The Atheist Leap of Faith

In a recent issue of Scientific American, arch-Darwinist Richard Dawkins and physicist Lawrence Krauss discussed the relationship between science and religion. Dawkins, whose latest book, The God Delusion, is only one of a slew of recent books attacking religious beliefs, prefers an “in your face” approach. He once wrote that “if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid, or insane.” He then added “or wicked, but I’d rather not consider that.” In his discussion with Krauss, Dawkins stood by his statement, calling it “a simple and sober statement of fact.” For his part, Krauss prefers to “reach out” to people and “understand where they are coming from”—not so that he might learn from them: Like Dawkins, he assumes that the people in question have little, if anything, to teach him. Rather, his goal is to “seduce” them into “understanding” and accepting scientific truths. Thus Krauss says that “telling people . . . that their deepest beliefs are simply silly—even if they are” is counterproductive. As you may have inferred from the “even if they are,” Krauss does not deny that religious belief is “irrational.” He simply thinks that religion is too deeply ingrained to be done away with. Better to help people “moderate” their beliefs and “cut out the most irrational and harmful aspects of religious fundamentalism.” All of this begs the question: “Is faith, in particular, Christianity, irrational?” Neither Dawkins nor Krauss comes close to proving this. Instead, Dawkins and Krauss simply assume that materialism—the idea that there is nothing besides matter—is true. Thus, what makes a faith “rational” is whether it can be proven empirically. Dawkins and Krauss do not offer any arguments to justify their assumptions. They do not tell us why materialism is true: Instead, they ask you to take its truth as a given—in other words, on faith. Speaking of faith, what Dawkins means by the word faith is, to put it politely, idiosyncratic. His technique, on display in the Scientific American piece, is to find the most extreme, fringe Christian positions and ascribe them to all Christians. He then cites these beliefs as proof that all Christian faith is irrational. Reading their discussion or anything else associated with Dawkins and what is being called the “New Atheism,” you would not know that many of the greatest scientific discoveries were made by people of faith—not scientists who happened to be Christians, but people whose faith inspired and informed their scientific endeavors. The work of physicists like Krauss would not be possible without Michael Faraday’s work in electromagnetism. Faraday was a devout Christian who believed nature to be intelligible because it was created and upheld by a God who made Himself known in both His Word and in nature. Rodney Stark, the eminent sociologist, writes that Christianity rescued reason. Christians saw reason as a gift of a rational God, and it could, therefore, be used to explore the universe and world that God had made. This belief made modern science possible. If you meet someone who says your Christian faith is irrational, ask him to explain the basis of his faith. This commentary first aired on October 12, 2007, and is part five in a five-part series.  

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For Further Reading and Information

Lawrence M. Krauss and Richard Dawkins, “Should Science Speak to Faith?” Scientific American, July 2007. Regis Nicoll, “Exit Comments on the Dawkins/Lennox Debate,” The Point, 4 October 2007. Richard Dawkins, “Ignorance Is No Crime,” Reason, 15 May 2006. Regis Nicoll, “Victims of Science Orthodoxy: From Galileo to Robert J. Marks,” BreakPoint Online, 28 September 2007. Regis Nicoll, “Science and Religion: Adversaries or Allies?” BreakPoint Online, 13 April 2007. BreakPoint Commentary No. 071008, “Suspended License: Hitchens’s Distortion of Christian History.” BreakPoint Commentary No. 071009, “Nietzsche Would Laugh: Morality without God.” BreakPoint Commentary No. 071010, “What about the Children?: Is Religion Child Abuse?” BreakPoint Commentary No. 071011, “A Rational Belief: Faith in God.” BreakPoint Commentary No. 061226, “Hidebound Nonsense: Christianity and the Origins of Science.” BreakPoint Commentary No. 020830, “Wagging the Dog: The Invented War between Science and Christianity.” Chuck Colson, “The New Chicken Littles,” BreakPoint WorldView, September 2007. Gina Dalfonzo, “Acclimated to Atheism,” BreakPoint WorldView, September 2007.

10/12/07