Defending Darwin, humanists hit back at pastor’s sermons

by Yen Feng

A CASE of David versus Goliath? A small group of atheists are taking on the pastor of one of Singapore’s largest churches for an upcoming series of sermons about Christianity, including one titled The Deception of Darwinism, which starts tomorrow.

In a sarcastic letter published on its website and Facebook page yesterday (April 1), the Humanist Society (Singapore) took issue with the sermons’ content, which appears to equate secularity with immorality, and challenge the theory of evolution. Humanists do not believe in God, but in scientific inquiry and the intrinsic value of each human being.

The five sermons are part of a new series called Developing a Christian Worldview, to be delivered this month over five weeks by Mr Lawrence Khong, a part-time magician and full-time senior pastor of Faith Community Baptist Church. He is also the founder of the church, which is one of Singapore’s largest with about 10,000 members.

The letter, titled Open Letter to Lawrence Khong and written by the society’s executive committee, follows a recent video released by the church on its Facebook page which shows Mr Khong introducing the sermon series. Since the video was posted on Tuesday, it has attracted about 15,000 views and 300 shares.

In its letter, the society asked if Mr Khong would invite its own speakers to two of Mr Khong’s sermons: The Deception of Darwinism, and No God, No Good or Bad. For the first sermon, it offered up four of its members – “a biologist, an anthropologist, a medical doctor, and a general scientist” – to be speakers, saying they would have “much to contribute to a discussion about Darwinism and evolution”.

The society said it was contemplating to attend another sermon, The Stars reveal the Truth, but decided not to, preferring to be “earthbound, as all good humanists know there is only one life on this Earth and we should make the very best of it”.

This is not the first time the Humanist Society has responded publicly to Mr Khong, a former national polo player who has a penchant for using both traditional and online media to evangelise conservative views on religion, homosexuality, and adultery, among other controversial subjects.

In a letter published in The Straits Times’ (ST) Forum page in September 2013, the society’s former president Paul Tobin corrected Mr Khong’s assertion in an ST interview about atheism, that “an atheist is very religious. He has a belief system. He believes there is no God”.

Mr Tobin wrote: “The prefix ‘a’ in front of ‘theism’ does not mean ‘the opposite of’ or ‘against’. It simply refers to the absence of theism. As Ricky Gervais, an atheist comedian, wittily puts it: ‘Saying atheism is a belief system is like saying not going skiing is a hobby. I have never been skiing. It’s my biggest hobby. I literally do it all the time.’”

That same year in 2013, the church attracted public controversy when it fired a pregnant staff member because of her alleged adulterous affair with another married co-worker. The Ministry of Manpower intervened, ordering the church to compensate the worker $7,000, which it did. It then took its case to the High Court, but withdrew its application last year.

Founded in 2010, the Humanist Society has a few hundred members, who identify themselves as “humanists, atheists, agnostics, (and) skeptics”. Since its founding, the society has sought to represent Singapore’s non-religious population and has been involved in discussions organised by the Inter-Religious Organisation of Singapore and the Inter-Racial and Religious Confidence Circles.

A greater proportion of people in Singapore now identify themselves as having no religion. A report released last month by the Department of Statistics showed about 18.5 per cent of the resident population said they had no religious affiliation – up from 17 per cent in 2010.

 

Featured image from TMG file. 

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The post Defending Darwin, humanists hit back at pastor’s sermons appeared first on The Middle Ground.

- Yen Feng