Dawkins begins the second chapter of “The God Delusion" with
this statement. “The God of the Old
Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust,
unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a
misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal,
pestilential,megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
If I were to respond to every one of these terms, I would
have no room for comments on the remainder of the chapter, so let me just hit a
few:
“character in all fiction”
Dawkins has not yet proved that God is fictional. He expects to do that eventually in this
book, but this tirade near the beginning assumes it before “proven.”
“jealous and proud of it”
If there really is a God who is the creator and sustainer of everything
in the Universe, if He really understands all of it, and operates outside of
time so that He see the beginning and the end, He has every right to insist
that we honor and reverence Him. In
fact, it is to our benefit to do so. I
remember saying to one of my daughters once, “I am going to win this argument,
because it is in your best interests for me to do so.” This was not motivated by unreasonable
demands and arrogance on my part, but on my knowledge that I did actually know
what was best for her in this particular circumstance. If God is God, He does know best and has the
right to expect us to yield to Him.
As to all those terms that involve killing of various people….such
activities were one reason that God wanted His people to be separate from
neighboring tribes and religions who did, for example, practice infanticide. They
have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned
sacrifices in it to gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of
Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the
innocent. They have built the high
places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal….something I
did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. Jeremiah 19:4-5
“unjust, unforgiving control freak” Perhaps Dawkins is unfamiliar with the book
of Jonah. Jonah is sent to prophesy
against Nineveh, but the city actually repents, so God forgives and does not
destroy it. This makes Jonah angry. I guess he thinks it makes him seem foolish,
because the destruction he prophesied will not now happen. Jonah
was greatly displeased and became angry….is this not what I said when I was
still at home? I knew that you are a
gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who
relents from sending calamity. …the
Lord said…Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot
tell their right hand from their left….should I not be concerned about that
great city? God has always been
compassionate on those who repent. He
has at various times dealt a severe blow against those who do not.
Dawkins attempts to categorize Christianity as a
polytheistic religion because of the concept of the trinity. He insists on seeing this as three separate
Gods. Those who believe in the trinity
see this as one God who manifests Himself in three different ways. He never really addresses this explanation of
the trinity, but goes on about the saints in Catholicism, seeing these as
additional proof of the polytheistic nature of Christianity. Although I am not Catholic and do not pray to
saints, I resent the nasty little bit of sarcasm he employs in this
discussion. Sarcasm is another sign that
one’s argument is weak and must be bolstered by nasty jabs.
“I am attacking God, all gods, anything and everything
supernatural, wherever and whenever they have been or will be invented.” Good….now we know exactly where he stands.
In his section on Monotheism, Dawkins quotes Gore Vidal….”God
is the Omnipotent Father…hence the loathing of women for 2000 years in those
countries afflicted by the sky-god and his earthly males delegates.” This is a great misinterpretation of
Christianity which clearly puts men and women on equal footing before God. Individuals or sects may have difficulty
dealing with this, but Christ had female disciples and appeared to women first
after the resurrection. Christianity
does not support loathing of women.
Dawkins states the Christianity was founded by Paul. I don’t know of anyone within Christianity
who would adhere to this view. There may
be some within Catholicism who believe it was founded by Peter. Some may say it was founded by the disciples
in general. I would argue it was founded
by Christ Himself. Following His
resurrection (which Dawkins, of course, doesn’t believe in), Christ said to his
disciples, All authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to me. Therefore go
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you. And surely, I am with you
always to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:18-20 This is the
establishment of the Christian church and its purpose.
In his discussion of Deism, Dawkins refers to God as a psychotic
delinquent. Once again….name calling is
a sign of a weak argument.
Chapter 2 does contain a totally reasonable explanation of
the spectrum of belief to unbelief with agnosticism in the middle. This is a good analysis.
In his discussion of agnosticism, he relates the thoughts of
a friend who “regards God as no more probable than the tooth fairy. You can’t disprove either hypothesis, and
both are equally improbable.”
Seriously? We all know the tooth
fairy doesn’t actually exist, and we can come as close to proving it as any
other scientific fact. We all know who
the tooth fairy really is. We can’t
definitely prove that no tooth fairy exists anywhere, but we can prove
innumerable cases where the tooth is slid out from under the pillow by a parent
and a coin put in its place. Given
hundreds of thousands of such incidents, it is as safe to say there is no tooth
fairy as it is to say the earth revolves around the sun. Making God analogous to the tooth fairy just
doesn’t fly.
“What matters is not whether God is disprovable (he isn’t)
but whether his existence is probable.”
Dawkins expects to make him improbable later in the book. I don’t’ expect him to be successful.
“…a universe with a creative superintendent would be a very
different kind of universe from one without.”
I agree. I believe in a creative
superintendent!
Now Dawkins gets nasty regarding theologians. He criticizes his fellow scientists (some whom
he names are even atheists) who are willing to let theologians weigh in on God’s
existence. “What expertise can
theologians bring to deep cosmological questions that scientists cannot? Why are scientists so cravenly respectful
towards the ambitions of theologians, over questions that theologians are
certainly no more qualified to answer than scientists themselves? Unlike my astronomer friends, I don’t think
we should even throw them a sop.”
Dawkins seems to like to criticize others for “overweening arrogance,”
but I’m afraid that in this, he exhibits it himself. He does not want to believe that fellow evolutionist
Stephen Jay Gould meant what he said in his book Rock of Ages. I wonder if it
is okay if we don’t believe what Dawkins is saying in The God Delusion.
Chapter 2 also contains a discussion of a “prayer
experiment.” He points out that the
results did not show any impact from prayer, so those who believe in prayer are
quick to point out the flaws of such a study.
If there had been a positive correlation, he believes many religious
groups would be trumpeting the results.
He is probably….and sadly…right about this. However, I am sure that there were those who
understand the genuine nature of prayer, who would have questioned the study
from the outset. Christ Himself tells us
that it is not appropriate to put God to the test. God is not a monkey who performs acts at our
bidding. The purpose of prayer is to
conform our mind and will to the mind and will of God. Thy
will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
Matthew 6:10
And then, he says, apparently with a straight face, “Whether
we ever get to know about them or not, there are very probably alien
civilizations that are superhuman, to the point of being god-like in ways that
exceed anything a theologian could possibly imagine. Their technical achievements would seem as
supernatural to us as ours would seem to a Dark Age peasant transported to the
twenty-first century.” Oh, dear, Dr.
Dawkins….this is not science. How can
you be so sure of this and at the same time so sure there isn’t an actual God
lurking out there. It would be laughable,
if it wasn’t sad.
No comments:
Post a Comment