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My Dogma Ran Over My Karma
Five conversation-stopping myths behind the New Atheism and how dialogue can be restored.
Oct. 1, 2014
A fundamental disconnect has happened. They’ve reach a state of mind in which they can dispense with rational inquiry and parrot a scripted party line divorced from the reality of their daily lives, yet still consider themselves “rational.”
If there is anything that separates Fundamentalism from true holiness, it is negation. Fundamentalism is defined not by what it’s for, but by what it’s against. The 9/11 attackers were motivated by a hatred of America, not any love of Allah. “Islam” was merely a convenient justification for that hate rather than anything explicitly taught in the Koran.12 The most public face of Christian Fundamentalists is that of opposition to perceived social ills (e.g. abortion, evolution, secular humanism, etc.) rather than a desire to embody the fruits of the Holy Spirit in their daily lives (Gal. 5:22-23). And New Atheists are defined by their opposition to religion (or more precisely, caricatures of it) rather than an affirmation of anything. They preach the virtues of science (sincerely I believe), but run the second any is put before them. They preach tolerance—“Imagine no religion…” they say, quoting John Lennon… “Imagine all the people, living life in peace…” But in the next breath they call everyone to mock religious beliefs and publicly ridicule anyone who holds them (Dawkins, quoted above).
True religion is, and always has been known for what it affirms rather than what it hates. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." - (Matt. 5:43-48 NIV)
The word “perfect” used here is translated from the Greek teleios (τέλειος), which literally means finished, wanting nothing necessary to completeness, mature (Strong’s #5046). Likewise, the word most commonly translated as “sin” in the New Testament is the Greek word hamartia (ἁμαρτία), which means “to miss the mark” (Strong’s #266). In the First Century it was commonly used in reference to archery. To sin is to fall short of the perfect maturity and humanity to which we’ve been called—to miss the mark (which is, of course, why the Bible says we're all sinners). Contrast these words as they were used by Jesus and His disciples with the way they’re understood on the street today and in particular, contrast them with the way they’re portrayed by New Atheist commentators.
Jesus calls us to wholeness—to a cup that runneth over with living water, loving action that inspires others (John 7:38). Fundamentalism call us to a reaction against what it negates. Even the word A-theism is a negation (non-Theism).
Mother Theresa once said, “Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.” She won the Nobel Peace Prize. Jerry Falwell did not, and neither did Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris or Christopher Hitchens.13 There’s a reason why.
In his classic work Orthodoxy (1908) G.K. Chesterton paints a lucid picture of insanity and the mark it left on many of the thinkers of his day. I quote him at length,
“Such is the madman of experience; he is commonly a reasoner, frequently a successful reasoner. Doubtless he could be vanquished in mere reason, and the case against him put logically. But it can be put much more precisely in more general and even aesthetic terms. He is in the clean and well-lit prison of one idea: he is sharpened to one painful point. He is without healthy hesitation and healthy complexity…
That unmistakable mood or note that I hear from Hanwell,14 I hear also from half the chairs of science and seats of learning today; and most of the mad doctors are mad doctors in more senses than one. They all have exactly that combination we have noted: the combination of an expansive and exhaustive reason with a contracted common sense. They are universal only in the sense that they take one thin explanation and carry it very far. But a pattern can stretch for ever and still be a small pattern. They see a chess-board white on black, and if the universe is paved with it, it is still white on black. Like the lunatic, they cannot alter their standpoint; they cannot make a mental effort and suddenly see it black on white…
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