God knows why faith is thriving [- Dinesh D'Souza]

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 10/22/2006 | Dinesh D'Souza

[Harrius Magnus]

A group of leading atheists is puzzled by the continued existence and vitality of religion.

As biologist Richard Dawkins puts it in his new book "The God Delusion," faith is a form of irrationality, what he terms a "virus of the mind." Philosopher Daniel Dennett compares belief in God to belief in the Easter Bunny. Sam Harris, author of "The End of Faith" and now "Letter to a Christian Nation," professes amazement that hundreds of millions of people worldwide profess religious beliefs when there is no rational evidence for any of those beliefs. Biologist E.O. Wilson says there must be some evolutionary explanation for the universality and pervasiveness of religious belief.

Actually, there is. The Rev. Ron Carlson, a popular author and lecturer, sometimes presents his audience with two stories and asks them whether it matters which one is true.

In the secular account, "You are the descendant of a tiny cell of primordial protoplasm washed up on an empty beach 3 1/2 billion years ago. You are a mere grab bag of atomic particles, a conglomeration of genetic substance. You exist on a tiny planet in a minute solar system in an empty corner of a meaningless universe. You came from nothing and are going nowhere."

[Harrius Magnus]

Out of the ballpark!

[Niuhuru]

It oculd bethat religion provides a safe, stable constant in an ever changing world and would preferthat to the cold unforgiving dogma of 'survival of the fittest.' But that's just me.

[PetroniusMaximus]

Faith Does Breed Charity -We atheists have to accept that most believers are better human beings.
Roy Hattersley

Hurricane Katrina did not stay on the front pages for long. Yesterday's Red Cross appeal for an extra 40,000 volunteer workers was virtually ignored.

The disaster will return to the headlines when one sort of newspaper reports a particularly gruesome discovery or another finds additional evidence of President Bush's negligence. But month after month of unremitting suffering is not news. Nor is the monotonous performance of the unpleasant tasks that relieve the pain and anguish of the old, the sick and the homeless - the tasks in which the Salvation Army specialise.

The Salvation Army has been given a special status as provider-in-chief of American disaster relief. But its work is being augmented by all sorts of other groups. Almost all of them have a religious origin and character.

Notable by their absence are teams from rationalist societies, free thinkers' clubs and atheists' associations - the sort of people who not only scoff at religion's intellectual absurdity but also regard it as a positive force for evil.

The arguments against religion are well known and persuasive. Faith schools, as they are now called, have left sectarian scars on Northern Ireland. Stem-cell research is forbidden because an imaginary God - who is not enough of a philosopher to realise that the ingenuity of a scientist is just as natural as the instinct of Rousseau's noble savage - condemns what he does not understand and the churches that follow his teaching forbid their members to pursue cures for lethal diseases.

Yet men and women who believe that the Pope is the devil incarnate, or (conversely) regard his ex cathedra pronouncements as holy writ, are the people most likely to take the risks and make the sacrifices involved in helping others. Last week a middle-ranking officer of the Salvation Army, who gave up a well-paid job to devote his life to the poor, attempted to convince me that homosexuality is a mortal sin.

Late at night, on the streets of one of our great cities, that man offers friendship as well as help to the most degraded and (to those of a censorious turn of mind) degenerate human beings who exist just outside the boundaries of our society. And he does what he believes to be his Christian duty without the slightest suggestion of disapproval. Yet, for much of his time, he is meeting needs that result from conduct he regards as intrinsically wicked.

Civilised people do not believe that drug addiction and male prostitution offend against divine ordinance. But those who do are the men and women most willing to change the fetid bandages, replace the sodden sleeping bags and - probably most difficult of all - argue, without a trace of impatience, that the time has come for some serious medical treatment. Good works, John Wesley insisted, are no guarantee of a place in heaven. But they are most likely to be performed by people who believe that heaven exists.

The correlation is so clear that it is impossible to doubt that faith and charity go hand in hand. The close relationship may have something to do with the belief that we are all God's children, or it may be the result of a primitive conviction that, although helping others is no guarantee of salvation, it is prudent to be recorded in a book of gold, like James Leigh Hunt's Abu Ben Adam, as "one who loves his fellow men". Whatever the reason, believers answer the call, and not just the Salvation Army. When I was a local councillor, the Little Sisters of the Poor - right at the other end of the theological spectrum - did the weekly washing for women in back-to-back houses who were too ill to scrub for themselves.

It ought to be possible to live a Christian life without being a Christian or, better still, to take Christianity à la carte. The Bible is so full of contradictions that we can accept or reject its moral advice according to taste. Yet men and women who, like me, cannot accept the mysteries and the miracles do not go out with the Salvation Army at night.

The only possible conclusion is that faith comes with a packet of moral imperatives that, while they do not condition the attitude of all believers, influence enough of them to make them morally superior to atheists like me. The truth may make us free. But it has not made us as admirable as the average captain in the Salvation Army.

