Cretin-Derham Hall

Whether innocently or mischieviously, we sometimes bite the hand that feeds us. In this series of brief essays I will attempt to summarize bits and pieces of a fascinating book, WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT CHRISTIANITY, by Dinesh D'Souza. I believe he slays several dragons of ignorance and dishonesty toward organized religion and the Catholic Church. It is pretty well established that Europe is abandoning its Christian roots and the United States is on the edge of doing the same. D'Souza sees much of the energy for this change as being fueled by a new atheism, one founded on the classical proponents of a century earlier, such men as Nietzsche, Marx, and Darwin. The new atheism is intellectually militant and morally self confident, he writes, a confidence based strictly on science. Science has become the new religion for many, inspiring their passion, goals, devotion and arrogance. I strongly recommend D'Souza's book.

By titling this series "Biting the hand that feeds us" I mean to suggest that much of the contemporary criticism of organized religion, and Christianity particularly, is unwarranted, exaggerated, unfair, and myopic. It seems to me to be the "sore thumb" syndrome, that is, seeing only the small part that is wounded while failing or refusing to see the rest of the body which is healthy and doing quite well. It is a major mistake for us Christians to retreat from the critics, and indeed a sad state of affairs if our backing away is because we have failed to realize the great things Christianity has done for democracy, gender equality, racial harmony, business ethics, economic justice, education of the poor, health services, works of compassion, and other improvements for the common good of humanity.

Dragon # 1   Atheists charge that organized religions, including the Catholic Church, are enemies of science.

It is unquestionably true that some religious bodies defy and deny scientific facts, for example, fundamentalist Christians who reject the evidence surrounding the theory of evolution. Not only does the Catholic Church accept the scientific evidence of evolution (Pope John Paul II taught that the theory is now more than a theory but fact, given all the evidence) but the Church was one of the earliest proponents of scientific research through its establishment of universities as far back as the 13th century, and continues today. Across the globe, Catholic educational institutions at all levels of learning –universities prominent among them–continue to foster science.

Dragon # 2  Galileo's case demonstrates the Catholic Church's animosity toward science. Prominent atheist, Carl Sagan, portrays Galileo "in a Catholic dungeon threatened with torture."

In this charge antagonists toward the Church demonstrate either ignorance of history or anti-religious bias or both. Galileo lived at a time when science itself was having an internal struggle between Ptolemy (the sun revolves around the earth) and Copernicus (the earth revolves around the sun). In his time, religious faith and science were closely intermingled –an environment we find it difficult to comprehend, cherishing as we do, the separation of church and state. Galileo's run-in with Church authorities placed him at odds with some theologians and he was called to account for his views. Contrary to atheist claims Galileo was never tortured or placed in a dungeon. House arrest for the first five months in a luxurious palace followed by going home to his villa with liberty to continue his scientific researh is far from the false picture promoted by atheist propangandists. He was never charged with heresy despite the fact that he ventured outside his scientific arena into theology. (D'Souza, ch. 10)

Dragon # 3 Through its Inquisition the Catholic Church cast fear into all of Europe by hunting down huge numbers of heretics and by persecuting Jews.

While it is true -and not to be excused–that religion is sometimes the source of conflicts and killing, it is also true that atheistic and anti-religious writers have greatly exaggerated religion's role. More often than not, though religion has been blamed, ethnic rivalry and politics were and still are the real issues. Examples are plentiful: the Thirty Years War in Europe was primarily political not religious. Northern Ireland, the Sunni-Shiite conflict in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are all politically motivated conflicts in essence.

