The Bible tells Christians not to be of the world, sharing its distorted priorities, but it does call upon believers to be in the world, fully engaged. Many Christians have abdicated this mission. They have instead sought a workable, comfortable modus vivendi in which they agree to leave the secular world alone if the secular world agrees to leave them alone. Biologist Stephen Jay Gould proposed the terms for the treaty in his book Rocks of Ages when he said that secular society relies on reason and decides matters of fact, while religious people rely on faith and decide questions about values. Many Christians seized upon this distinction with relief. This way they could stay in their subculture and be nice to everyone.
But a group of prominent atheists-many of them evolutionary biologists-has launched a powerful public attack on religion in general and Christianity in particular; they have no interest in being nice. A new set of antireligious books-The End of Faith, The God Delusion, God Is Not Great, and so on-now shapes public debate. These atheists reject the Gould solution. They say that a religious outlook makes specific claims about reality: there is a God, there is life after death, miracles do happen, and so on. If you are agnostic or atheist, you have a very different understanding of reality, one that is formed perhaps by a scientific or rationalist outlook. The argument of the atheists is that both views of reality cannot be simultaneously correct. If one is true, then the other is false.
The atheists have a point: there are not two truths or multiple truths; there is one truth. Either the universe is a completely closed system and miracles are impossible, or the universe is not a closed system and there is the possibility of divine intervention in it. Either the Big Bang was the product of supernatural creation or it had a purely natural cause. In a larger sense, either the secular view of reality is correct or the religious view is correct. (Or both are wrong.) So far the atheists have been hammering the Christians and the Christians have been running for cover. It's like one hand clapping.
This is not a time for Christians to turn the other cheek. Rather, it is a time to drive the money-changers out of the temple. The atheists no longer want to be tolerated. They want to monopolize the public square and to expel Christians from it. They want political questions like abortion to be divorced from religious and moral claims. They want to control the school curricula, so that they can promote a secular ideology and undermine Christianity. They want to discredit the factual claims of religion, and they want to convince the rest of society that Christianity is not only mistaken but also evil. They blame religion for the crimes of history and for the ongoing conflicts in the world today. In short, they want to make religion-and especially the Christian religion-disappear from the face of the earth.
The Bible in Matthew 5:13-14 calls Christians to be the "salt of the earth" and the "light of the world." Christians are called to make the world a better place. Today that means confronting the challenge of modern atheism and secularism. My new book What's So Great About Christianity, which is just hitting the stores, provides a kind of tool kit for Christians to meet this challenge. The Christianity that is defended here is not "fundamentalism" but rather traditional Christianity, what C.S. Lewis called "mere Christianity," the common ground of beliefs between Protestants and Catholics. This Christianity is the real target of the secular assault.
I have written this book not only for believers but also for unbelievers. Many people are genuine seekers. They sense there is something out there that provides a grounding and an ultimate explanation for their deepest questions, yet that something eludes them. They feel the need for a higher sense of purpose in their lives, but they are unsure where to find it. Even though they have heard about God and Christianity, they cannot reconcile religious belief with reason and science: faith seems unreasonable and therefore untenable. Moreover, they worry that religion has been and can be an unhealthy source of intolerance and fanaticism, as evidenced by the motives of the September 11 terrorists. These are all reasonable concerns, and I address them head-on in this book.
This is also a book for atheists, or at least for those atheists who welcome a challenge. Precisely because the Christians usually duck and run, the atheists have had it too easy. Their arguments have gone largely unanswered. They have been flogging the carcass of "fundamentalism" without having to encounter the horse-kick of a vigorous traditional Christianity. I think that if atheists are genuine rationalists they should welcome this book. It is an effort to meet the atheist argument on its own terms.
Nowhere in this book do I take Christianity for granted. My modus operandi is one of skepticism, to view the claims of religion in the same open-minded way that we view claims of any other sort. The difference between me and my atheist opponents is that I am skeptical not only of the irrational claims made in the name of religion but also of the irrational claims made in the name of science and of skepticism itself.
Taking as my foil the anti-religious arguments of prominent atheists like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and the others, What's So Great About Christianity shows the following: 1) Christianity is the main foundation of Western civilization, the root of our most cherished values. 2) The latest discoveries of modern science support the Christian claim that there is a divine being who created the universe. 3)
If you want to read more about the book, check out my website dineshdsouza.com
Reader Comments ( Page 3 of 36)
31. No one is going to have to read Dee Dee's book because I think he's mentioned it in the past...oh...what? 5 blogs now?
::rollseyes::
Once again, I ask the believers to provide proof that God exists beyond the usual strawman arguments of:
- You were born, weren't you?
- Just look at the flowers outside!
- Gawd said, I believes it!!!!
