Our I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist TV show is moving to Wednesday night at 9 pm ET and 1 am ET (which is 6 pm and 10 pm Pacific), DirecTV channel 378. May 10th is our first showing (it will no longer be on Monday nights). Thanks to our friends at the NRB network who are giving us two showings so we cover the west coast in prime time as well. For those who don’t have DirecTV, you can watch the show live here: http://www.thestreamtv1.com/welcome_002.htm and select NRB.
Evangelical author Skye Jethani makes the insightful observation that some so-called Christians and some atheists have quite a bit in common when it comes to control. While some atheists (like Hitchens and Dawkins) want control without God, some evangelicals want control over God. He writes:
“The great irony is that while claiming submission to God, those advocating a life under God are actually seeking control over him through their religiosity. Pray X, sacrifice Y, avoid Z, and God’s blessings are guaranteed. They have reduced God to a predictable, controllable, even contemptible formula. Some evangelicals condemn the atheists for exalting themselves over God without realizing they are guilty of the same sin by other means.”
Tozer said the most important thought you have is the thought you have when you hear the word “God.” Indeed, many people are worshiping or rejecting a God of their own making. They have false notions of the one true God–He’s either a finite, moral monster who needs a cause (Dawkins and Hitchens) or a cosmic candyman who owes us if we behave a certain way (the “Word of Faith” believer). They set up a straw God and then easily knock him over or loose their faith when he falls down and doesn’t come through. That’s why I often ask people who don’t believe in God, or who are disappointed with God, “What kind of God don’t you believe in?” After they describe their God, the response is often, “I don’t believe in that God either.”
Jethani’s entire article is worth the read here.
Recently I posted a book review on “O God” which talks about Oprah’s spirituality. Like most of my apologetics conversations lately, the discussion quickly turned to morality. I find this phenomenon interesting and revealing. Sure, I’m still operating largely on anecdotes and personal experience, but others have attested to my theory.
No, my theory is not that German’s love David Hasselhoff (and they do, or at least some of the old female ones do). My theory is that Atheist’s love to talk about morality.
It’s true! Theists and Christians in particular seem more eager to talk about the Gospel and about sin. But I’m finding more and more atheists wanting to discuss philosophical and scientific approaches to moral systems. Last year I was on the panel for three “God-talks” at UT Arlington, UT Dallas, and Texas A&M where two atheists and two theists discussed the question of God’s existence and the relevance of that question for meaning, morality, origin and destiny. And sure enough, we spent most of the night, at all three venues talking about morality. Intelligent Design was comparatively small, as was the Problem of Evil, and other heavy topics. We instead spent most of our time talking about Objectivist ethics versus Subjectivist or Relativist ethics.
I suspect that atheists are interested in morality for the same reason creationists are interested in carbon dating–this topic could be devastating if you don’t do your homework. Some atheists try to ground ethics in objective moral values. Others bite the bullet and amputate objectivism. Moral relativism however is not an easy option though. If I can take my professor hat off for a moment, I think we have a love-hate relationship with moral relativism. We like parts of it, and dislike part of it. We hate when people are relativistic towards us, but we love to be relativistic towards others. To put it another way, moral relativisism is that girl you date or you’re friends with, but she cheats on you if you marry her. She’s fun to play with for the short-term, but there’s no hope in committment. But kept at arms length one can dance with relativism indefinitely.
Whether one is objectivist or relativist, or something in between, ethics is an inexact science. And digging out the details can take a lifetime. We sometimes have to bite our lip and just admit that some things remain unclear–no matter what side we are on. Some points of debate cannot be clarified very much at all. This means that one can easiy find “weaknesses” in any given system–whatever the sort–because none of these systems achieve the exactitude and precision we expect from math or the natural sciences.
Also, a blog site is not the right way to clarify one’s entire ethical system. But as a concession to those commentors so interested in morality. Below is a revised form of my moral argument for God, which, incidentally is an argument for objectivist ethics. What follows is only an argument, not a fully orbed explanation of Christian ethics.
