The End of Fallacy

In Christopher Hitchen’s “the Portable Atheist: Essential readings for the Nonbeliever,” we find a selection from neuroscientist Sam Harris as chapter 45 titled, “In the Shadow of God” from his book, “The End of Faith”. I don’t intend this to be a lengthy treatment of the chapter, because the validity of this chapter stands or falls on the veracity of the historical claims he makes therein. I would only submit to you that even if I were to accept all historical claims made in this chapter, it does not in any way prove that God does not exist.

Reading this chapter elicited a number of reactions in me. The most salient of which was a sense of abhorrence for the historical points brought up. If true, the Witch Trials, the Inquisition, executions of unbelievers, heretics, and apostates, the extermination attempts on the Jews, etc., it would rightly disturb most of us. There’s probably dozens more atrocities that could be levied against not only Christians, but all believers of some sort or another; even atheism. I was angry, upset, and sad, you name it. I am not a scholar of secular history, and if I am a scholar of religious or Christian history, it is only with regard to theological and philosophical ideas. In short, whenever I hear stories of Christians behaving badly, I get upset like anyone else.

When I calm down, however, I take a look into the mirror, sometimes literally and sometimes figuratively, and I remember my own private and sometimes public sins and I recognize that in many ways, I am just as bad as all the characters in these stories. Perhaps, my dear atheist friends would rather have my covetous sins over murderous ones, but they would have to accept that my standard of the “good” and what is “evil” is different from theirs. It has to do with the source of my standard, and it has to do with the authority with which that source carries in the perceiver. All that aside it boils down to this: God exists, yes or no. God has a standard, yes or no. God has given us a way to know what he wants of us, yes or no. We have a free will to abide by that standard, yes or no.

I have engaged in numerous conversations with atheists on these and other issues. We can so easily get into the problems in history with Christianity and Atheism. I try to navigate carefully through those conversations, as I don’t want to entertain pathetic arguments, nor do I want to make them myself. Pathetic comes from “pathos” which is a method of persuasion by appealing to emotion. Appeals to emotion may move your heart to accept a position, but it doesn’t mean your position is founded on facts.

It's easy for a Christian to understand suffering or bad behavior since all of that is part of the Christian worldview. It just seems to be what the atheist gets hung up on every time. If God exists, and he has made a world that is as corrupt as ours, then we don't ignore him just because we don't like the world he created or want to worship a God like him. As far as atheism, the question remains, is God real? Harris didn't even try here. Let's try logos this time.