OahuSurf at 11:26AM on Oct 12th 2007
32. >>>...the same level of misunderstanding that it takes to believe that the the Third Reich had a Christian foundation, even though this evil group was occultic in nature and left behind all kinds of symbols documenting that fact.
Greg at 11:35AM on Oct 12th 2007
33. To Ray,
I agree that punishing children for reading the bible on the bus is wrong, that's taking it too far, but i also feel that mandatory school prayer, and posting the ten commandments is wrong as it imposes a set of religious values over everyone. Mr. D'Souza is supposed to be educated, yet does not seem to understand that freedom of religion doesn't mean freedom to impose your religion on others. Look at the mostly ignored 9th amendment which states that the rights set out by the bill of rights can't be used to infringe on anyone else's rights and I believe that is what Mr. D'Souza is advocating.
And while the 20th century may have been one of the most violent, throughout history the religious and non-religious have been equally guilty of horrendous crimes against humanity. Though I find it interesting too that believers of religions have been able to justify genocide and torture through their peaceful religions
Matt at 11:34AM on Oct 12th 2007
34. I read and enjoyed your article...right up until the point written "My new book"...then I stopped reading. Dissapointing, shameless plug. I'm not reading your articles anymore, for fear of any other product placement in them. Very unjournalistic of you.
Sean Patrick at 11:45AM on Oct 12th 2007
35. Mr D'Souza, I have written posts on your blog in the past refuting many of the claims made by yourself in defense of Conservatives. I formerly though you to be somewhat blindly biased and an advocate of unfounded claims about both liberal and conservative political views. To some extent, I still do.
However, my overall opinion of you as an indivdual has changed since I began reading your blogs about Christianity.
I don't know if you actually read these postings, but I want you to know that it's refreshing to see someone on these blogs speak for the Lord unashamed. Blogs today are filled will too much racism, too much hate, not enough compassion, understanding, and most of all...not enough love.
So to you, Mr. D'Souza....from a democrat to a republican I say...God bless you. I may not agree with your political views, but ANYONE who can come to this blog and speak for God unashamed is an indivdual of great courage in my opinion. Please continue to speak for the Lord; it does something good for my soul when I see this type of positive stance being taken by a believer. Once again, God bless.
B at 11:48AM on Oct 12th 2007
36. Stop hawking your book, Dinesh!
I wouldn't know, for the life of me, why any intelligent person would buy this book. We already know from your columns how your logic resembles that of a three year-old. So are so comfortable making up facts.
Dinesh D'Souza makes up the News-a?
gd at 2:27PM on Oct 12th 2007
37. How did this man get a blog? I'm curious, because his statements show him to be an unintelligent, stubbornly fixated man who makes up his own "facts." He keeps trying to use these "facts" to prove his religion is correct, but there are no facts when it come to religion except the number of followers and the number of dead in its name. Facts. The existence of a deity can't be proven, only believed in. Just stop it, man, you sound crazier every time I chance to read you.
Katy
Kate at 11:50AM on Oct 12th 2007
38. Why does ray the pathological liar continue to equate atheism with communism, despite his denials that he does? Why do you lie all the time, ray?
Knight_of_BAAWA at 12:05PM on Oct 12th 2007
39. Oh good grief, DD, can you just get a HOBBY already and stop proclaiming yourself as the reigning know-it-all? You are far more devisive than the authors you listed. They state what they think. Their right. Your right is the same. But much like Ann C., you wind up sounding silly and reactive. What a shame. A waste of a relatively decent brain stuck in one mode: "buy my books".
Believers and non-believers have been getting along just fine for ages, just like gays and non-gays have. It just takes a little active practice of respecting other's rights as you would respect your own. Try it, DD, you might be surprised.
web jones at 12:27PM on Oct 12th 2007
40. where is most of this "name-callilng" and hatred coming from on this board? Uber-christian, "ray two-truths."
Take a look at the blogs about Ann KKKoulter. Where is all the hatred coming from? The Christians.
D'Souza and Coulter and her ilk are doing more to destroy the remnants of Christianity than any athesist ever could.
Captain Negative at 12:34PM on Oct 12th 2007
41. Another coup for division, a la.. Red Stater, Blue stater, LIBERAL, CONSERVATIVE, Believer, Unbeliever.
Is this not a FREE COUNTRY... don't we have the FREEDOM to be what we want to be..?
Just remember, its the people that challenge the status quo that usually help drive our understanding of what we MISUNDERSTAND or just plain don't know about.
Writing a book challenging religion does not Automatically make one an UNBELIEVER, and its not a signal of the demise of society.
Take some of our successes that we have had because people challenged the status quo... No more legal slavery, Women can vote, and at least the facade of equal educational opportunity.
