Thursday, February 16, 2012

I agree with Richard Dawkins!

I agree with Richard Dawkins!

On some points made by Richard Dawkins in his bestselling book, The God Delusion, I did find to my surprise that I agreed with him! However, I will be quick to add that I am not an atheist. Nothing the acclaimed author and Oxford professor presented caused me to doubt my faith in an eternal Creator who exists in a spiritual realm and interacts with the creation.


Dawkins attempts to rebut all religious belief throughout the world, not just Christianity. He tends to focus on the extremes and the externals in each of the religions but seems to ignore the possibility of a spiritual realm. Perhaps Dawkins ignores this possibility because, according to his understanding, the realm of the spirit has not yet been accessed by the science of our day. (My thoughts on that will appear in another blog.)


But back to my original point—I do agree with Dawkins’ conclusions in some areas. (I did not begin to keep this list until I was about 300 pages into the book so I might actually find other points of agreement if I re-read it—which I’m not inclined to do at the moment.)


Points of Agreement!


1. “Small children are too young to decide their views of the origin of the cosmos, of life, and of morals.” (p 381) Dawkins’ emphasis is that children are raised by religious parents but should not be referred to as a Muslim child or a Christian child. Dawkins wants to raise public awareness of this distinction.


I tend to agree that faith must be a conscious choice with a personal commitment because I grew up in a Christian tradition that emphasized ‘adult’ baptism, i.e. baptism of those who can publically confess their faith. Other Christians who embrace ‘infant’ baptism would probably disagree with Dawkins on this point. (To avoid misunderstanding, I will add that my faith has evolved to accept the faith of Christians who received infant baptism.)


2. “…children should be taught not so much what to think as how to think.” (RD’s emphasis, p 367) Although I agree in principle with this statement, I would add that a child does not grow up in a vacuum. The priorities and assumptions of the nurturer and of the nurturing community will also influence the child’s development and will to some extent influence what they think. The key is that our children have learned how to think.


3. Repeatedly Dawkins decries the idea of the claim to the inerrancy of the Bible and devotes at least one chapter to the foolish idea of a literal interpretation of every word of it. His aversion extends to ‘rapture’ theology and the Christian desire for “nuclear war” which is interpreted as ‘Armageddon’ in the book of Revelation. (p 341)


4. Dawkins points out the inconsistency of pro-life Christians who feel it their duty to kill abortion doctors and to support the death penalty. (My emphasis, p 329ff)


5. And finally, Dawkins claims that religious extremists or religious idealists act out of religious motives to do harm, motives they consider to be rational and proper. Examples: Palestinian suicide bombers and Christian murderers of abortion doctors. (p 344)


On these few points I see that I agree to some extent with Richard Dawkins! I post them knowing that I am vulnerable to attacks from my siblings in Christ, but I risk that in order to honestly question some of Dawkins own ‘sacred’ ideas in my next blog.

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