Posts on economics blogs I find irritating

I've always found how the Economist reports Christian or faith issues irritating, as it takes a liberal stance always, and takes objections to anyone forming their worldview and making decisions based on anything other than liberal principles.

I've noticed a couple of blog articles in otherwise economics blogs that irk me the last few days too.

First, on China Hearsay, Stan asks about How China Should Respond to the Rise of Religion?  In the blog he asserts that Christianity holds back a nation, because fundamentalists in America push the creation story at the expense of science, and there is high teenage pregnancy.  Basically, us Christians are unscientific hickeys, and we should be regulated in order that "progress" can take place.

The number of times I see this assertion that Christians are unscientific really irritates me.  Science was founded by Christians seeking to learn more about the world they saw God as having created.  All the early Western scientific pioneers were Christian, a point John Lennox makes at various points as he spars with Dawkins.  Wikipedia helps out also.

The point isn't that all Christians are scientists, or have their heads screwed on.  I get embarrassed by what I hear going on in parts of America.  But there is no contradiction between being a scientist and being a Christian: As Christians we want to find out more about the world God created.

In response to some of the comments I make, Stan claims that atheism is different to the Christian faith in a God, because my faith in God is based on no evidence, that's his definition of faith, whereas he makes the logical conclusion from his perceived lack of evidence for God that there is no God.

But the issue I have here is the definition of faith.  Faith isn't believe in the absence of evidence, it's belief in something because of evidence.  Just as I have no faith in politicians because of how they behave (i.e. based on evidence), I have faith in God because of the evidence.

The atheist position is one of faith, just as the Christian position is.  No matter how complicated the atheist response to this may be, the basic fact cannot be escaped: They came to a different conclusion than the Christian did based on the evidence before them.

The other one that annoyed me, I'll blog about later if I get a moment...