Religion all by itself hasn't been challenging much of the things it should be challenging ANYWAY. They should be LEADING on many more things than they are.... So the UNBELIEVERs as you term them have to STEP UP.
I say lets continue to challenge those BELIEVIERS who think that the status quo is it.
PEACE
dmode16340 at 12:37PM on Oct 12th 2007
42. Steve,
evidence that abstinence education doesn't work
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?hint=2&DR_ID=44263
Buggs at 12:50PM on Oct 12th 2007
43. Another Dinesh thread touting his stupid book. What a panderer he is! Buy my book, it's a tool kit for idiots to be better idiots!
I'm so tired of this guy's idiocy. He sees the world in reverse and lives in Bizarroworld. Backwardsland. In his tiny world Christians are a repressed minority instead of the obnoxious majority that they are... LOL.
So sick of you Dinesh, and so sick of your kind of christian. Dinesh, you doth suck profusely.
Hypochristians are the curse of the rational world. And it's not only reason that you lack, but heart as well. You are short on heart AND mind. Really wish you'd all go away real soon. Especially you, dinesh.
Brian at 1:06PM on Oct 12th 2007
44. Dinesh writes: “The atheists no longer want to be tolerated.”
I’m an atheist. I want to be tolerated. Most atheists I know want to be tolerated.
“They want to monopolize the public square and to expel Christians from it.”
I don’t.
“They want political questions like abortion to be divorced from religious and moral claims.”
I don’t. I want moral questions discussed very seriously. But I disagree strongly with those who think abortion should be illegal.
“They want to control the school curricula, so that they can promote a secular ideology and undermine Christianity.”
I want a democracy. And I want people to democratically decide to teach evolution well in public schools, as it is true and important. I don’t want organized prayer in the public schools. I don’t want moments of silence in the public schools. But I want these issues decided democratically, through democratic deliberation.
“They want to discredit the factual claims of religion,”
I think certain claims that people make are false. And I think it is important to point that out and say way. Not in every context. Sometimes it is best to just keep your mouth shut and let people believe what they want. But sometimes it is good to say what you think is not true, and say why. That tends to help people understand what is true and justified. For example, by some people arguing to show that humans share common ancestors with fish, it has helped many people realize that humans share common ancestors with fish. They wouldn’t have realized it otherwise.
“and they want to convince the rest of society that Christianity is not only mistaken but also evil.”
Christianity, at least certain forms of it, seems to have contributed to much good in the world. For example, Martin Luther King.
“They blame religion for the crimes of history and for the ongoing conflicts in the world today.”
I don’t. There would be serious problems in the world with or without religion.
“In short, they want to make religion-and especially the Christian religion-disappear from the face of the earth.”
I don’t know what you mean by “the Christian religion.” But, yeah, I would like people not to be fundamentalists. Fundamentalism isn’t true. A super being did not turn dust – poof! – directly into the first two humans that have lived on earth. And it also seems to me that, for most people, being a fundamentalist makes it harder to be the best one can be.
Wes at 1:12PM on Oct 12th 2007
45. I have nothing against religious people. Hey, some of my best friends are religious. It's nobody's business what sort of ignorant, superstitious rituals they perform in their own homes and churches. No one should care what sort of bizarre mythical creatures they worship, or what kind of "holy" objects (statues, icons, and / or books) they revere.
Of course these religious people do need to show some restraint in public. I'll give you an example: I was at a nice restaurant with my wife the other night. There were these two guys at a table next to us. They looked fairly normal, but I thought by the way they dressed, and the way they styled their hair that they were "that way". So I kept my eye on them. Sure enough, as soon as their meals came they started praying right there at a table not ten feet away from us. How were we supposed to eat with that going on? Don't those people have special clubs or something where they can go?
What I really hate is the way they influence the media. I'm not talking about the ones with their own shows. I can spot those a mile away, and avoid them. I'm talking about the ones who sneak their insane agenda into supposedly factual news stories. How often have you seen something like this on the news?
Reporter: "You've just lost your house and everything you own. How do you feel."
Victim: "I just thank the LORD everyone made it out okay, especially my little foofoo."
Meanwhile, in the background you see the firefighter who actually saved little foofoo being treated for his injuries, with the LORD nowhere to be seen.
But I digress. My point is that we shouldn't hate these people, but pity them. We should try to help them see past their delusions when we can. When we can't help them, we should just leave them alone...unless they run for public office, or want to teach in a public school or...
Closed-captioned for the Humor Impaired
The preceding was a satire of the way people, even some liberals, talk about alternative lifestyles, especially homosexuality. Did it hurt? make you angry? Now do you understand why "those people" get upset when you think you're being perfectly reasonable?
-From JHuger.com
Brian at 1:13PM on Oct 12th 2007