If literary critic Stanley Fish deconstructed anything, one might expect him to deconstruct Christianity. Instead Fish uses his unquestioned rhetoric skills to deconstruct atheism. Fish takes up the argument, advanced by Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, that belief in God is a kind of evasion. We avoid the responsibilities of this life by putting our hopes in another life. Religion makes us do crazy things.
Fish takes as an example of the Harris-Hitchens-Dawkins critique the behavior of Christian in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Christian becomes aware that he is carrying a huge burden on his back (Original Sin) and he wants to get rid of it. Another fellow named Evangelist tells him to "flee the wrath to come." Evangelist points Christian in the direction of a shining light. But Christian can't clearly see the light. Still, he begins to run in that direction. Bunyan describes his wife and children who "began to cry after him to return, but the man put his fingers in his ears and ran on, crying Life! Life! Eternal Life!"
For Harris, Hitchens and Dawkins, this is precisely the kind of crazy behavior that religion produces. Here is a man abandoning his duties and chasing after something he isn't even sure about. Fish writes, "I have imagined this criticism coming from outside the narrative, but in fact it is right there on the inside." Bunyan not only has Christian's wife and children imploring him to return, he also has Christian's friends struggling to make sense of his actions.
Fish comments, "What this shows is that the objections Harris, Dawkins and Hitchens make to religious thinking are themselves part of religious thinking. Rather than being swept under the rug of a seamless discourse, they are the very motor of that discourse." Citing the atheists' portrait of religion as unquestioning obedienece, Fish writes, "I know of no religious framework that offers such a complacement picture of the life of faith, a life that is always presented as a minefield of difficulties, obstacles and temptations that must be negotiated by a limited creature in the effort to become aligned with the Infinite."
Fish's conclusion: while religious people over the centuries have dug deeply into the questions of life, along come our shallow atheists who present arguments as if they first thought of them, arguments that Christians have long examined with a seriousness and care that is missing in contemporary atheist discourse. We can expect our unbelieving trio to react with their trademark scorn, but Fish has scored a telling point.
Reader Comments ( Page 5 of 17)
61. Everone can have their say it's a free country. Atheism is a religon in itself as it is a belief. No matter what You think there's is something smarter than us out there. I do not believe everything in written in the Bible. But as scientist say we come one cell only and they haven't in all these years of studing or in experiments have they developed or created life in any form. (three decades of research) As any intelligent person can see our universe and our world is in order. Then what or who created this order, we did't. If you dont' believe in God, alright that is your right but somewhere there is something or someone who created such order as to produce this world we live in.
brenda montgomery at 8:51PM on Jun 27th 2007
62. " Everone can have their say it's a free country. Atheism is a religon in itself as it is a belief."
No, it's a lack of belief. What you're saying is the same as saying that baldness is a haircolor.
"No matter what You think there's is something smarter than us out there."
Ok. So what?
" I do not believe everything in written in the Bible. But as scientist say we come one cell only and they haven't in all these years of studing or in experiments have they developed or created life in any form."
So what?
" (three decades of research) As any intelligent person can see our universe and our world is in order."
Ok. But order doesn't need to be created.
Knight_of_BAAWA at 8:57PM on Jun 27th 2007
63. Ghenghis Khan was not an atheist.
Knight_of_BAAWA at 9:07PM on Jun 27th 2007
64. "there is no compulsion in religion The right path is distinct from the wrong", obviously there has to be a creator for all this and science and proffessors cannot explain everything so the
waleed at 11:33PM on Jun 29th 2007
65. To: Knight_of_BAAWA
I would like to commend you on your brilliant, enlightening commentary:
"No, they are not."
"Prove it."
"No, they do not."
"Don't have to."
"You do."
"Yeah, it actually does."
"Ok. So what?"
"So what?"
For someone to believe that something does not exist because they cannot see, hear, or touch it ("no evidence") is the epitome of ignorance.
Mark2 at 10:14PM on Jun 27th 2007
66. "For someone to believe that something does not exist because they cannot see, hear, or touch it ("no evidence") is the epitome of ignorance."
What a wonderful strawman. I commend you on your brilliant, enlightening commentary. You really offered something good--something special. A fallacy--wow. I'm impressed. It's not like that's actually my argument, you know. But never mind the facts, right Mark? Facts are messy and get in the way of a good attempt at an insult, right?
Idiot.
Knight_of_BAAWA at 10:19PM on Jun 27th 2007
67. Please stop comparing me to Stalin and Ghengis Khan just because I think believing in invisible beings is retarded. I've never had an urge to exterminate millions, and please also note that Kahn and Stalin did not mass murder in the "name of atheism" or to prove atheism is better. They did it for political gain, to get control, and to instill fear among the masses and their enemies in the process.