By Guardian Unlimited © Copyright Guardian Newspapers 2006
Published: 9/12/2005

http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/9-12-2005-76579.asp

[Dan Evans]

It oculd bethat religion provides a safe, stable constant in an ever changing world and would preferthat to the cold unforgiving dogma of 'survival of the fittest.'

But that doesn't answer the question of why Christian nations thrive while atheist nations don't.

[JimSEA]

It seems perplexing why nature would breed a group of people who see no purpose to life or the universe, indeed whose only moral drive seems to be sneering at their fellow human beings who do have a sense of purpose.

Good article. It is worth noting that the strident atheists of the 1960's are the New Age crystal gazers of today. The pagans have twisted the ancient religions of human sacrifice and moon worship into forms where the environment and Mother Earth substitutes for Christ. However they have religion, just as Islam is a perversion of Judaism, Wiccan is a perversion of Christianity.

[lexington minuteman 1775]

Grand slam for D'Souza!

[giznort]

I am trying to read my way through the Bible. I started from the front, then we had a book sale where I work where they had the "Seasonal Bible" where you get to read from several different books of the Bible each day, in order. Jeremiah, I have found, contains God's displeasure with His people who continue to worship false idols, and He speaks as to what he will do to them. It is not pretty. In fact, I can't blame Him.

When crap like this from San Fran Sicko comes out, it only has the effect of strenthening my belief in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I am not some random particle that washed up on some beach like the author did.

Glory be to God.

[Niuhuru]

I believe it is because Christians take their faith and create something beautiful because they truly are inspired by God and Christ. Athiest nations have no sense of divine beauty since they have no beliefs and thus no inspiration other than their enpty, dead souls.

[Dan Evans]

The truth may make us free. But it has not made us as admirable as the average captain in the Salvation Army.

I've never heard a bad word about the Salvation Army. They seem to be the most efficient of all charities in terms of providing services per dollar donated.

[Muleteam1]

It could be too that God gave most of us keen senses so that his miracles could continued to be experienced. Possibly microscopes and telescopes are to many scientists as a crutch is to a man who has trouble walking. Some cannot walk even with a crutch.

[ModelBreaker]

The only possible conclusion is that faith comes with a packet of moral imperatives that, while they do not condition the attitude of all believers, influence enough of them to make them morally superior to atheists like me.

The other possible conclusion is that the Holy Spirit transforms us into something we could never have been on our own juice.

[Dan Evans]

I once referred to Russia as an atheist nations but someone corrected me. Looking up some statistics, some fifty or sixty percent regard themselves as Russian Orthodox. So do we put Russia in the atheist or Christian catagory?

[Popocatapetl]

Well, a simplied view could say that people have an idea of the known, and they also have the idea that the unknown exists.

The known, things that people know the rules of, can be scary, but if you know those rules, they are not terrifying.

What is terrifying, is the true unknown. You do not know its rules, if it is a threat, how or why it is a threat. You don't know its size, shape, color, smell, sound, intentions, or anything at all about it. There is no reference you can check to find out its rules. No good advice.

The true unknown can almost create a lethal amount of fear.

For example, you go into your bedroom and you see a strange gun resting on a table. It's scary, but not terrifying, because you know many of the rules of guns. You know that its bullets are what can cause harm. You know where the bullets come out of the gun. You know that pulling the trigger makes them come out.

More than anything else, it is not the gun that is scary, but whoever owns the gun that you need to worry about.

Compare that with the true unknown. You walk through a heavy door into a pitch black room. The door slams shut behind you and locks. You can't sense anything in the room, but sooner or later your mind starts to tell you there is something in there with you. You can't even move around the room to feel the walls and floor.

It is not a case of you vs. that thing, whatever it is. It is you vs. you. You enter a spiral of terrifying yourself. Once you are in such a spiral, you don't even need some thing to frighten you.

So, whether or not you believe in God, you have a very good reason to want something that can help you face the unknown.

[YdontUleaveLibs]

I have been thinking about this a lot lately. And I can't get my mind around why someone would be an atheist. I don't see the point, what could possibly motivate one to even get up in the morning without a reason to?

[Lonely Bull]

The truth may make us free.

Who told him that?

[therut]

That was excelllent. I wish I could have a mind to come up with logical though and write so well. The atheists wo worship evolution are on the way out. Religion is a evoluntary miracle. Makes sense. They want to kill what makes the human race continue. They really are dumb. Their kind is doomed.

[Buggman]

First, I'd like to say that Dinesh D'Souza is an awesome writer. Second, I'd like to suggest that the fact that this actually got published in the SF Chronicle is proof that miracles still happen.

[jan in Colorado]

Dinesh D'Souza Ping!

[Alamo-Girl]

LOLOL! Thanks for the ping!

[elmer fudd]

But that doesn't answer the question of why Christian nations thrive while atheist nations don't.

Last I checked most Christian nations weren't exactly thriving, (Mexico, Brazil, Haiti, Venezuela, Phillipines, etc...). The majority in fact seem to be basket cases. With the exception of China, athiest countries seem to be even worse, but secular countries are doing rather well, at least in terms of quality of life.

If you want to go by pure population growth however the future is Islam.