Chomp away at this. . .
1) Ethics is the stuff of minds (whether minds are properties of brains or immaterial–it does not matter at this point).
2) Nature is not intelligent, does not “intend” or have “purpose”–it operates in non-mind categories. (without a God, it cannot be teleological–ie: have a telos, “end, goal, designed purpose, etc.” this incudes moral purposes/objectives such as virtues, duties, rights, etc.)
3) Yet there seem to exist moral values that non-objectivist systems are at a loss to explain. Negative evidences include: a) the problem of temporal-discrimination (calling slavery “evil” when it was “good” in its time), b) the problem of bi-culturality (people can be members of two conflicting cultures, but all ethic naturalistic systems are incomparable since there is no non-circular grounds of judging between them), c) the problem of the revolutionary (Minority ethical convictions and radicals are always immoral if “good” is a majority opinion), d) the problem of cross-cultural conflict (no culture’s ethics is better than anothers, even Hitler or Mao’s), e) the problem of subjectivism (no one can call anything anyone else does “evil” unless that person defies his/her own ethical system–even if their system is reprehensible), f) the problem of ignorance (even if many or most ethical values are subjective, there still may be objective values yet undiscovered or masked as relative values), Positive evidences include: a) Moral values are experienced by everyone reading this, b) Morality is a cultural universal, c) Our experience of morality is that there are binding rules that we should obey and others should obey even if they never get caught and even if they enjoy the contrary, d) at least some points of morality are not reducible to simple altruism and the Golden rule, e) Morality is a temporal universal (has occurred throughout time), f) our morality becomes objectivist when we are the victim.
4) but if ethics is at all objective (even in part), then the naturalistic fallacy prevents any natural grounding for ethics–ie: in human minds, or in the rest of nature. The naturalistic fallacy, also called the “Is-ought” fallacy suggests that there is some kind of circular or presumptive reasoning whenever a person argues from (non-teleological) nature that a moral ought follows from it. In other words, nature just is or is not. It knows nothing of what “ought” to be.
5) Binding moral values, which exists, requires a grounds for their existence.
6) Binding moral values then have at least some basis outside of nature.
7) This basis must be a mind sufficient to ground objectively binding moral values within our world.
8 ) By the law of conservation (ie: Ockham’s Razor) we need not postulate more than one supernatural mind to ground said ethics, unless the data set demands it.
9) We (the Christian and the Atheist) can agree from our own observations and reasoning that no other God is needed to ground ethics–so polytheism, pantheism, panentheism, deism, animism, henotheism, finite Godism, are unwarranted insertions (we just disagree over whether A God is needed at all to ground ethics).
[10) Goodness is better explained as an attribute of God than as a command of God (since the latter would be undermined by the euthyphro dilemma).]–this is a side note for Divine Command Theorist reading this.
11) Therefore I know God is good because [see #1-10].
In the new book “O” God: A Dialogue on Truth and Oprah’s Spirituality. (CA: WND, 2009; 128pg) renowned Christian apologist Josh McDowell and up-and-comer Dave Sterrett offer a brief popular level critique of Oprah Winfrey’s growing and influential religion.To keep the reading light the authors present their apologetic in a story-form dialogue between a young divorced grad-student Lindsey and her PhD friend, a newly converted Christian and former yoga teacher, Avatari. As these two 30 year olds discuss their lives and issues they bat around tenets of Oprah-ology. Naturally, Oprah’s spiritual mentors like Eckhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra surface too. Both friends watch the Oprah show and read “O” Magazine, but Lindsey and Avatari disagree over the “truth” therein. The end result is that Avatari uses apologetics to share her faith with Lindsey, who in turn shares her new found faith with her mother. In the course of this drama the authors progressively unravel the paper-thin veneer of Christian lingo on Oprah’s spirituality then dissect the remaining new-age mysticism underneath.
