{"id":22,"date":"2007-08-31T16:15:36","date_gmt":"2007-08-31T22:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.consider.org\/blog\/?p=22"},"modified":"2007-08-31T16:15:36","modified_gmt":"2007-08-31T22:15:36","slug":"a-review-of-richard-dawkins-the-god-delusion-part-iv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/2007\/08\/a-review-of-richard-dawkins-the-god-delusion-part-iv\/","title":{"rendered":"A Review of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion Part IV"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen to the MP3<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

August 31, 2007<\/span>, Wausau, Wi<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>\u2014<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>I ended part III of my review of Richard Dawkins\u2019, \u201cThe God Delusion<\/a>\u201d by pointing out that atheism, like all world views, involves a component of faith.\u00a0 It is not the completely reason and evidence based system that it claims to be.\u00a0 This time I want to look at what is at best a strange line of argument made by Dawkins, but it is an argument which is increasingly common among atheists.<\/p>\n

On page 20, Dawkins writes, \u201cA widespread assumption, which nearly everybody in our society accepts \u2013 non-religious included \u2013 is that religious faith is especially vulnerable to offence and should be protected by an abnormally thick wall of respect, in a different class from the respect that any human being should pay to another.\u201d<\/p>\n

To anyone even remotely familiar with the assaults to which Christians and Christianity are routinely subjected, Dawkins statement will come as somewhat of a surprise. To justify this strange claim, Dawkins points that \u201cIn Northern Ireland, Catholics and Protestants are euphemized to \u2018Nationalists\u2019 and \u2018Loyalists\u2019 respectively.\u201d \u00a0Yet this hardly is showing any deference to religion. What Dawkins\u2019 neglects is the historical fact that the conflict in Ireland existed long before there was any difference in religion.\u00a0 In fact it is more likely that the difference in religion was caused by the conflict rather than the conflict caused by the difference in religion.<\/p>\n

Another way Dawkins\u2019 attempts to show that religion has some sort of preference is that religious leaders are sought out for their opinions on moral issues.\u00a0 While he says he does not want them excluded from such discussions as he puts it \u201cwhy does our society beat a path to their door, as though they had some expertise compare to that of, say, the moral philosopher, a family lawyer or a doctor?\u201d<\/p>\n

One reason perhaps is that, while Dawkins may not like it, religion is a source of moral teachings. So why wouldn\u2019t we seek the opinions of those trained in a moral teaching for their advice on morality? \u00a0A lawyer is trained in the law, so that might make a lawyer a good source of legal advice, but what is legal and what is moral are two different things.\u00a0 There are many things that are legal and yet immoral.\u00a0 For example, most everyone, including atheists, would agree that adultery is immoral. Yet it is legal. In fact one of the big problems I see is that we, as a society are thinking more in legal terms and less in moral terms. In fact one of the universities I was associated with, required its instructors of ethics to be lawyers. Thus a common defense we frequently hear for questionable actions is, \u201cbut there was nothing illegal\u201d as if that makes everything ok.\u00a0\u00a0 Much the same can be said about doctors. They are trained to give medical treatment, not moral advice. \u00a0\u2018Practices safe sex, and everything is ok.\u2019<\/p>\n

While the moral philosopher has at least studied morality, one could just as easily ask, what makes them automatically more qualified than a theologian? Moral philosophers may be trained to think about moral issues, but what are they using as a basis for their moral view?\u00a0\u00a0 At least for a theologian, the basis for their moral beliefs is pretty clear. With many moral philosophers, it is not clear at all. The situation is sort of like having two doctors, one who was trained at a school you know well, and another whom you have no idea where or how they were trained. Which would you trust with your life?<\/p>\n

Several of the other examples of the supposed \u201cunparalleled presumption of respect for religion\u201d, involve Islam, and actually argue more for a special status for Islam than for religion.\u00a0 For example, Dawkins points to the recent incidence of the Danish cartoons that caused riots in the Muslim world, and how newspapers \u201cexpressed \u2018respect\u2019 and \u2018sympathy\u2019 for the deep \u2018offence\u2019 and \u2018hurt\u2019 that Muslims had \u2018suffered.\u2019\u201d (pg 27) I know that here in the United States, many news organization refused to even show the cartoons.<\/p>\n

The main problem with Dawkins\u2019 argument is that his examples are not representative of religion in general.\u00a0 For example, with the Danish cartoons, while deference and respect was clearly paid to Islam, there is no such similar deference paid to Christianity.\u00a0 When Andre Seranno\u00a0 received a grant from the government to place\u00a0 a crucifix in a jar of his own urine in the name of art, most of the complaints were that it was government funded. More importantly the newspapers were not sympathizing with the hurt felt by Christians, but instead attacking them for being intolerant and trying to stifle artistic freedom.\u00a0 There was much the same reaction when, again in the name of art, a picture of the Virgin Mary was smeared in Elephant dung.\u00a0 Then there was the play that depicted Jesus has a homosexual.\u00a0 When Christians complained, and justifiably so, about these and many other affronts, there were no calls to understand there hurt, but rather they were label intolerant and were accused of censorship.<\/p>\n

In fact, the affronts against Christianity and Christians are now so common, that even many Christians accept them as a normal part of life in 21st century America.\u00a0 Thus like so many of Dawkins\u2019 claims, the claim that there is some sort of deference paid to Christianity, is simply false, and shows a massive misunderstanding of the actual situation.<\/p>\n

This is Elgin Hushbeck, asking you to Consider Christianity<\/a>: a Faith Based on Fact<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/span>Part I<\/a> \u00a0 \u00a0 Part II<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Part III<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 Part V<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listen to the MP3\u00a0 August 31, 2007, Wausau, Wi\u00a0\u2014\u00a0I ended part III of my review of Richard Dawkins\u2019, \u201cThe God Delusion\u201d by pointing out that atheism, like all world views, involves a component of faith.\u00a0 It is not the completely reason and evidence based system that it claims to be.\u00a0 This time I want to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6,14],"tags":[46,70,1074,247,293,327,377,456,466],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}