Moving Dangerously, Moving Pleasurably: Improving Walkability in ...
Is Belief in God Dangerously Irrational? · Is Belief in God Dangerously Irrational? Catherine...
Transcript of Is Belief in God Dangerously Irrational? · Is Belief in God Dangerously Irrational? Catherine...
Is Belief in God Dangerously Irrational?
Catherine Creighton
01524028
Spring 2016
Word Count: 4, 810 (excluding Bibliography)
Introduction
In the nineteenth century, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famously declared,
“God is dead.”1 Reason was believed to have triumphed over superstition. Humanity had
evolved, and progress was inevitable. As secular historian W. E. H. Lecky proclaimed, a
“superstitious age…must necessarily decline before a new stage of progress can be attained.”2
Sigmund Freud had reduced religion to a neurosis and wish-fulfillment3 while Karl Marx had
reduced it to a drug (“opium of the people”) in a historic class struggle.4
Such reductionism has continued to this day. The rhetoric, however, has become even
more emphatic. Some, like sociologist Timothy McGettigan, continue the nineteenth century
tradition, dismissing God as “a supernatural conceptual construct” and, therefore, irrelevant.5 But
for evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, God is a delusion,6 for psychologist Darrel W. Ray,
he’s a virus,7 with many concluding that belief in God is “dangerous to humanity.”
8
But is God irrelevant? Is God a delusion or a virus to be eradicated at all costs? Is belief
in God dangerous to society? This paper will demonstrate that the skeptic’s confidence is
1 Friedrich Nietzsche, “Parable of a Madman,” in Die Fröhliche Wissenschaft [The Gay Science], ed. and trans.
Walter Kaufmann (1882; repr., New York: Vintage, 1974), 181-82, accessed January 16, 2016,
https://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/nietzsche-madman.asp. 2 W. E. H. Lecky, History of European Morals: From Augustus to Charlemagne, authorized copyright edition
(1869; repr., London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1913), 1:142-43, accessed January 14, 2016,
https://archive.org/stream/historyofeuropea0leckuoft#page/n169/mode/2up. 3 “Freud and Religion,” Freud Museum, accessed January 20, 2016,
http://www.freud.org.uk/education/topic/10573/freud-and-religion. 4 Karl Marx, “A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right: Introduction,” Deutsch-Französische
Jahrbücher (February 10, 1844), accessed January 20, 2016,
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm. 5 Timothy McGettigan, “God Is Irrelevant,” The Socjournal (blog), June 25, 2013, accessed January 16, 2016,
http://www.sociology.org/god-is-irrelevant. 6 Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006).
7 Darrel W. Ray, Ed. D., The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture (Bonner Springs, KS: IPC
Press, 2009). 8 “Why Belief in God Is Dangerous to Humanity,” The Church of Reality, accessed January 16, 2015,
http://www.churchofreality.org/wisdom/does_god_exist/god/why_belief_in_god_is_dangerous_to_humanity.html.
2
misplaced, that their own worldview is fraught with contradiction and inconsistencies, and that
belief in God is warranted, rational, and reasonable.
Belief in God Causes Violence
If belief in God is dangerous, “a living spring of violence,”9 poisoning everything,
10 then
humanity should dispense “with the dogma of faith,”11
as atheist philosopher and neuroscientist
Sam Harris recommends. This would include religious morality. The assumptions are that
humanity is essentially good, and that religion corrupts, as Christopher Hitchens opined:
“Religion makes people do wicked things they wouldn’t ordinarily do. It doesn’t make them
behave better—it makes them behave worse.”12
One of the problems with these diatribes against religious belief is that religion is
presented as if it were some universal entity. But as Alister McGrath explains, “individual
religions exist; ‘religion’ doesn’t.”13
Atheists tend to lump all religions together as if they were all
equally guilty of causing violence. However, Islamic fundamentalists should be distinguished
from Amish pacifists; and anyone who does a modicum of research would notice the
fundamental differences between different religious beliefs and practices.
Another problem is that New Atheists routinely bring up the evils of the Crusades and the
Spanish Inquisition as if those evils represented Christian belief. But, as mathematician John
Lennox observes, they “inexcusably confuse the evils of renegade Christendom with the
9 Sam Harris, “The Virus of Religious Moderation,” Sam Harris (blog), March 19, 2005, accessed January 19, 2016,
http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-virus-of-religious-moderation. 10
Christopher Hitchens, “God Is Not Great,” Slate (blog), April 25, 2007, accessed January 19, 2016,
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/features/2007/god_is_not_great/religion_poisons_e
verything.html. 11
Sam Harris, “The Virus of Religious Moderation.” 12
Christopher Hitchens, interviewed by Jon Wiener, June 6, 2007, “Christopher Hitchens: Religion Poisons
Everything,” truthdig, accessed January 20, 2016,
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070606_christopher_hitchens_religion_poisons_everything. 13
Alister McGrath, “Is Religion Evil?,” in God is Great, God is Good: Why Believing in God Is Reasonable and
Responsible, ed. William Lane Craig and Chad Meister (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2009), 122.
3
teachings of Christ, and thus think that violence is part and parcel of the Christian faith; whereas
the Christian faith itself actually explicitly repudiates violence and religious exploitation. The
New Atheists ought to be applauding Christ, not condemning him.”14
Moreover, if one must bring up the evils, what about the good? After all, the institution of
medieval Christian universities made freedom of inquiry and debate possible. Byzantine
hospitals provided specialized and advanced free medical care, preparing the way for medieval
medical facilities which cared for the poor.15
In modern times there are people like Mother
Teresa and others who voluntarily aid those in need, following Christ’s model of sacrificial love.
It is interesting that Nietzsche deplored this “slave morality” and “religion of pity” because it
deprived humanity of its strength, preventing us from achieving greatness – the “will to
power.”16
Similarly, Dawkins calls Christian saints “Suckers” because they go too far in their
sacrificial altruism, repaying evil with good and expecting nothing in return. Atheist philosopher
J. L. Mackie explains that it “endangers the healthy Grudger strategy,” Grudgers being those
who only give to those who will reciprocate (reciprocal “altruism”).17
Hitchens even claimed that
Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn’t a Christian because he didn’t commit violence.18
So which is it?
Are Christians violent or not? Is repaying evil with evil preferred or not? Does belief in God
cause violence or prevent it?!