The historial stereotypes of the Inquisition –that the Catholic Church cast fear into all of Europe by its hunting down and executing large numbers of heretics and persecuting Jews are largely myths created by political enemies of religion. One contemporary historian, Henry Kamen in THE SPANISH INQUISITION estimates the executions at 2,000 over a period of 350 years. Ugly and bad, to be sure, but far from the number of executions by atheists over a period of 100 years: Stalin's twenty million, Hitler's ten million, Mao Zedong's seventy million, without counting lesser atheistic tyrants such as Pol Pot, Castro, Hoxha, Ceausescu, and Kim Jong-il. D"Souza (page 219) writes; "Taken together, the Crusades, the Inquisition, and witch burnings (the latter accounting for half of this number) killed approximately 200,000 people. Adjusting for the increase in population, that's the equivalent of one million deaths today. Even so, these deaths caused by Christian rulers over a 500 year period amount to only 1 per cent of the deaths caused by Stalin, Hitler, and Mao in the space of a few decades." D'Souza's point is not to justify the sins of Christians but rather to offer a perspective that seems to have evaded the atheist's view of history.

Dragon #4  "The Crusades slaughtered millions in the name of Jesus. The Inquisition brought the torture and murder of millions more. After Martin Luther, Christians did bloody battle with other Christians for another three centuries." – Columnist Robert Kuttner spelling out the case against Christianity.

Before Mohammed's time, the majority of inhabitants of Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Egypt were Christians. Inspired by Islam's call to jihad, Mohammed's armies conquered Jerusalem and the Middle East. By the time Christendom began to fight back (two centuries later) Islam had pushed into Africa, Asia, and Europe, including parts of Italy and most of Spain. (D'Souza ch. 18)

The term Crusades was unknown to the Christian pilgrims who, at great sacrifice to themselves, chose to recapture places they revered as holy. Yes, there was pillaging and rape committed by some and the killing of many Jews, but it must be noted that the vast majority of the crusader pilgrims were uneducated and were left to themselves to find food, shelter, and safety. They left their homes passionate about reclaiming the holy places that Islam had taken from them. They had to provide their own horses, pack animals, and equipment. The pillaging and murders they committed cannot be justified but neither can the charges be justified that the crusades were a crime against humanity. "The Crusades can be seen as a belated, clumsy, and unsuccessful effort to defeat Islamic imperialism. Yet the Crusades were important because they represented a fight for the survival of Europe. (D'Souza, p. 210)

Dragon #5  "Faith is one of the world's great evils, comparable to the small pox virus but harder to eradicate. …Religion is capable of driving people to such dangerous folly that faith seems to me to qualify as a kind of mental illness."  Richard Dawkins. (D'Souza p.196)

Some religious beliefs can be dangerous, even crazy. Witness suicide bombings and 9/11 for recent examples of dangerous. The resident of a psyche ward who claims to be Napoleon is an example of illness. So, where would Dawkins, an atheist, put Stalin, Hitler, and Mao who collectively annihilated 100 million innocent people? Is human faith the power that needs to be harnessed, rather than religion?

One of the persistent contributions of the Catholic Church historically is its respect for rationality, for the human capacity to reason. And, believe it or not, it is reason that harnesses faith, and faith that harnesses reason.

Atheists would have us believe that science and reason are the only roads to truth, the only realities that are real. But faith is real also. In fact, faith alone can deal with some parts of reality that science cannot. One example: science may be able to tell us how the world developed over the eons of time, the Big Bang theory and evolution giving very believable evidence for both, the when and how. But science cannot answer the questions of who and why. These are questions that point to realities beyond science's capability.

Try to change the beliefs of another person. You can reason, thinking that you are being reasonable in your arguments but to no avail. People believe what they choose to believe. Evidence to the contrary may have an influence in changing or modifying another's faith, or it may not. Faith can be powerful in wreaking havoc or creating the good and the beautiful.

Dragon #6  If scientists can destroy the influence of religion on young people, "then I think (this) may be the most important contribution we can make." Physicist Steven Weinberg.

No wonder parents worry about their children losing their faith at the college door. Many teachers, at the college level especially, cast scorn upon religious beliefs, labeling them as simplistic, unsophisticated. Scientific views and naturalistic world views are presented as fashionable and enlightened, and the only true reality. A bonus for young adults that such an attack on religion offers is its characterization of religion as sexually repressive, therefore, abandoning religious faith leaves one free and without restraints. 

