Last night, I was flipping through the channels and watching the Sweet 16, Celebrity Apprentice, M*A*S*H, and then I saw on the guide where George Carlin was doing a comedy special on HBO. So, I tuned in to see what he was talking about because my interest had been piqued by this message Jim Gilmore gave at Text & Context in which he talked about meeting Carlin on a flight.

And it was amazing because I tuned in just in time to hear Carlin (an avowed atheist) start talking about God. I thought “Hey, this is good - I’m going to hear what he thinks”. And, sure enough, he delivered. Not only his thoughts on God but also his very creative ways of using Jesus’ name in less than flattering ways.

And what was amazing was how much Carlin showed his hand in a comedy bit. He was in the middle of a riff on “Rights” and how rights (such as the Bill or rights) are just figments of our imagination. They simply don’t exist he contends and furthermore, if they were really given to us by God (and these were the words he used):

“Wouldn’t God have given everyone on this planet the right to a home and the right to their next meal“

And then he proceeded to simply just take that as his reason for not only challenging the existence of God, but also as the basis for conceding that even if God exists, he’s can’t possibly be a God worth anything.

So what Carlin was essentially saying was “I can’t believe in God because there is suffering that exists in the world - and if there was a God, he would never let that happen”.

Well, Mr. Carlin - Meet Tim Keller. Tim Keller, in his new book “The Reason For God”, has taken your objection to the existence of God and addressed it in the most thoughtful, intellectually credible, and sustainable way I have ever heard it dealt with.

For those haven’t bought the book yet, I’ve placed Keller’s seven part series on “Why Christianity Is So Hard To Believe” up on the nomad page of the website of Eternity. His dealing with suffering is amazing and I think would even cause Carlin to pause (maybe).

It’s funny how much we reveal of ourselves in our jokes. And it was fascinating to watch. By the way - I think Trace Adkins should have won Celebrity Apprentice. But Donald Trump I ain’t.