By Michelle Pyke

Philosophical wars are fought all the time. Who’s right, who’s wrong? Who can accurately define what counts as genuine knowledge and what are the correct principles of reasoning? It doesn’t take one long to notice that there is an unblushing movement of atheism that has been sweeping for sometime. In Canada it seems this atheism partners with apathy in a disturbing trend. Lately in my sphere of influence in the secular world the questions are being fired at me with a rate that has increased as of late. Largely due to this man Richard Dawkins and his book “The God Delusion”

I would rather engage in conversation then be silent. I mean I did take an “Apologetics” course at Emmanuel just a few years ago. I try my best to read and educate myself on what is circling that is currently trying to discredit Jesus and Christianity. But sometimes I feel like I am missing the point, shooting at dummies as it were. I am not suggesting the people asking the questions are dummies, more so the questions that are being asked. What is the real issue, or is this floating decoy really the heart of the matter?

“The first known use of the paratrooper dummy occurred in May 1940, during WW II, when the German airborne unit used “straw-filled” Para dummies to make their invasion of the low countries/Belgium look larger than it actually was. The Para dummies did in fact help cause panic and fear in the successful invasion. No surviving examples of these Para dummies have yet been found so details about them are scarce. It is known however that the German airborne also utilized straw-filled Para dummies at various points later in the war - including against the Americans in the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge.) The Americans went off on wild goose chases due to this successful deception, finding only dummies and a few German prisoners” ( info found at the decoy paratrooper decoy site )

These paratrooper dummies falling in the sky were so successful that they had Americas running the other way. Dummies! Straw filled dummies. Sacks of nothing took them away from the real battle. I know, I know, great sermon idea. You can make your cheque payable to me for that one.

But really, are we shooting dummies when it comes to these arguments on ontological issues, Pascal’s wager, scripture, and evolution by natural selection etc…? The list goes on. When I took that whole class on these issues in Bible College I did find it interesting. I did enjoy learning these things and I loved reasoning through these ideas. While I found it challenging and rewarding I still look amazed at the issues.

I read the Bible; I look at the things Jesus taught on. Though some would disagree (insert “more educated than I” argument here please) I don’t seem to see Jesus engaging in these lofty debates or theological ideas all the time. He did engage the religious system of thinking in his day; He did ask questions of the Jewish leaders and provoke them to see that they loved the law more than the God who wrote it. But most times I see Jesus loving people. Getting dirty, getting the work done, loving the un-lovable and serving the least of these. Not shooting at dummies. Getting to the heart of the matter.
I can’t help but think when we fight these battles, if we are not putting as much gusto into loving people; we too are hitting the dummies.

I could be wrong, often I am, and I will be wrong again in the future. But are we as Christians sometimes shooting at dummies when we get away from loving people and concern ourselves with only tackling these philosophical ideas? I sometimes feel like the Americans in WWII, seeing the dummies and watching my heart beat race as the real war, on the streets rages on. Loading my weapon with arguments and debates as the homeless still beg, the addicts still look for another hit, the middle class family falls apart, the rich man becomes more engulfed in his greed.
“But wait I have all the answers to your questions on intelligent design, I just have no ideas to practically love you, or serve you…”

It seems I am still holding my gun.
Shooting at the straw filled decoys.

Am I alone?