But even worse, in failing to distinguish between “religion” and “worldview,” skeptics
overlook the secular worldviews and political movements that also produce extremism and
14
John Lennox, Gunning for God: Why the New Atheists Are Missing the Target (Oxford: Lion Hudson plc, 2011),
68. 15
David Bentley Hart, Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and its Fashionable Enemies (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2009), 71-72. 16
Friedrich Nietzsche, “The Transvaluation of Values,” in Ethical Theory: Classic and Contemporary Readings, 4th
ed., ed. Louis P. Pojman (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2002), 129-34. 17
J. L. Mackie, “The Law of the Jungle: Evolution and Morality,” in Ethical Theory, 680. 18
Christopher Hitchens, ““Christopher Hitchens: Religion Poisons Everything.” Rather than following Jesus’
example, Hitchens seemed to think that Christians are supposed to follow Old Testament conquest practices.
4
fanaticism. For instance, consider Marxism in communist regimes like the former Soviet Union,
Communist China, Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, North Korea, and Tito’s Yugoslavia.
Were such state atheist regimes more enlightened and free from violence? On the contrary, R. J.
Rummel’s statistical evidence for “democide,” or murder by a government, revealed that “the
communist [governments] probably have murdered something like 110,000,000, or near two-
thirds of all those killed by all governments, quasi-governments, and guerrillas from 1900 to
1987.”19
Given the above, and considering the atheist agenda in the Soviet Union to eliminate
religion,20
the skeptic cannot say that belief in God caused such violence. Rather, fanaticism and
political extremism are the real causes. Yet skeptics still insist that there’s no such thing as “a
‘pure’ secular society without any traces of religion.”21
In fact, Hitchens believed that Hitler’s
Catholicism influenced him, and Stalin’s ability to rule was based on hundreds of years of
believing that Russia’s leader, the czar, was close to God.22
How interesting that atheists are
happy to acknowledge Christianity’s influence when it comes to violence, but they reject such
influence when it comes to their moral values. Even so, Stalin’s regime is what systematically
and violently eliminated religion, not the exploited masses, “the pool of servility and docility.”23
It was Stalin’s regime that was motivated by an atheist agenda. At any rate, it is foolish to think
that Hitler and Stalin were influenced by belief in God, wholesale or by just a trace, as David
Berlinski emphatically proclaims:
19
R. J. Rummel, “How Many Did Communist Regimes Murder?,” Powerkills, November 1993, accessed
January 16, 2016, http://hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM. 20
Alister McGrath, “Is Religion Evil?,” 127. 21
Avi Sagi and Daniel Statman, Religion and Morality, trans. Batya Stein (Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 1995), 107-11,
quoted in Jeffery Jay Lowder, “An Emotional Tirade Against Atheism,” The Secular Web (blog), May 21, 2000,
accessed January 29, 2016, http://infidels.org/library/modern/jeff_lowder/zacharias.html#7. 22
Christopher Hitchens, “Christopher Hitchens” Religion Poisons Everything.” 23
Ibid.
5
What Hitler did not believe and what Stalin did not believe and what Mao did not believe
and what the SS did not believe and what the Gestapo did not believe and what the
NKVD did not believe and what the commissars, functionaries, swaggering executioners,
Nazi doctors, Communist Party theoreticians, intellectuals, Brown Shirts, Black Shirts,
gauleiters, and a thousand party hacks did not believe was that God was watching what
they were doing. And as far as we can tell, very few of those carrying out the horrors of
the twentieth century worried overmuch that God was watching what they were doing
either. That is, after all, the meaning of a secular society.24
The fact is that extreme ideologies, religious or not, can lead to atrocious behavior. As McGrath
notes, humanity is “capable of both violence and moral excellence…provoked by worldviews,
religious or otherwise.”25
Removing belief in God does not remove tendencies to seek
transcendence and abuse ideals. In fact, societies which remove belief in God tend to
“transcendentalize alternatives,” such as liberty and equality in the French Revolution;26
and any
transcendentalized ideal can also be abused.
How strange then that Dawkins, admitting his Pollyanna tendencies, would believe “that
people would remain good when unobserved and unpoliced by God.”27
It would seem like the
author of The God Delusion is himself deluded. Aside from contradicting the above historical
evidence, if people were by nature good, then why would societies require law enforcement?
“Do you lock your door at night?,” Ravi Zacharias asked in response to the question, “Why are
you so afraid of subjective moral reasoning?”28
People lock their doors at night because it is
during the cover of darkness, unobserved and unpoliced, when human beings can and do behave
badly because they can get away with it. Why do people cheat on exams or commit fraud? If
24
David Berlinski, The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions (New York, NY: Baker Books,
2009), Amazon Kindle edition, 26. 25
Alister McGrath, “Is Religion Evil?,” 128. 26
Ibid. 27
Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Bantam Press, 2006), 228, quoted in Peter May, “Richard Dawkins and the
Man Delusion,” bethinking (blog), accessed January 16, 2016, http://www.bethinking.org/human-life/richard-
dawkins-and-the-man-delusion. 28
Ravi Zacharias, “Why Are You So Afraid of Subjective Moral Reasoning?” Ravi Zacharias International
Ministries (video), February 15, 2014, accessed January 16, 2016,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0218GkAGbnU.
6
they can get away with it, they do. After all, if these actions increase their chances of human
flourishing,29
then on what basis should they refrain from doing them? In reality, without a
transcendent moral law people do not behave well even when observed and policed, let alone
when unobserved and unpoliced.
Without such a law we end up with moral boundaries shifting according to individual or
corporate preferences and needs. Adolf Hitler preferred to train young people to be “capable of
violence, imperious, relentless, and cruel.”30
Wealthy students Nathan Leopold and Richard
Loeb preferred to kidnap and murder a 14-year old boy in 1924 just for the thrill of it and to see
if they could commit the perfect crime.31
ENRON executives preferred to embezzle billions of
dollars, and identity thieves prefer to steal people’s identities. Why are they wrong if the
universe only exists as matter and energy and has, according to Dawkins, “no design, no
purpose, no evil and no good”?32
After all, without evil there’s no basis for moralizing. Yet
atheists like Harris contradict themselves in railing against general and particular evils?33
Such
inconsistency is particularly evident in Dawkins’s scathing diatribe against the biblical God, who
is described as “petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic
cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential,
megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”34
29
For instance, Sam Harris views morality as maximizing human flourishing, or “maximizing the well-being of all
conscious creatures” (Sam Harris, “Clarifying the Moral Landscape,” Sam Harris (blog), June 6, 2014, accessed
January 25, 2016, http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/clarifying-the-landscape). 30
Adolf Hitler, quoted on a wall plaque at Auschwitz Death Camp, accessed January 19, 2016,
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Ov6BNRJGSqE/SOT3tFQIIkI/AAAAAAAABSs/izLJ6-CzTxA/s320/HPIM3520.JPG. 31
Simon Baatz, “Leopold and Loeb’s Criminal Minds,” Smithsonian Magazine, August 2008, accessed January 19,
2016, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/leopold-and-loebs-criminal-minds-996498/?no-ist. 32
Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden, (New York, NY: Baker Books, 1995), 133. 33
Sam Harris, “No Ordinary Violence,” Sam Harris (blog), October 11, 2013, accessed January 19, 2016,
http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/no-ordinary-violence. 34
Richard Dawkins, “Chapter 2: The God Hypothesis,” The God Delusion (2008; repr. Mariner Books, 2011),
Amazon Kindle edition.
