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Tuesday, 23 January 2007 16:04 |
 | | Marc Mullinax |
MARS HILL ÇƒÓ Dear Sam, I have read your two books, "The End of Faith" and "Letter to a Christian Nation," and your Newsweek essays.
I write to agree with some of your very painful conclusions ... and to say I donët think you "get" the inner drives of faithful people who live abundantly and accountably to God.
Sam, I understand your portrayal of fundamentalists using their holy scriptures as mission statements to drive wedges between people, and even kill them in the name of God. Weëre both victims of fundamentalist excesses. Like you, I lie awake, scared that some crazy believer feels her faith tells her to secure WMDs and kill thousands in a single flash.
Next,
you are right to parade how the brute facts of science and its method
often contradict the "softer" beliefs of faith. Youëre right: Some
beliefs need to be in closer conversation with science. A person of
good faith, however, does not fear truth from any quarter.
Youëre also
right to show how the nature of belief, since it cannot be regulated,
varies so widely from person to person. Sadly, anyone can believe
dogmatically in outrageous superstition (say, unicorns) and can call
upon people of good will to respect his right to have "faith" in that
"reality".
Finally, and
most regrettably, you are correct to skewer moderatesë indecision.
Moderates swear by a "live-and-let-live" philosophy, and in doing so
kid themselves; they will never recognize real evil resident next door.
Moderates can be the frog in gently warming water, lulled into a deadly
state by its slowly rising temperature.
So you call for sleepwalking America to wake up. I accept my share of the blame for not paying attention.
Now, some
critiques. You are young, and perhaps have not yet realized how youëre
only joining an already-long line of dissenters from religion.
Napoleon, Feuerbach, Twain, Freud, Marx, Mencken, and Russell have said
it all before, and more eloquently. I assign my students to read these
classic writers in order to understand from the inside-out what
non-believers say about belief.
Iëm not
assigning your work, however. You say nothing new. Worse, you paint all
belief with a paint-by-number kit you must have gotten at some cheap
yard sale. In that paint kit thereës only black, and only one real
broad brush. Shame on you for putting faith in a Procrustean bed and
hacking at it to fit your narrow prejudices!
Next, you
broad-brush all Islam as evil, as a world-conquering "cult of death". I
quote from your latest book: "Most Muslims are utterly deranged by
their religious faith." As if you could be the judge of derangement! As
if your attitude is helpful to bring calm to an already tense standoff
between Islam and other faiths!
Sam, you have
been a rallying call for a revival of atheism. Great! The faithful need
atheists because they keep us honest. But your brand of atheism is so
hostile that you give atheism a bad name. You say that faith wonët heal
a divided world. Patently untrue! How does your non-faith stance
improve on the faiths you insist on misunderstanding? Not all faith is
murderous. Can you demonstrate how your atheism heals?
People believe
in many things, and for many reasons. It is worth suffering the
unicorn-believers, because healthy faith heals the world, results in
good works galore, brings peace, and ends conflicts ÇƒÓ all of which you
seem unable to connect with faith.
God is not known
very well, if at all. Your atheism needs a known God as a target, and
known Gods are by definition limited and weak. Your target is right
strawy, and from this comes your counterfeit power to convince
unsophisticated readers. Start taking faith seriously. Apply the
honesty of your critiques to your own stances. Then maybe Iëll assign
you in my classes.
ï
Dr. Marc S.
Mullinax, chairman of the philosophy and religion departments at Mars
Hill College, can be reached at mmullinax-at-mhc.edu.
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