Years ago, at a Christian college, I took a course in Christian Philosophy. I don’t remember
much from the textbook but I do recall the title of another book, Why I Am Not a Christian by Bertrand Russell. Looking back, I
wondered why the professor chose such a text for a course in a highly
conservative college. Was he trying to prepare us to challenge the author? Was
he struggling with his own faith?
 |
| Spiritual Struggle / Bing Free to use/share |
Arguably, the leading atheist of recent decades is the
biologist Richard Dawkins. Following the 911 attacks on America, Dawkins and
his atheist friends published several challenges to religion. A best seller, The God Delusion, caught my attention.
After all, as a psychologist, I know something about delusions. And as one who
studies and writes about the psychology of religion, I wondered what might be
new in this arena—new since Russell, that is.
Five Things Christians Can Learn From Atheists
I’ve written an academic review of the book, The God Delusion, which you can download
at no charge (see references below). In this post, I want to see if Dawkins
says anything of value to enhance Christian living.
1. The God Delusion can strengthen faith.
It may seem odd to think an atheist’s attack on faith could
end up strengthening faith. So, I should explain how this might work. On the
one hand, philosophically minded Christians might respond to the arguments in
The God Delusion, identify their weaknesses, and offer a reasoned response.
On the other hand, and more in my line of work, terror
management theory (TMT), suggests that when attacked, people respond
by becoming more conservative. The anxiety that comes from considering death
stimulates efforts to bolster self-esteem, which is often supported by a faith that make sense of life. Christianity teaches that life is meaningful and all
have an important part to play in furthering the Kingdom of God. Under attack,
religious people turn to their faith. As they more strongly identify with their
faith group, they tend to highly value their group.
2. The God Delusion may help thinking Christians
adopt a more mature faith.
Many of the challenges in The God Delusion make sense because they are aimed at literal
interpretations of scripture, which sometimes fly in the face of extant
evidence. Fundamentalists
take the Bible seriously as a guide for life. They also tend to avoid
metaphorical interpretations of famous stories like Adam and Eve, Noah and the
Flood, and the Apocalypse. The atheistic attacks grab low hanging fruit in some
presentations of these ancient stories, which embarrass Christian scholars. By
referring to scientific evidence, thinking Christians are enticed to discover
how faith and science might be integrated. The quintessential example is theconflict between creationism and evolution. Of course, atheists will consider the
nonliteral explanations as lacking integrity, but one must consider that even
fundamentalists view some texts as metaphors. The onus is on Christian scholars to help
fundamentalists appreciate more nuance in the texts than they may have otherwise considered. One scholar with a knack for this kind of scholarship is Craig Keener. Marcus Borg also helps Christians learn how to read the Bible in its historical context and with regarding some stories as metaphors.
3. The God Delusion can help Christians
confront violence.
The 911 attacks are vivid memories in the minds of people old enough
to remember the horror of falling towers in America’s iconic city. The
religiosity of the attackers is also well-known. But Christians know that
people of their own faith have been violent toward those of other faiths or
other Christian groups with different beliefs. Christians need to deal honestly with the horrid
stories in the Bible where children and adults are the targets of destruction.
It does no good to preach that God is Love when a normal understanding of love
does not include God ordained slaughter. Atheist attacks on religiously
motivated violence are common themes hurled at naïve Christians. Such attacks
can encourage Christian thinkers to offer a thoughtful response. For some, Swinburne has an answer. Other may be more inclined to take a psychological view that stories of power from centuries past might embolden a nation's troops and evoke fear of a powerful God in the minds of one's enemies.
4. The God Delusion can help Christians
think more clearly.
As a college student I became aware of the faulty thinking
in the so-called proofs for the existence of God. Atheists, like Dawkins, are
quite adept at highlighting the illogical conclusions in the common arguments. Unfortunately,
despite the logical problems, many young Christians continue to learn the
arguments as if they would be helpful. To be sure, many thinkers are quite
satisfied that intelligent design is a sufficient argument supporting the presence of intelligence responsible for creation. Others know God apart
from reason and testify to their living faith based on personal experience. If thinking
Christians can control their defensive posture, they can be more willing to agree
that various arguments are indeed faulty. As many have admitted, proving or
disproving the existence of God using reason does not work well. Such arguments
won’t lead to the kind of faith that nurtures wellbeing and an impetus to love
one’s neighbor.
5. The God Delusion can help Christians
develop a deeply rooted moral response.
As Dawkins points out, some Christians wonder how atheists
can be moral. Indeed, some Christians think atheists are immoral. Thoughtful
Christians are certainly aware that the moral response is common amongst people
of many religions and those with no religion at all (See A House Divided below). As Haidt
and his colleagues have shown, virtues like care, fairness, respect
for authority, loyalty, and respect for the sacred are common in many
societies. The challenge to Christians can be to consider biblical teaching and
stories in the light of moral principles rather than a superficial endorsement
of some law or teaching that seemingly contradicts another. For example,
Christians used to quote biblical texts to justify slavery, disallow abused
women to divorce, keep women out of certain jobs, and dictate styles of
clothing and appearance.
There are surely more lessons we can learn from a
consideration of Dawkins’s attacks on religion, which is mostly about
Christianity because that is the religion he knows best. Of course, Dawkins is
an evangelist for atheism thus, we would not expect him to appreciate how his
arguments could enliven anyone’s faith rather than persuade them to give up
faith altogether.
References (APA style)
Dawkins, R. (2006). The God delusion.
New York: Houghton Mifflin.
Sutton, G. W. (2016). A
House Divided: Sexuality, Morality, and Christian Cultures. Eugene, OR:
Pickwick. Buy on AMAZON
Sutton, G. W. (2009). [Review of the book The
god delusion by R. Dawkins]. Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health, 11, 235-239. Download from Academia Link Researchgate
BUY FROM THE PUBLISHER wipfandstock.com
FREE
review copies for instructors and book reviewers.
Connections
My webpage www.suttong.com
My recent publications Geoffrey W. Sutton
My YouTube Playlists Geoff W Sutton
No comments:
Post a Comment