7
These are pretty harsh words considering, according to Dawkins, neither evil nor God
exists, and human beings are nothing more than “robot-vehicles blindly programmed to preserve
the selfish molecules known as genes.”35
After all, how can “robot-vehicles” have moral agency
and moral worth? If, for Hitchens, evolution rates “life relatively cheaply,”36
then on what basis
does life have value for him to make value judgments like religion “poisoning everything”? On
naturalism, human intrinsic worth doesn’t exist. In fact, one atheist forum declares that a “human
being is of equal intrinsic value to a tree or rock.”37
Dawkins encourages eugenics and legal
“human” rights for apes.38
For Harris, “the only thing of intrinsic value is well-being.”39
In fact,
Canadian atheist philosopher Kai Nielson ridicules the “extraordinarily obscure notion that man
is a creature of God and as such has infinite worth,” seeing this concept as “mysterious,”
requiring “a crucifixion of the intellect.” Of course, he provides no explanation for its alleged
“unintelligibility.”40
Still, such a notion of intrinsic worth would explain why life is sacred and murder is
always wrong. In fact, atheist philosopher Michael Ruse can’t help blurting out that we “are not
free to decide whether killing is wrong or not. It is wrong!”41
In other words, it is objectively
wrong for everyone. Yet since evolution allegedly “thrust [moral claims] upon us,” they only
seem objective. But this is just an illusion because, in reality, metaphysically independent (“out
35
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, (1976; repr., New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), xxi. 36
Christopher Hitchens, “Christopher Hitchens on Suffering, Beliefs and Dying,” NPR, October 29, 2010, accessed
February 2, 2015, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130917506. 37
“Atheism Is More Than Simply ‘non-Belief,’” Atheist Forum, May 19, 2014, accessed January 20, 2016,
https://atheistforum.wordpress.com/2014/05/19/atheism-is-more-than-simply-non-belief. 38
Hilary White, “Anti-Religion Extremist Dawkins Advocates Eugenics,” LifeSiteNews, November 21, 2006,
accessed January 20, 2016, https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/anti-religion-extremist-dawkins-advocates-eugenics. 39
Sam Harris, “The Moral Landscape Challenge,” Sam Harris (blog), May 31, 2014, accessed January 20, 2016,
http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-moral-landscape-challenge. 40
Kai Nielson, “Ethics Without God,” in Ethical Theory, 622-23. 41
Michael Ruse, “Evolution and Ethics: The Sociobiological Approach,” in Ethical Theory, 660.
8
there”) moral principles don’t exist.42
But if Ruse knows their objectivity is just an illusion, then
why does he continue to claim their objectivity? Why does he insist that killing is wrong? The
fact is that he cannot escape his instinct that certain things are absolutely wrong. Harris calls this
“intuitive morality.”43
Nonetheless, Ruse’s worldview dictates that there are no absolutes; and
there’s the rub.
So if morality is not objective in reality, then it must be subjective. If it is merely
subjective, then the individual becomes both moral law and moral lawgiver, conflicting with
other individuals’ moral laws. Oddly enough, skeptics fail to see how their subjective moral law
has somehow become objective for everyone else. Thus, not only is subjective morality self-
contradictory, but it leads to tyranny and confusion. In defining morality, therefore, the skeptic
becomes tangled and trapped in logical incoherence, as Zacharias observes. “And when
coherence breaks down, there’s an implosion and a self-destructive mood sets in.”44
Human
nature is not essentially good, but requires a higher, transcendent moral authority. Without it,
society breaks down, implodes, and self-destructs.
Belief in God Inflicted On Children
If it’s fanaticism and not belief in God that causes violence, then what about the claim
that belief in God is harmful to children because it is supernatural nonsense at best and mental
abuse at worst? Some legal experts have suggested that parental child-rearing rights in religious
contexts are “illegitimate” and “inconsistent with well-established legal principles” because a
42
Michael Ruse, “Evolution and Ethics,” 661. 43
Sam Harris, “Thinking About Good and Evil,” Sam Harris (blog), December 14, 2013, accessed January 25,
2016, http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/thinking-about-go. 44
Ravi Zacharias, interviewed by Anthony C. Hayes, “Ravi Zacharias: Christian apologist proclaims a reasonable
faith,” Baltimore Post-Examiner, May 24, 2015, accessed January 16, 2016, http://baltimorepostexaminer.com/ravi-
zacharias-christian-apologist-proclaims-a-reasonable-faith/2015/05/24#sthash.dMqu48Lq.dpuf.
9
child’s rights of personal autonomy and self-determination are being violated.45
In other words,
children should not be controlled. Psychologist Nicholas Humphrey argues that “children have a
right not to have their minds addled by nonsense. And we as a society have a duty to protect
them from it. So we should no more allow parents to teach their children to believe, for example,
in the literal truth of the Bible, or that the planets rule their lives, than we should allow parents to
knock their children’s teeth out or lock them in a dungeon.”46
Both Hitchens and Dawkins have
seen parental religious instruction as child abuse.47
When considering these serious charges, it should be noted that atheists regularly insist
that “religion should be a private matter.”48
Hitchens complained: “These are not just private
delusions, they’re ones [the religious] want to inflict on other people.”49
Yet if religion should
remain in the private domain, why then are atheists denying private beliefs in the home? The
reason is that, according to Dawkins, religious instruction is “mental abuse” when one is brought
up with beliefs like “sinners burn in hell (or some other obnoxious article of doctrine such as that
a woman is the property of her husband).”50
Moreover, young children are too young to have
beliefs, according to Dawkins. Therefore, children “should be taught to think for themselves”
45
James G. Dwyer, “Parents’ Religion and Children’s Welfare: Debunking the Doctrine of Parents’ Rights,”
California Law Review 82, no. 6 (December 1994): 1371-47, accessed January 20, 2016,
http://www.cirp.org/library/legal/dwyer2. 46
Nicholas Humphrey, “What Shall We Tell the Children?,” Social Research 65 (1998): 777-805, accessed January
20, 2016, http://www.humphrey.org.uk/papers/1998WhatShallWeTell.pdf. 47
Richard Dawkins, “Physical Versus Mental Child Abuse,” Richard Dawkins Foundation for Research and
Science, January 1, 2013, accessed January 20, 2016, https://richarddawkins.net/2013/01/physical-versus-mental-
child-abuse; Stephen Prothero, review of God Is Not Great, by Christopher Hitchens, The Washington Post, May 6,
2007, accessed January 20, 2016, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/05/03/AR2007050301907.html. 48
Richard Dawkins, in conversation with Will Hutton, “What is the proper place for religion in Britain's public
life?,” The Guardian, February 18, 2012, accessed January 25, 2016,
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/19/religion-secularism-atheism-hutton-dawkins. 49
Christopher Hitchens, “Christopher Hitchens: Religion Poisons Everything.” 50
Richard Dawkins, “Physical Versus Mental Child Abuse.”