This book is clearly apologetic, intending to educate and dissuade the reading from Oprah’s spirituality. Key points include arguments for Christian exclusivism (ch1,4), absolute truth (ch5), theism (ch7), the historic Jesus (ch9), the reliability of the New Testament (pg95), and resurrection (ch10), a rebuttal of pantheism (ch7, pg73), notes on the problem of blind faith (pg98), a defense of the moral argument for God (pg86), and a critique of the New Thought, “think-yourself-well” movement (ch6). This book is a great introduction into cultural apologetics. It is accessible, simple, readable and still surprisingly meaty. O God is utterly relevant in culture because it sets its sights on the queen of American culture Oprah Winfrey together with her heir apparent, New Age spirituality. As it turns out, New Age is hardly an heir, but rather a Hindu-esque fog of pantheism. McDowell and Starrett keep the page count down, the plot-line simple, the topics clear, and the overall readability up. A discussion guide is also included should the reader want to incorporate this material into a church study group, home group, or religion class.
As an apologist myself, this book is a helpful addition to my library on Cults, World Religions and Alternative Spirituality. Oprah-ology is nothing new, to those who have studied about pantheism and eastern religions. But this book may surprise people who thought of Oprah as a good Christian girl. Before this book I did not know how non-Christian Oprah’s religion was, nor how openly she admits to anti-Christian beliefs. Oprah is a new-thought, religious pluralist who denies absolute truth, Christian theism, sin, hell, and the Trinity. This book however is not a critique of Oprah—God bless whatever good she offers to the world—but rather a focused response to her skewed beliefs, which take her out of classical Christianity. But neither does O God stop at critiqueing Oprah-ology. O God is evangelistic, tying together rebuttal with affirmation, countering pantheism with Christian theism, finally offering an apologetically polished uniquely beautiful Christian gospel. This book deserves commendation for “calling it like it is.” In a hazy world of gray shades and fuzzy borders, when people turn up sick from moral ambiguity and spiritual banality, O God shines a refreshing bright light while sharpening the surgeon’s scalpel. Soul surgery can now take place.
I’ve issued a challenge at Plumb Bob Blog, my political/social blog, to progressives and atheists to see which of them can answer cogently. I’m giving away the secret up front: this is about the semantic contortion that leads them to call long-term cohabiting between gays “marriage,” and insist on marital rights and appurtenances that apply thereto. I will describe the challenge here, but for the sake of keeping the discussion in one place ask you to comment over there.
I want you to form an argument that (1) explains why you oppose what I’m about to propose, but (2) cannot immediately be offered back as an argument against gay “marriage” rights.
Any answer that contains an insult will be deleted out of hand, and I will not let the author know. I reserve the right to determine what constitutes an insult.
Here’s the challenge:
I want to marry the birch tree in my front yard. I love it dearly, it has faithfully provided me shade for decades. I want to marry it legally, and I want all the financial and social advantages that appertain to marriage. The Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees equal protection under the laws; the law of my state does not permit me to marry the birch tree the way others marry their spouse of choice, so my Fourteenth Amendment rights have been violated.
Why should I not be granted the right under the law to marry my birch tree?
The challenge is on. I pre-empt two possible answers at the blog, and supply a helpful image of the beloved birch, so again, come on over and take your best shot.
Jack Cashill makes an interesting case at the American Thinker today that the mortgage crisis and much of the faltering economy can be traced back to the breakdown of the family. Minority families broke down (or really, never formed) at rates much greater than white families. Since more minorities came from broken homes and thus had lower incomes, fewer minorities than whites could qualify for home loans. This seems rather obvious, except the Clinton administration charged that the real reason for the disparity was, you guessed it, racism. Hence, pressure was put on banks to make loans that no responsible lender should make. Now we are all paying for false charges of racism when a lack of personal responsibility was really the culprit. It’s always easier for politicians to shout that their constituents are victims rather than irresponsible.
