“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’.
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