10
rather than have their parents’ “opinions” foisted on them.51
But are children too young to have
beliefs? What about fairy tales, imaginary friends, make-believe, monsters under the bed, and the
like? Well, it turns out that Dawkins deplores fairy tales as well due to the supernatural
element.52
Is he concerned that children would never be able to learn the difference between
fantasy and reality? Has he ever met an adult who still believed in the Tooth Fairy? What about
nurturing a child’s imagination and wonder? Isn’t this foisting unbelief onto children?
Dawkins reminds me of the grim utilitarian father, Mr. Gradgrind, in Charles Dickens’s
Hard Times, who refused to teach anything but material facts, suppressing his children’s feelings
and imagination.53
Far from leading to a better society, Dickens’s critical analysis of a totally
utilitarian, rationalized society was that it led to the greatest amount of misery, rather than the
greatest amount of happiness. In fact, as Alister and Joanna Collicutt McGrath point out, this
atheist agenda of ridding children of supernatural beliefs sounds “uncomfortably like the
antireligious programs built into the education of Soviet children during the 1950s, based on
mantras such as ‘Science has disproved religion!’ ‘Religion is a superstition!’ and the like.”54
For Humphrey, however, tactics like those of Dickens’s Mr. Gradgrind would probably
not be seen as particularly abusive because at least the truth was being imparted. But what about
teaching religious misrepresentations as if they were true? The McGraths rightly ask whether
they would argue “that parents who read The God Delusion aloud to their children were also
51
Richard Dawkins, “Don’t Force Your Religious Opinions On Your Children,” Richard Dawkins Foundation for
Reason and Science, February 19, 2015, accessed January 22, 2016, https://richarddawkins.net/2015/02/dont-force-
your-religious-opinions-on-your-children. 52
Ian Johnston, “Richard Dawkins on Fairy Tales: ‘I think it's rather pernicious to inculcate into a child a view of
the world which includes supernaturalism,’” Independent, June 4, 2014, accessed January 29, 2016,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/professor-richard-dawkins-claims-fairy-tales-are-harmful-to-children-
9489287.html. 53
Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854; repr., New Jersey: J. P. Piper Books, 2015). 54
Alister and Joanna Collicutt McGrath, The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the
Divine (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007), 21.
11
committing child abuse? Or are you only abusive if you impose religious, but not antireligious,
dogmas and delusions?”55
This kind of inconsistency is also being played out at the higher education level. Because
of current cultural sensitivities and victimhood mentalities, voicing “opposing views” is now
considered to be abusive to the extent that university campuses now have “safe places” where
“opposing views are not allowed.”56
But it’s only the conservative view that seems to be
objectionable. A liberal atheist learned the “unfortunate truth” that if “you’re going to be
censored on the modern college campus for your opinion, chances are you’re going to be
censored by the Left.”57
Even President Obama cautioned “coddled” liberals to return the favor
and listen to the other side.58
So it doesn’t seem like a secular upbringing with a public school
system teaching children that only moral opinions exist (not moral facts)59
necessarily causes
children to become more tolerant and rational.
Belief in God Is Irrational
But putting parental instruction aside, what about belief in God as harmful to society
because it is irrational, not testable, contrary to evidence, and therefore irresponsible? The
problem is that the definition of the word “evidence” is unclear. What constitutes evidence in
physics is not what constitutes evidence in mathematics or in a court of law. As Berlinski notes,
“Within mathematical physics, the theory determines the evidence, and not the other way around.
55
Alister and Joanna Collicutt McGrath, The Dawkins Delusion?, 22. 56
Christine Ravold, “Microaggressions and Thought Police,” National Review, May 7, 2015, accessed January 22,
2016, http://www.nationalreview.com/phi-beta-cons/418065/microaggressions-and-thought-police. 57
Lukianoff, quoted in Napp Nazworth, “Top 10 Worst Offenders of Free Speech on College Campuses,” Christian
Post, March 6, 2015, accessed January 23, 2016,
http://www.christianpost.com/news/top-10-worst-offenders-of-free-speech-on-college-campuses-135274. 58
Jesse Byrnes, “Obama hits ‘coddled’ liberal college students,” The Hill (blog), September 15, 2015, accessed
January 23, 2016, http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/253641-obama-hits-coddled-liberal-college-
students. 59
Justin P. McBrayer, “Why Our Children Don’t Think There Are Moral Facts,” New York Times, March 2, 2015,
accessed August 8, 2015, http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/02/why-our-children-dont-think-there-are-
moral-facts/?_r=3.
12
What sense could one make of the claim that top quarks exist in the absence of the Standard
Model of particle physics?”60
Moreover, skeptics often disseminate false and misleading information and rehash
outdated arguments to bolster their claim about religious lunacy. For instance, second century
Christian philosopher Tertullian supposedly believed Christianity to be true because it was
absurd (credo quia absurdum).61
But this is a misquote. Rather, he wrote et mortuus est dei
filius; credibile prorsus est, quia ineptum est (The Son of God died: It is [wholly] believable
because it is silly).62
The context is divine versus conventional wisdom, not about logic and
reason; and certainly not about the irrationality of Christian belief.
Aside from such misleading “evidence,” atheists typically object to the alleged
incoherence and irrationality of believing in an invisible being. In fact, developmental
psychologists view the innate “tendency to see purposiveness throughout our world” as naturally
disposing human beings “to believe in an invisible, counterintuitive, purpose-giving force in the
universe: gods or a God.”63
But why should belief in an invisible being be seen as ludicrous
when scientists themselves believe in things they cannot see or even directly test? For instance,
theoretical physics posit black holes, quarks, and multiverses, all of which cannot be seen or
directly tested.
