world isn’t like that. Struggles for food, health, money, safety make life a daily challenge. And in the midst of all that, faith in God is often what makes peace and joy miraculously possible. The Psalms are full of such cries from the heart from the depths of distress. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me” (Psalm 23: 4). For Christians, the cross of Christ, planted in the middle of life’s most horrific circumstances, is a word of hope that there is a God, he sees, he knows and has himself experienced the worst that can be suffered. And generation after generation of Christians have learned by experience the paradox that through the cross joy comes into the world. Worried? Not enjoying life? On the contrary, faith makes it possible to be peaceful and joyful in even the most terrible circumstances. As St Paul said, “I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want. I can do all things in him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:12-13).
With love in Christ,
Fr John
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