Back in 1993, archaeologists found an inscription in the Israeli town of Dan bearing the name of the Hebrew King David. This put to rest the theory that the David of the Bible was just a myth. Now at least one archaeologist is claiming that Jerusalem was fortified at the time of David lending further credence to the Bible’s account that David was indeed a King. Here is the AP article explaining her findings with the obligatory opinion of someone who disagrees:
JERUSALEM – An Israeli archaeologist said Monday that ancient fortifications recently excavated in Jerusalem date back 3,000 years to the time of King Solomon and support the biblical narrative about the era.
If the age of the wall is correct, the finding would be an indication that Jerusalem was home to a strong central government that had the resources and manpower needed to build massive fortifications in the 10th century B.C.
That’s a key point of dispute among scholars, because it would match the Bible’s account that the Hebrew kings David and Solomon ruled from Jerusalem around that time.
While some Holy Land archaeologists support that version of history — including the archaeologist behind the dig, Eilat Mazar — others posit that David’s monarchy was largely mythical and that there was no strong government to speak of in that era.
Speaking to reporters at the site Monday, Mazar, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, called her find “the most significant construction we have from First Temple days in Israel.”
“It means that at that time, the 10th century, in Jerusalem there was a regime capable of carrying out such construction,” she said.
Based on what she believes to be the age of the fortifications and their location, she suggested it was built by Solomon, David’s son, and mentioned in the Book of Kings.
The fortifications, including a monumental gatehouse and a 77-yard (70-meter) long section of an ancient wall, are located just outside the present-day walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, next to the holy compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. According to the Old Testament, it was Solomon who built the first Jewish Temple on the site.
That temple was destroyed by Babylonians, rebuilt, renovated by King Herod 2,000 years ago and then destroyed again by Roman legions in 70 A.D. The compound now houses two important Islamic buildings, the golden-capped Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque.
Archaeologists have excavated the fortifications in the past, first in the 1860s and most recently in the 1980s. But Mazar claimed her dig was the first complete excavation and the first to turn up strong evidence for the wall’s age: a large number of pottery shards, which archaeologists often use to figure out the age of findings.
Aren Maeir, an archaeology professor at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, said he has yet to see evidence that the fortifications are as old as Mazar claims. There are remains from the 10th century in Jerusalem, he said, but proof of a strong, centralized kingdom at that time remains “tenuous.”
While some see the biblical account of the kingdom of David and Solomon as accurate and others reject it entirely, Maeir said the truth was likely somewhere in the middle.
“There’s a kernel of historicity in the story of the kingdom of David,” he said.
At a conference on Intelligent Design (ID) last semester I was sitting in the audience listening to some lively panel discussion when it occurred to me that many of the insights people were offering were confused about their target. They did not seem clear about what they were aiming at. And while I could filter out at least three different, related targets, there was a tendency to treat all the arguments and evidence as if they had the same single conclusion: ID is true.These three targets seem to be: 1) problems with evolution, 2) validation of ID as science, and 3) confirmation of ID as correct. Hitting one does not guarantee the others. Nor need we isolate them from each other. Yet without distinguishing which target one is aiming for, opponents can easily find fault. For example, “You fallaciously assume that you are proving ID when all you’re doing is poking holes in evolution.” Or, “You are arguing about how ID is the best explanation, but you haven’t even shown yet that it’s science!”So I propose three facets in establishing Intelligent Design. This is just a conceptual framework, and I only intend here to helpfully structure the discussion so that the different respective targets can be handled fairly and carefully. But this is not intended as a “proof” for intelligent design, it is only a proposed schema for addressing ID-related arguments.
1) The Negative Case
2) The Qualifying or Neutral Case
3) The Positive Case
1) The Negative case argues against evolution, attacks apparent flaws and inadequacies in evolutionary theory, together with naturalism, materialism, scientism, etc. The negative case aims at instilling discontent with the current paradigms of scientific naturalism and its champion theory of (Darwinian) Evolution. Without the negative case, one may not realize whether there are even alternatives to be considered besides reductive, materialistic, naturalistic, scientistic evolutionary theory. And even if one is aware of theoretical alternatives, they would come off as superfluous–regardless of any truth, validity, or scientific quality they might have.