On the other hand, Christards have murdered EXACTLY in the "name of god". For the glory of god. To appease god. To make god 'like them better'. To pay for their ticket to heaven. Innocent people who did nothing except question and deny and commit "heresy" and "blasphemy" or some other stupid abstraction.
And all those arguments about "Who created everything"?
The stock answer is "God did".
Okay, well who created God?
He always existed!" you say?
Well Hell's Bells, if you can believe that God always existed, why is it so hard for you to believe the universe always existed?
It's called anthropomorphism: assigning a human face and behavior to everything. We do the same thing when we speculate what our pets are thinking and put it in human terms. It's ridiculous.
Mark Smith at 10:30PM on Jun 27th 2007
68. And Katie, you don't need to "find God" to learn that friends and family are more important than big houses and everything else you said. And if you're believing in God "just in case", then you're being dishonest.
Mark Smith at 7:08AM on Jun 28th 2007
69. How can he claim religion incites people to forget their responsibilities? That is proof enough to me that his rhetoric is just that...rhetoric.
Susan at 11:06PM on Jun 27th 2007
70. I think that this cartoon says it all...
http://www.uclick.com/feature/07/06/24/wpopu070624.gif
JL at 12:36AM on Jun 28th 2007
71. Blah blah blah blah blah
web jones at 12:08AM on Jun 28th 2007
72. Religious faith can be reduced to a study of micro-geography. Tell me a person's origin...his continent, country, region, community or, finally, his home address at birth and I will identify with increasing accuracy the nature of his religious beliefs. We atheists, on the other hand, are like weeds...popping up here and there in defiance (usually) of the dominant geo-religious history of our family and its culture. All this fuss over religion and for what...my home address is better than yours???
Gary at 2:10AM on Jun 28th 2007
73. I need help understanding atheism. To me, it seems like a paradox, and I don't need to hear how religion is a paradox. I know it is. But the lack of religion or belief is still a belief. That is the same as Buddhist seeking the freedom of desire, which is still a desire. You are essentially desiring not to desire in the existence of a higher order, or at least take part in the discussion of the possibility. I can't respect that. It seems like a stand of indifference. It is as if you respond to the Do you believe in God question with I don't care. That's fine...I can understand that...I've certainly been indifferent to the whole issue myself at times, but to sustain that belief... That's insanity. It just makes me think they've done too much LSD. I also think that many atheist get the wrong idea of religion. I'm not going to try and defend the Jesus Freaks and Cheerleaders for Christ or any other religious extremist. That too is insanity. I think religion is always a personal battle. Let me give an example. I don't believe in Santa Clause anymore. I don't, because I know he is fictitious. That doesn't mean that when I fix my children's stockings that I don't believe in Santa Clause... I become Santa Clause. You can't tell me that Santa Clause isn't real when I am then Santa Clause. My belief in God, or even my lack of belief in God, ultimately makes me take on characteristics that I would want of a God.
Job
MrWiteKES at 6:22AM on Jun 28th 2007
74. Dear sweet Jesus on a donkey, Knight! It's people like you tht make it impossible for atheism to prosper. Every time you refute people's arguments with simplistic, monosyllabic semi-statements, you cement this image of the arrogant, aloof, unlearned antitheist in the minds of hundreds of theists. We get it! You don't like god or religion. Don't rub our faces in you smug self-superiority. I'm an atheist and you make me want to find a pitchfork and torch and hunt myself down.
Can't we let all these grudges go? No, atheists do not preach amorality. We are not self-important windbags. We are simply people who see the universe differently.
And correspondingly, Christians are not frothing, rabid, warmongers. They are people who see the universe as a creation of a more powerful being.
But we're all people.
C'mon guys, let's forget about these artificial barriers we've placed between ourselves. Let's focus on the qualities that we share rather than the ones that make us different. Forget the massacres, forget the inquisition, forget Stalin, forget Torquemada, and look at what is happening now.
The world is so divided as it is, and these pointless debates aid no one.
Karlton D. at 5:29AM on Jun 28th 2007
75. Yes there is a God, supreme personality of Godhead, whose primary name is Lord Krishna, hence the name Christ,the Father. The historical and scientific evidence of His existence and the answers to all your philosphical questions can be found in the vedic literature, especially Bhagavad-gita (Song of God) As It Is and Srimad Bhagavatam (12 parts or cantos)most expertly presented to the Western world by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. Don't scoff without having first read this literature with an open mind, or better than that, hearing it from a pure devotee.
Haladharadasa at 6:21AM on Jun 28th 2007