60
David Berlinski, The Devil’s Delusion, 50. 61
Richard Dawkins, A Devil’s Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love (Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
2003), 139, quoted in Alister and Joanna Collicutt McGrath, The Dawkins Delusion?, 23; David Stove, “Essay 9: A
New Religion,” Darwinian Fairytales: Selfish Genes, Errors of Heredity, and Other Fables of Evolution (New
York, NY: Encounter Books, 1995), Amazon Kindle edition; Kenneth H. Nahigian, “I Believe Because It Is
Absurd,” The Eloquent Atheist, June 30, 2008, accessed January 22, 2016,
http://www.eloquentatheist.com/2008/06/i-believe-because-it-is-absurd. Here Nahigian admits that it’s a “slight
misquote,” but his correction is not much better, “it is wholly credible, because it is ridiculous.” 62
Tertullian, De Carne Christi, chapter V, quoted in “De Carne Christi (On the Flesh of Christ),” The Tertullian
Project, January 2016, accessed January 22, 2016, http://www.tertullian.org/works/de_carne_christi.htm. 63
Michael J. Murray, “Evolutionary Explanations of Religion,” God Is Great, God Is Good, 100-01.
13
Moreover, not all beliefs need to be empirically proven. Even Harris acknowledges that
“[s]ome intuitions are truly basic to our thinking.”64
In fact, scientific work wouldn’t be possible
if scientists didn’t presuppose certain foundational beliefs such as the rules of logic, truth and
falsity, and mathematics. In addition, if a person’s mind is functioning properly, intuitions like
perceptual and memory beliefs are also justified and should not be considered groundless
because they lack empirical evidence. As philosopher Michael J. Murray explains, the object of
one’s perception could be triggered by certain “causal consequences” rather than by direct
observation. For example, a perceptual belief of a deer having been in one’s backyard comes
from observing the causal consequences of deer tracks. Similarly, the causal consequences for
belief in God would be God’s activity. As such, belief in God would be “directly caused in us by
the remote causal activity of God.”65
Therefore, as philosopher Alvin Plantinga argues, such a
belief is properly basic and, therefore, warranted and rational as long as it is grounded in certain
conditions and circumstances; such as sensing God’s creative work in creation, sensing God
speaking while reading the Bible, sensing God’s disapproval when committing a wrongdoing or
his forgiveness after confessing sin, etc.66
Such a belief is an intrinsic defeater of an atheological
defeater because it has a “nonpropositional warrant” as a rational reason for thinking the
potential defeater is false. An example of an intrinsic defeater is an individual’s belief in their
innocence in the face of overwhelming evidence against them. They know that they weren’t even
in the vicinity when the crime was committed. The proposition that they’re innocent is a
warranted belief even though the evidence for its denial is stronger.67
64
Sam Harris, “Clarifying the Moral Landscape: A Response to Ryan Born,” Sam Harris (blog), June 6, 2014,
accessed January 28, 2016, http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/clarifying-the-landscape. 65
Michael J. Murray, “Evolutionary Explanations of Religion,” God Is Great, God Is Good, 103 n.10. 66
Alvin Plantinga, “Is Belief in God Rationally Acceptable?,” Philosophy of Religion: A Reader and Guide, ed.
William Lane Craig (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002), 45. 67
Ibid., 53.
14
But the case for theism is even stronger than just properly basic belief. First, a
cumulative case can be made using various arguments from natural theology for the plausibility
of belief in God. For instance, both the fine-tuning and kalam cosmological arguments are
compelling because they draw upon accepted scientific evidence to demonstrate the plausibility
of an Intelligent Creator. The former draws attention to the fact that the universe is so incredibly
fine tuned that if the initial constants had been altered by just a fraction, life would not have been
possible. The latter relies on Big Bang (Standard Model) or Hartle-Hawking cosmogony, which
predicts an absolute beginning of space and time – the absolute beginning of the universe –
requiring an explanation for its cause.68
Second, there is also evidence supporting the reliability of the Bible. The discovery of the
Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 has been called “the greatest archaeological find of the 20th century.”69
These biblical and non-biblical manuscripts helped verify Old Testament textual integrity and
provide additional insight into the intertestamental period. The abundance of manuscript copies
for the New Testament allows textual critics to notice some minor differences and, thus,
reconstruct the contents of the originals. Even agnostic Bart Ehrman has concluded that “the vast
majority of the hundreds of thousands of [textual] differences are immaterial, insignificant, and
trivial”70
so that “essential Christian beliefs are not affected by textual variants in the manuscript
68
For a more detailed discussion of these two arguments, see William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith: Christian
Truth and Apologetics, 3rd
ed. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008), 111-170. 69
Jennie Cohen, “6 Things You May Not Know About the Dead Sea Scrolls,” History, May 7, 2013, accessed
January 29, 2016, http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/6-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-dead-sea-
scrolls. 70
Bart Ehrman, “Who Cares??? Do the Variants in the Manuscripts Matter for Anything?,” The Bart Ehrman Blog
(blog), June 19, 2014, accessed January 30, 2016, http://ehrmanblog.org/who-cares-do-the-variants-in-the-
manuscripts-matter-for-anything.
15
tradition of the New Testament.”71
Additional archaeological evidence has also helped in
affirming the timeline indicated in the biblical text. Certain cultural practices, for instance, like
the price of a slave or the wording of an oath, could be compared with similar examples in other
ancient Near Eastern texts. Prices for slaves went up and down over the decades and centuries,
which is one way to date certain material. The wording of an oath also changed over time.
Certain names of places can be confirmed by comparing with other extrabiblical texts, and so on.
Even if one finds holes here and there, the accumulation of reliable evidence on the whole helps
to support the reliability of the parts.72
Finally, the vast majority of critical scholars, liberal and conservative, accept the
historicity of Jesus as well as certain minimal facts or “historical bedrock”: (1) the crucifixion of
Jesus; (2) the transformative experiences of the disciples, leading them to believe and proclaim
the risen Jesus and his resurrection appearances to them; (3) Paul’s conversion after seeing what
he believed to be the risen Jesus.73
New Testament and historical Jesus scholars must be able to
provide a reasonable explanation for this historical bedrock which satisfies the historical criteria
of explanatory scope, explanatory power, plausibility, less ad hoc, and simplicity. A detailed
analysis is beyond the scope of this paper. But Michael Licona, Gary Habermas, and N. T.
71
Bart Ehrman, “Appendix,” in Misquoting Jesus, quoted in Jonathan McLatchie, “Has The New Testament Been
Substantially Edited Since It Was First Penned?,” The Christian Apologetics Alliance, August 27, 2012,
http://christianapologeticsalliance.com/2012/08/27/has-the-new-testament-been-substantially-edited-since-it-was-
first-penned. 72
See K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing
Company), 2003. 73
Michael R. Licona, “4.3 The Historical Bedrock Pertaining to Jesus’ Fate,” in The Resurrection of Jesus: A New
Historiographical Approach (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press: 2010), Amazon Kindle edition.
