In my last blog I promoted a book by Lee Strobel that provides a well developed apologetic for Christians, especially in light of recent atheistic counter-claims to orthodox Christianity. This blog is a brief continuation on that theme.
In his book, The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins says, “Faith is one of the world’s great evils, comparable to the smallpox 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.”
Wow! Faith is a mental illness and religion is a danger!
Now, we must define the terms here. You and I might define faith and religion separately. The Bible never said that Christians “live by religion”. But Dawkins obviously equates the two, whereas we would perhaps define religion as set of practices or a platform for faith expression. But faith itself is a deeper belief whereby we place our full confidence, despite the known and unknown. Dawkins himself is making a faith statement when he says that religion and faith are world evils. Apparently, he really believes this and so he is placing his full confidence in his worldview.
I believe that Dawkins’ real problem is with religion and religious structure, and not with “having faith”. Religious organizations, like any human system, will find avenues for corruption, so long as humans remain human. Unfortunately, when a few bad apples enter the religious basket, the whole lot seems to spoil for many people on the outside.
Let me argue then that the root of the problem is not religion (or faith) but fallen human tendencies, which unfortunately use religion as the platform for sin expression. And, the fallen ideologies that Dawkins sees as a function of faith and religion (rather than a disease to these), are not isolated to faith. In fact, many of the world’s most atrocious systems and philosophies have been secular, not religious. Was Carl Marx a devout religious man? Were the communist dictators he inspired men of faith? No. And what of Hitler, Pol Pot, and many others? Religion is not the issue… Sin will find expression in any human system.
Dawkins fails to recognize that it was Christians who risked their lives to care for people during the plagues of Europe. It is—even today—the Christian missionary who risks life and limb to bring the grace and goodness of God, often through acts of compassion, in the darkest parts of the planet. These acts of mercy and care are unarguably not evil, dangerous, or of impaired mental faculty.
So, have faith. You can rest assured that your faith is not an evil, and is only a danger to darkness. God bless.
-Pastor Paddy
In his book, The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins says, “Faith is one of the world’s great evils, comparable to the smallpox 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.”
Wow! Faith is a mental illness and religion is a danger!
Now, we must define the terms here. You and I might define faith and religion separately. The Bible never said that Christians “live by religion”. But Dawkins obviously equates the two, whereas we would perhaps define religion as set of practices or a platform for faith expression. But faith itself is a deeper belief whereby we place our full confidence, despite the known and unknown. Dawkins himself is making a faith statement when he says that religion and faith are world evils. Apparently, he really believes this and so he is placing his full confidence in his worldview.
I believe that Dawkins’ real problem is with religion and religious structure, and not with “having faith”. Religious organizations, like any human system, will find avenues for corruption, so long as humans remain human. Unfortunately, when a few bad apples enter the religious basket, the whole lot seems to spoil for many people on the outside.
Let me argue then that the root of the problem is not religion (or faith) but fallen human tendencies, which unfortunately use religion as the platform for sin expression. And, the fallen ideologies that Dawkins sees as a function of faith and religion (rather than a disease to these), are not isolated to faith. In fact, many of the world’s most atrocious systems and philosophies have been secular, not religious. Was Carl Marx a devout religious man? Were the communist dictators he inspired men of faith? No. And what of Hitler, Pol Pot, and many others? Religion is not the issue… Sin will find expression in any human system.
Dawkins fails to recognize that it was Christians who risked their lives to care for people during the plagues of Europe. It is—even today—the Christian missionary who risks life and limb to bring the grace and goodness of God, often through acts of compassion, in the darkest parts of the planet. These acts of mercy and care are unarguably not evil, dangerous, or of impaired mental faculty.
So, have faith. You can rest assured that your faith is not an evil, and is only a danger to darkness. God bless.
-Pastor Paddy
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