It is standard fare in universities and colleges to presume that religious beliefs are something to grow out of, and education is a major means of achieving that. The problem for Christians is not that they have been indoctrinated in their religion and know too much, but that they know too little. They freeze up when challenged by the atheist perspective and are too easily intimidated by atheist claims. A way out is to seek the safety of other ill-informed believers rather than the charged up non-believers eager to spread anti-religious attitudes of the "intellectually elite." Christianity needs apologists for the faith who are well informed and passionate about their faith to meet the intellectual and scientific challenges against it. We can no longer presume that we live in a Christian West.

Dragon # 7  "The cosmos is all there is or ever was or will be." Carl Sagan.

In other words, the natural is all that exists. The supernatural does not exist, never did, does not now, and never will. Children should be taught to revere science as a replacement for religion. Dawkins asks "should parents be free to impose their beliefs upon their children? Is there something to be said for society stepping in?" Dawkins goes so far as to say that teaching children religious doctrine is a form of child abuse. What a dangerous and unsophisticated belief this is! Christianity holds firmly to the rights of parents over the state.

Dragon #8 Atheist Christopher Hitchens condemns Chrstianity as "a creepy movement to impose orthodoxy on a free and pluralist and secular republic."  (D'Souza, ch. 22)

Atheists do not object to morality, many of them are known for their decent moral living. They object to absolute morality, a moral code issued from "above", a set of standards that obligates every human being, a universal and objective morality. As non-believers in God, they reject any notion that whatever universal morality there seems to be, it is not divinely derived. The golden rule –do unto others as you would have them do unto you –they say, is a natural development in the evolutionary process. The "oughts" that people feel are ultimately for self-preservation or for the survival of one's genes into the future.

D'Souza unveils Christianity's belief in the existence of a natural moral law (e.g. honesty) just as there are natural physical laws (e.g. gravity), and that these universal prescriptions for right behavior are obvious when we consider the workings of conscience. Deep in the Judaeo-Christian experience is belief in God as the One who is the giver of these universal moral laws just as God is the Creator of nature's laws. Contrary to the opinions of some, exceptions do not falsify or eliminate the existence of a universal and objective morality, they reinforce it. Disagreements among humans do not eliminate it either but rather demonstrate its complexity. Simply put: some behaviors every human ought to do, other behaviors humans ought not do.  

Contrary to atheist claims, our experience of a universal moral code is a strong argument for the existence of God, and further, powerful evidence that this God is good, the source of love itself, and a respecter of the freedom God gave humans to choose good and or to choose evil.

Dragon # 9  …the claim that Christianity and Christ do not matter.

In D'Souza's final chapter he reflects on how Christianity "can change your life."

No question that organized religion, Christianity a major one among them, has plenty of failures. elcome to the human reace. Evenso it must be said that Christianity is unique for what it holds to be true, and for the ideals and relationship to God through Jesus that are at its core. Distinct from other world religions (e.g. Judaism, Buddhism, Islam) Christianity is defined by one person, Jesus, who claimed to be more than God's human messenger (Moses, Buddha, and Mohammed), claiming to be divine as well as human.

Jesus remains the most influential person in history. The claims about His resurrection are unique. The requirements he makes of His followers can be rejected but not ignored –there will be judgment and justice done.

How can Christianity improve our lives? D'Souza offers several thoughts. 1) Christianity makes sense of who we are in the world. Christianity has always embraced both reason and faith. While reason helps us discover things about experience, faith helps us understand things that transcend experience.  

2) Christianity infuses life with a powerful and exhilarating sense of purpose. Our lives on earth have meaning not only to ourselves but to God. Injustices experienced and sufferings undergone are not the end, but point to a transcendent power who can bring good from evil and blessings from misfortune. Each person matters. This life is but prologue to the next. We live our lives in the "shadow of eternity."

3) Christianity gives us the answer to our loneliness. In life as in death we are never alone. God is with us. Since it is impossible for us to reach up to God, God has reached down to us. Jesus is the Way, the truth, and the life.