16
Wright have provided compelling evidence that the resurrection hypothesis is indeed the best
explanation of the historical evidence.74
Belief in God in Conflict with Science
So belief in God is properly basic, natural theology can provide a cumulative case for the
plausibility of theism, and Christian theism is supported by archaeological, manuscript, and
historical evidence. But what about this supposed conflict between science and faith? Does belief
in God hinder and stifle intellectual progress? Actually, it is naturalism, as defined by Carl Sagan
as everything that is, or was, or will be, that is trivial and leads nowhere. As Berlinski argues, “If
what is natural has been defined in terms of what the natural sciences reveal, no progress in
thought has been recorded. If not, what reason is there to conclude that everything is an ‘aspect
of the universe revealed by the natural sciences’? There is no reason at all.”75
So why should only scientific naturalists make meaningful statements? Consider David
Hume’s argument: “If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for
instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No.
Does it contain any experimental reasoning, concerning matter of fact and existence? No.
Commit it then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.”76
But this
argument is itself sophistry and illusion. It doesn’t pass its own test. It does not contain
mathematical or scientific statements.
74
Michael R. Licona, “5.8 Summary and Conclusion,” The Resurrection of Jesus, under “Chapter 5.” See also Gary
Habermas and Michael R. Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications:
2004); and N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God: Christian Origins and the Question of God , vol. 3
(Minneapolis, MI: Fortress Press, 2003). 75
David Berlinski, The Devil’s Delusion, 51. 76
David Hume, “Of the academical or sceptical Philosophy,” in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, ed.
Charles W. Eliot, The Harvard Classics (1748; repr., New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1909–14; Bartleby.com, 2001),
37: 3, accessed January 23, 2016, http://www.bartleby.com/37/3/19.html.
17
Yet this is precisely what scientists like Dawkins believe; namely, that only knowledge
from natural sciences is meaningful. Science has supposedly “buried” God because it has filled
in all the gaps in knowledge. Therefore, belief in a nonexistent god is as foolish as believing in
Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. However, Ruse proposes that scientists “start to look seriously at
the limits of science and whether it is appropriate for religion to fill the gaps.”77
Notwithstanding Ruse’s more favorable approach, current Christian philosophers and
theologians don’t subscribe to this God-of-the-gaps view that religion plugs the gaps in our
knowledge. Instead of viewing the universe as a closed system, as naturalists do, theists view it
as an open system, which means that God can intervene. Thus, naturalists and theists can view
the same scientific evidence while offering different interpretations.
So it’s about conflicting worldviews, not about a conflict between science and religion.
After all, many well respected scientists are deists or theists. They are hardly delusional or
irrational, submitting to “blind faith.” In fact, particle physicist turned Anglican priest John
Polkinghorne insists that “faith is not a question of shutting your eyes and gritting your teeth. It
is a search for truth in a different domain.”78
Scientists like Polkinghorne, who believe in God,
actually prefer to follow the evidence where it leads, recognizing that science can only explain
the mechanism and not the agency behind the mechanism. In fact, one of the reasons he left the
discipline of physics was because it was heading in a more speculative direction: “All the time I
was in physics, the field was driven by experimentation. There were lots of very clever theorists
around, but the experimentalists provided the motivation. Since then the subject has become very
77
Michael Ruse, review of Science under Siege, by Chris Mooney, The Christian Century 122, no. 23
(November 15, 2015), accessed January 23, 2016, https://www.christiancentury.org/reviews/2005-11/science-under-
siege. 78
John Polkinghorne, interviewed by Michael Fitzgerald, “Physicist and Priest: An Interview with John
Polkinghorne,” The Christian Century 125, no. 2 (January 29, 2008): 30-33, accessed January 23, 2016,
https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2008-01/physicist-and-priest.
18
speculative with little empirical input. That’s actually not good for physics, and in that respect
I’m not sorry to have left the game.”79
In his 2007 book entitled, There is a God: How the World’s Most Intelligent Atheist
Changed his Mind, atheist philosopher Antony Flew explained how he converted to deism
because he followed the scientific evidence of the enormous complexity of DNA, and the
integrative complexity of the physical world in general, all of which convinced him that the
universe was created by an Intelligence. His conversion, which was announced in 2004, sent
shockwaves around the atheist community.
There are many other scientists who are theists. Physician-geneticist Francis Collins,
leader of the Human Genome project, is another example. This former atheist unapologetically
proclaimed that “[a]s a believer, I see DNA, the information molecule of all living things, as
God’s language, and the elegance and complexity of our own bodies and the rest of nature as a
reflection of God’s plan.”80
Throughout his search for truth, Collins
had to admit that the science I loved so much was powerless to answer questions such as
“What is the meaning of life?” “Why am I here?” “Why does mathematics work,
anyway?” “If the universe had a beginning, who created it?” “Why are the physical
constants in the universe so finely tuned to allow the possibility of complex life forms?”
“Why do humans have a moral sense?” “What happens after we die?”81
His further explorations and ruminations brought him to faith in Christ:
…after a search to learn more about God’s character led me to the person of Jesus Christ.
Here was a person with remarkably strong historical evidence of his life, who made
astounding statements about loving your neighbor, and whose claims about being God’s
son seemed to demand a decision about whether he was deluded or the real thing. After
resisting for nearly two years, I found it impossible to go on living in such a state of
uncertainty, and I became a follower of Jesus.82
79
John Polkinghorne, “Physicist and Priest: An Interview with John Polkinghorne.” 80
Francis Collins, “Collins: Why this Scientist Believes in God,” CNN.com, April 6, 2007, accessed January 14,
2016, http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/03/collins.commentary/index.html?iref=allsearch. 81
Ibid. 82
Ibid.
19
Examples of scientists who believe in God abound. Polkinghorne, physicist/theologian Bob
Russell, and others teamed together to discuss matters of religion and science in the Divine
Action Program, launched by the Vatican Observatory. Russell observed that “[i]t’s often
assumed that scientists are intrinsically atheist, but science can be a spiritual experience. For
some, it is about reading the mind of God.”83
He concluded “that the best place to seek scientific
support for God is in quantum mechanics, the physical laws describing the subatomic realm.”84
Polkinghorne’s use of chaos theory helped resolve problems associated with God sovereignly
intervening in quantum events. The criticism was that quantum events usually only functioned at
the subatomic level. Polkinghorne concluded that a “divine intelligence in command of chaos
could manipulate a vast number of quantum events with just a few well-chosen controls. The
results could then grow large enough to have a meaningful impact on human lives.”85
Whether one disputes their scientific conclusions or not, it is clear that faith in God is
logical and reasonable for these scientists. There’s no conflict. In fact, modern science owes a
great deal to theists. It is because of their faith in God that scientists throughout the history of
modern science have been led to explore the complexities and intricacies of God’s awesome
creation.