2) The Qualifying Case–arguing neither for ID nor against evolution, the qualifying case argues simply that ID qualifies as science. This kind of argument targets the Demarcation Problem in Science (ie: how is science defined) and is liable to include heavy doses of ID theory to show how ID seems to satisfy the criteria needed to qualify as science. The qualifying case may also have to dive into issues of the relation between Science and Religion, Faith and Reason, and the definition of Religion (which is just as difficult if not harder to establish than the definition of science).
3) The Positive Case–finally, this brand of argument seeks to show how ID is indeed correct, answering real problems and giving superior explanations than current evolutionary theory can offer. The positive case generally requires some amount of the prior two kinds: negative and neutral case–before the positive evidences even make sense. Unless ID is science then it looks like a merely theological perspective on what science has already explained sufficiently through evolutionary theory. Unless Darwinian evolutionary theory, and scientific naturalism are shown to be inadequate, the ID just looks like a another kid who didn’t make the team. ID then is superfluous, and uninteresting. It is not “superior” to naturalistic approaches to science, unless there has already been shown some weaknesses and inadequacies in naturalism that effectively leave a crack in the levy which ID might be able to fill-in.
The following column created quite a long discussion when it was posed on Townhall.com last week. I’m sure it will here too (though I won’t be part of the discussion for at least a week). Please let me know if you are benefiting from the comment portion of this blog. We are considering shutting the comments portion down for a number of reasons, not the least of which being the time commitment and the fact that most comments seem more about defending positions at all costs rather than a gracious exchange of ideas in pursuit of the truth. I appreciate your honest comments about comments. Thanks! Here now, the column: “Gay Rights: Don’t Ask, Don’t Think”
The central argument in favor of same-sex marriage or overturning “Don’t ask don’t tell” contains a fatal flaw. In fact, this is the flaw at the heart of the entire gay rights movement.
Joint Chief Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen dutifully proclaimed the flaw as truth the other day when speaking in favor of ending the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy. He said, “I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens.”
Lie about who they are?
Sorry Admiral, but as a former ROTC instructor and legal officer in the United States Navy, I helped deny entrance to potential recruits and prosecuted existing service people for all sorts of behaviors that were incompatible with unit cohesion and military readiness. As you know, the Uniformed Code of Military Justice prohibits numerous behaviors that are not criminal offenses in civilian life (including adultery, fraternization and gambling with a subordinate), yet I never once saw anyone excused for their behavior by claiming that’s who they are.
The military is essential to our survival as a nation. It’s not a social experiment and serving in it is not a right. People have to qualify and then make sacrifices. Military people must subordinate many of their individual rights to advance the national interest. Recruits must agree to give up some of the freedoms that civilians enjoy, including certain sexual freedoms and even the freedom of speech! (That’s one reason it’s called “service.”) So even if homosexual behavior is permitted in society, that doesn’t necessarily mean it should be permitted in the military.
Having served, I believe that the military needs as few sexual distractions as possible, be they from men and women serving together in combat or open homosexuality. The job is too difficult and critical to be complicating matters sexually.
More could be said, but I want to zero in on the fatal flaw in most gay-rights causes, and the one the Admiral repeated. It is the failure to distinguish between desires and behavior. Having certain sexual desires—whether you were “born” with them or acquired them sometime in life—does not mean that you are being discriminated against if the law doesn’t allow the behavior you desire.
Take marriage as an example. Despite complaints by homosexual activists, every person in America already has equal marriage rights. We’re all playing by the same rules—we all have the same right to marry any non-related adult of the opposite sex. Those rules do not deny anyone “equal protection of the laws” because the qualifications to enter a marriage apply equally to everyone—every adult person has the same right to marry.
