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“I’m glad he’s on our side and not theirs. With him we may have a chance of winning. Now I feel confident about our chances. We will avoid humiliation; hey, we may even be champions with him on our side.”

I’m sure you’ve said this sort of thing when talking about sports with a friend. Your team has signed a star and you’re feeling upbeat about the new season. Well, this week I’ve been feeling it too. Not about sports, (you all know I’m a Chicago Cubs and Detroit Lions fan – you know that optimism and I are total strangers) but about something altogether bigger and more important. The battle of ideas, the cut and thrust of philosophies, the vital and huge question of religious belief.

The ‘He’ I’m referring to is Ross Douthat. Douthat writes an opinion column for the New York Times. He’s one of those challenging and often irritating people who angers
everyone at some point. He’s a convinced conservative in matters of politics but, as I said, he writes for the New York Times. This means he can’t get away with superficial
points of view or party-propaganda. His editors and readers simply wouldn’t let him. He must be thoughtful, balanced, reasonable, independent. This means at times he upsets Republicans and at others he upsets Democrats.

Douthat is also a committed Christian, having become a Roman Catholic in his teenage years, and this is what I mean when I say he’s ‘on our side’. He’s a sincere follower of Jesus who believes the Creeds and tries to live right by God and people. This month Douthat released a new book. It’s called Believe: Why Everyone Should
be Religious. I’m reading it and I recommend it if you are looking for a good source of encouragement for Lent.

Douthat is way more intelligent than I am. Frankly, I don’t fully understand some of the arguments he makes for believing in God, especially when he delves into science or
philosophy (not my strong suits). But the very fact that he says things that are above my intellectual pay-grade reassures me that we Christians must be onto something. Hey, even really smart people want to be one of us!

The big thing I’m taking away from the book is not a new fangled argument that will silence atheists and prove once and for all that God is real. No, I don’t think such an
argument exists. Instead I’m feeling reassured that after years of aggressive spokespeople for atheism insisting that religion is not just untrue, but actually bad for
the world, we’re moving on. The Western world is changing. Two decades of aggressive atheism haven’t resulted in the end of religion. The compulsion to believe is stronger than ever. We are starting to get it now. Discarding God and organized religion didn’t make the world safer, happier, or kinder. Every person still yearns for God, even if they don’t express it that way. Our culture is changing and for once, not in a bad way.