Conclusion
Although skeptics would have us believe that belief in God is dangerous, irrational, and
unscientific, it is the skeptic who demonstrates irrationalism in his contradictions and
inconsistencies; and his subjective morality leads to incoherence and self-destruction. By
contrast, belief in God is warranted and rational because it can be demonstrated to be properly
83
Bob Russell, quoted in “The Priest-Physicist Who Would Marry Science to Religion,” Discover (Kalmbach
Publishing, Co.), July 14, 2011, accessed January 14, 2016, http://discovermagazine.com/2011/mar/14-priest-
physicist-would-marry-science-religion. 84
Ibid. 85
John Polkinghorne, quoted in “The Priest-Physicist Who Would Marry Science to Religion.”
20
basic. Natural theology can make a powerful cumulative case for the plausibility of Christian
theism. Archaeological, manuscript, and historical evidence can lend additional support; and
scientific evidence can lead people like Antony Flew to God. Clearly belief in God is rational,
warranted, and reasonable.
21
Bibliography
Atheist Forum. “Atheism Is More Than Simply ‘non-Belief.’” May 19, 2014. Accessed January
20, 2016. https://atheistforum.wordpress.com/2014/05/19/atheism-is-more-than-simply-non-
belief.
Baatz, Simon. “Leopold and Loeb’s Criminal Minds.” Smithsonian Magazine. August 2008.
Accessed January 19, 2016. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/leopold-and-loebs-
criminal-minds-996498/?no-ist
BBC News. “Richard Dawkins Questions Telling Fairy Tales to Children.” June 5, 2014.
Accessed January 22, 2016. http://www.bbc.com/news/education-27721020.
Berlinski, David. The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions. New York, NY:
Baker Books, 2009. Amazon Kindle edition.
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Letters & Papers from Prison. 1953. Translated by Christian Kaiser
Verlag. Reprint, New York, NY: Touchstone, 1997.
McBrayer, Justin P. “Why Our Children Don’t Think There Are Moral Facts.” New York Times,
March 2, 2015. Accessed August 8, 2015.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/02/why-our-children-dont-think-there-are-
moral-facts/?_r=3.
Byrnes, Jesse. “Obama hits ‘coddled’ liberal college students.” The Hill (blog). September 15,
2015. Accessed January 23, 2016. http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/253641-
obama-hits-coddled-liberal-college-students.
Collins, Francis. “Collins: Why this Scientist Believes in God.” CNN.com. April 6, 2007.
Accessed January 14, 2016.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/03/collins.commentary/index.html?iref=allsearch.
Church of Reality. “Why Belief in God Is Dangerous to Humanity.” Accessed January 16, 2016.
http://www.churchofreality.org/wisdom/does_god_exist/god/
why_belief_in_god_is_dangerous_to_humanity.html.
Collins, Francis. “Collins: Why this Scientist Believes in God.” CNN.com. April 6, 2007.
Accessed January 14, 2016. http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/03/collins.commentary/
index.html?iref=allsearch.
Craig, William Lane. Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics. 3rd ed. Wheaton, IL:
Crossway Books, 2008.
Dawkins, Richard. “Don’t Force Your Religious Opinions On Your Children.” Richard Dawkins
Foundation for Reason and Science. February 19, 2015. Accessed January 22, 2016.
https://richarddawkins.net/2015/02/dont-force-your-religious-opinions-on-your-children.
22
Dawkins, Richard. The God Delusion. 2008. Reprint, Mariner Books, 2011. Amazon Kindle
edition.
Dawkins, Richard. “Physical Versus Mental Child Abuse.” Richard Dawkins Foundation for
Research and Science. January 1, 2013. Accessed January 20, 2016.
https://richarddawkins.net/2013/01/physical-versus-mental-child-abuse.
Dawkins, Richard. River Out of Eden. New York, NY: Baker Books, 1995.
Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene. 1976. Reprint, New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. 1854. Reprint, New Jersey: J. P. Piper Books, 2015.
Dwyer, James G. “Parents’ Religion and Children’s Welfare: Debunking the Doctrine of Parents’
Rights.” California Law Review 82, no. 6 (December 1994): 1371-47. Accessed January 20,
2016. http://www.cirp.org/library/legal/dwyer2.
Ehrman, Bart. “Appendix.” In Misquoting Jesus. Quoted in Jonathan McLatchie. “Has The New
Testament Been Substantially Edited Since It Was First Penned?” The Christian Apologetics
Alliance. August 27, 2012. Accessed January 30, 2016.
http://christianapologeticsalliance.com/2012/08/27/has-the-new-testament-been-
substantially-edited-since-it-was-first-penned.
Ehrman, Bart. “Who Cares??? Do the Variants in the Manuscripts Matter for Anything?” The
Bart Ehrman Blog (blog). June 19, 2014. Accessed January 30, 2016.
http://ehrmanblog.org/who-cares-do-the-variants-in-the-manuscripts-matter-for-anything.
Freud Museum, “Freud and Religion.” Accessed January 20, 2016.
http://www.freud.org.uk/education/topic/10573/freud-and-religion.
Grouthuis, Douglas. Christian Apologetics, A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith. Downers
Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2011. Amazon Kindle version.
Harris, Sam. “Clarifying the Moral Landscape.” Sam Harris (blog). June 6, 2014 Accessed
January 25, 2016. http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/clarifying-the-landscape.
Harris, Sam. “The Moral Landscape Challenge.” Sam Harris (blog). May 31, 2014. Accessed
January 20, 2016. http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-moral-landscape-challenge.
Harris, Sam. “Thinking About Good and Evil.” Sam Harris (blog). December 14, 2013.
Accessed January 25, 2016. http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/thinking-about-go.
Harris, Sam. “The Virus of Religious Moderation.” Sam Harris (blog). March 19, 2005.
Accessed January 19, 2016. http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-virus-of-religious-
moderation.
Hart, David Bentley. Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and its Fashionable Enemies.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
23
Hitchens, Christopher. “Christopher Hitchens on Suffering, Beliefs and Dying.” NPR.
October 29, 2010. Accessed February 2, 2015.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130917506.
