Michael Cohren, author of C.S. Lewis: The Man Who Created Narnia and several other books, considers—in a column for National Post—the ironic fact that his faith being "profoundly encouraged by those most eager to smother it." Coren writes:
Put simply, I was helped along the road from indifference to belief by the banality of atheism. Since reaching the age of reason, I’ve had the usual old regulars thrown at me. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why doesn’t He make Himself more obvious? Why is evil committed in the name of religion? Throw in the Inquisition, the Crusades and some lies about Papal culpability during the Holocaust and you have the standard God-hating manifesto.
The more I dealt with all this, the more I realized that the very belief being attacked was absolutely and abundantly true. More than this, the reason it was under attack in the first place was precisely because it was true.
Small typo: It's Michael Coren.
Posted by: BillyHW | Thursday, December 27, 2007 at 12:46 PM
Augh, I've done that more than once. Thanks!
Posted by: Carl Olson | Thursday, December 27, 2007 at 01:30 PM
"Clever old God" -- love that! Loved the article as well; Mr. Coren's writing is witty, lucid, and very much from the heart. Thanks for posting the link to this article, and to all at Ignatius Insight, a very Merry Christmas season and a Happy New Year!
Posted by: Patricia Gonzalez | Thursday, December 27, 2007 at 08:11 PM
“The best they can do,” He’s saying, “is blast you with the same old nonsense they threw at you when you first thought of coming my way.”
Reminds me of the title of that old book by Fulton Sheen, "Old Errors, New Labels".
Posted by: duen | Saturday, December 29, 2007 at 08:32 AM