“But what about homosexuals?” you ask. The question would better be stated, “What about people with homosexual desires?” Put that way, you can see the flaw. If sexual desires alone are the criteria by which we change our marriage (or military) laws to give people “equal rights,” then why not change them to include polygamy? After all, most men seem born with a desire for many women. How about those who desire their relatives? By the gay rights logic, such people don’t have “equal rights” because our marriage laws have no provision for incest. And bisexuals don’t have “equal rights” because existing marriage laws don’t allow them to marry a man and a woman.
If desires alone guarantee someone special rights, why are there no special rights for pedophiles and gay bashers? The answer is obvious—because desires, even if you were “born” with them, do not justify behavior, do not make anyone a special class, and should have no impact on our laws. (See Born Gay or a Gay Basher: No Excuse.)
Laws encourage good behavior or prevent bad behavior. Desires are irrelevant. We enact all kinds of laws in the country and military that conflict with people’s desires. In fact, that’s why we need them! We wouldn’t need any laws if people always desired to do good, which is why James Madison wrote, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”
In other words, there should be no legal class of “gay” or “straight,” just a legal class called “person.” And it doesn’t matter whether persons desire sex with the same or opposite sex, or whether they desire sex with children, parents, or farm animals. What matters is whether the behavior desired is something the country or military should prohibit, permit or promote. Those are the only three choices we have when it comes to making law.
The standard comparisons to race and interracial marriage don’t work either. Sexual behavior is always a choice, race never is. You’ll find many former homosexuals, but you’ll never find a former African American. And your race has no effect on your military readiness, but your sexual behavior often can. Likewise, race is irrelevant to marriage while gender is essential to it. Interracial couples can procreate and nurture the next generation (the overriding societal purpose of marriage), but homosexual couples cannot.
The truth is that our marriage and military laws do not discriminate against persons for “who they are”—they discriminate against the behaviors in which they engage. But so what? That’s what most laws do. For example, the Thirteenth Amendment discriminates against the behavior of some businessmen who might like to improve their profits through slavery, but it does not discriminate against those businessmen as persons. And the First Amendment’s freedom-of-religion protections discriminate against the behavior of some Muslims who want to impose Islamic law on the entire nation, but it does not discriminate against those Muslims as persons. Likewise, our marriage and military laws discriminate against the desired behaviors of homosexuals, polygamists, bigamists, and the incestuous, but they do not discriminate against them as persons.
Now some may object to my comparison of homosexuality to polygamy, incest or pedophilia. I agree that the behaviors are not the same, but the point here is that the logic used to justify homosexuality is the same. “I was born with these desires” could also be used to justify polygamy, incest, pedophilia, and even gay bashing—“Don’t blame me. I just have the anti-gay gene!”
That’s the logic reduced to the absurd. And that’s why people who want to make a case for same-sex marriage or homosexual practice in the military should use different arguments. Claiming you “are” your sexual desires, is a case of don’t ask don’t think.
If you’d like to think more about this admittedly complicated and sensitive issue, get the compact book from which this article is adapted: Correct, Not Politically Correct: How Same-Sex Marriage Hurts Everyone.
In this well produced and narrated video, atheist Richard Dawkins marvels at the fine-tuned wonder of the world. What does it all point to? Raw data cannot tell us because all data must be interpreted. In other words, one cannot do science without philosophy. So how one interprets the fine-tuned beginning and existence of this amazing universe may be the result of certain philosophical presuppositions that artificially restrict one’s interpretation. Since Dr. Dawkins philosophically rules out God, intelligence, and the supernatural in advance, he’s left with using a word like “luck” as if it’s some kind of cause.
In his defense, he seems to be using the word “luck” to cover what he thinks is ignorance about the cause (see page 157-159 of “The God Delusion” for more). Fine. But given the available evidence that spacetime and matter–all of the natural world– exploded into being out of nothing with extreme precision, the most reasonable cause appears to be spaceless, timeless, immaterial, intelligent and personal– that is, beyond the natural world, or supernatural. To quote former atheist turned theist, Antony Flew, that’s simply the philosophical principle of “following the evidence where it leads.”