Hitchens, Christopher. “God Is Not Great.” Slate (blog). April 25, 2007. Accessed January 19,
2016. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/features/2007/
god_is_not_great/religion_poisons_everything.html.
Hitchens, Christopher. Interviewed by Jon Wiener. “Christopher Hitchens: Religion Poisons
Everything.” Truthdig. June 6, 2007. Accessed January 20, 2016.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070606_christopher_hitchens_religion_poisons_ever
ything.
Hume, David. “Of the academical or sceptical Philosophy.” In An Enquiry Concerning Human
Understanding. 1748, edited by Charles W. Eliot. Vol. 37, Part 3. The Harvard Classics.
Reprint, New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1909–14; Bartleby.com, 2001. Accessed
January 23, 2016. http://www.bartleby.com/37/3/19.html.
Humphrey, Nicholas. “What Shall We Tell the Children?” Social Research 65 (1998): 777-805.
Accessed January 20, 2016. http://www.humphrey.org.uk/papers/1998WhatShallWeTell.pdf.
Johnston, Ian. “Richard Dawkins on fairy tales: ‘I think it's rather pernicious to inculcate into a
child a view of the world which includes supernaturalism.’” Independent. June 4, 2014.
Accessed January 29, 2016. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/professor-richard-
dawkins-claims-fairy-tales-are-harmful-to-children-9489287.html.
Lecky, W. E. H. History of European Morals: From Augustus to Charlemagne. 1869.
Authorized copyright edition. 2 vols. Reprint, London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1913.
Accessed January 14, 2016. https://archive.org/stream/historyofeuropea0leckuoft.
Lennox, John. Gunning for God: Why the New Atheists Are Missing the Target. Oxford: Lion
Hudson plc, 2011.
Licona, Michael R. The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach. Downers
Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press: 2010. Amazon Kindle edition.
Mackie, J. L. “The Law of the Jungle: Evolution and Morality.” In Ethical Theory: Classic and
Contemporary Readings. 4th ed, edited by Louis P. Pojman, 674-80. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2002.
Marx, Karl. “A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right.” Deutsch-
Französische Jahrbücher (February 10, 1844). Accessed January 20, 2016.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm.
McGrath, Alister. “Is Religion Evil?” In God is Great, God is Good: Why Believing in God Is
Reasonable and Responsible, edited by William Lane Craig and Chad Meister, 119-133.
Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2009.
24
McGrath, Alister and Joanna Collicutt. The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist Fundamentalism and the
Denial of the Divine. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007.
Murray, Michael J. “Evolutionary Explanations of Religion.” In God Is Great, God Is Good:
Why Believing in God Is Reasonable and Responsible, edited by William Lane Craig and
Chad Meister, 91-104. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2009.
Nielson, Kai. “Ethics Without God.” In Ethical Theory: Classic and Contemporary Readings.
4th ed, edited by Louis P. Pojman, 619-24. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning,
2002.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. “Parable of a Madman.” In Die Fröhliche Wissenschaft [The Gay Science].
1882, edited and translated by Walter Kaufmann. Reprint, 181-82. New York: Vintage, 1974.
Accessed January 16, 2016. https://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/nietzsche-madman.asp.
Plantinga, Alvin. “Is Belief in God Rationally Acceptable?” Philosophy of Religion: A Reader
and Guide, edited by William Lane Craig, 40-56. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University
Press, 2002.
Polkinghorne, John. Interviewed by Michael Fitzgerald. “Physicist and Priest: An Interview with
John Polkinghorne.” The Christian Century 125, no. 2 (January 29, 2008): 30-33. Accessed
January 23, 2016. https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2008-01/physicist-and-priest.
Prothero, Stephen. Review of God Is Not Great, by Christopher Hitchens. The Washington Post,
May 6, 2007, Accessed January 20, 2016. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/05/03/AR2007050301907.html.
Ravold, Christine. “Microaggressions and Thought Police.” National Review. May 7, 2015.
Accessed January 22, 2016. http://www.nationalreview.com/phi-beta-
cons/418065/microaggressions-and-thought-police.
Ruse, Michael. “Evolution and Ethics: The Sociobiological Approach.” In Ethical Theory:
Classic and Contemporary Readings. 4th ed, edited by Louis P. Pojman, 647-62. Belmont,
CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2002.
Ruse, Michael. Review of Science under Siege, by Chris Mooney. The Christian Century 122,
no. 23 (November 15, 2015). Accessed January 23, 2016.
https://www.christiancentury.org/reviews/2005-11/science-under-siege.
Russell, Bob. Quoted in “The Priest-Physicist Who Would Marry Science to Religion.”
Discover. Kalmbach Publishing, Co. July 14, 2011. Accessed January 14, 2016.
http://discovermagazine.com/2011/mar/14-priest-physicist-would-marry-science-religion.
Sagi, Avi and Daniel Statman. Religion and Morality, trans. Batya Stein (Atlanta, GA: Rodopi,
1995), 111, quoted in Jeffery Jay Lowder, “An Emotional Tirade Against Atheism,” The
Secular Web (blog), May 21, 2000, accessed January 29, 2016,
http://infidels.org/library/modern/jeff_lowder/zacharias.html#7.
25
Sire, James L. “Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All?” In Telling the Truth:
Evangelizing Postmoderns, edited by D. A. Carson. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House, 2000.
Stove, David. Darwinian Fairytales: Selfish Genes, Errors of Heredity, and Other Fables of
Evolution. New York, NY: Encounter Books, 1995. Amazon Kindle edition.
White, Hilary. “Anti-Religion Extremist Dawkins Advocates Eugenics.” LifeSiteNews.
November 21, 2006. Accessed January 20, 2016. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/anti-
religion-extremist-dawkins-advocates-eugenics.
Zacharias, Ravi. Interviewed by Anthony C. Hayes. “Ravi Zacharias: Christian apologist
proclaims a reasonable faith.” Baltimore Post-Examiner. May 24, 2015. Accessed
January 16, 2016. http://baltimorepostexaminer.com/ravi-zacharias-christian-apologist-
proclaims-a-reasonable-faith/2015/05/24#sthash.dMqu48Lq.dpuf.
Zacharias, Ravi. “The Uniqueness of Christ in World Religions (Part 1 of 4)” (MPEG Layer 3
audio podcast). Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. May 11, 2015. Accessed January
14, 2016. http://rzim.org/just-thinking-broadcasts/the-uniqueness-of-christ-in-world-
religions-part-1-of-4.
Zacharias, Ravi. “Why Are You So Afraid of Subjective Moral Reasoning?” (video). Ravi
Zacharias International Ministries. February 15, 2014. Accessed January 16, 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0218GkAGbnU.