Jan. 9 issue
Can we learn from an atheist?
Christopher Hitchens believed religion is the world’s main source of hatred and tyranny. The British-born writer, who died Dec. 15 at age 62, was famous for his controversial conclusions. “Of all the supposed virtues, faith must be the most overrated,” he once said.
A staunch atheist, Hitchens spent much time and energy — and made a career out of — arguing about a Being he didn’t believe in. The irony: He had a God-given talent for writing and debating.
Can people who believe in God learn something from folks like Hitchens? Yes: the importance of asking questions, both to gain knowledge and to search for truth. Asking questions can strengthen, not weaken our faith.
Many Christians liked and appreciated Hitchens. New York Times columnist Ross Douthat writes, “In the world of journalism, among his peers and competitors and sparring partners, it was nearly impossible to find a religious person who didn’t have a soft spot for a man who famously accused faith of poisoning absolutely everything.”
Hitchens gave public voice to the growing numbers of unbelievers — many of whom are young. According to 2010 Pew research, one in four adults under age 30 are unaffiliated with any religious tradition. They describe their religion as “atheist,” “agnostic” or “nothing in particular.”
Another 2010 Pew survey tested religious knowledge. Atheists and agnostics were among the highest-scoring groups, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics; they scored better on average when asked about the core teachings, history and leading figures of major world religions.
Asking more questions would not only help followers of Jesus learn more about religion, but about their own spirituality.
Michael King, dean of Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Harrisonburg, Va., says his journey with atheism and agnosticism ultimately strengthened his faith. In the Autumn 2007 issue of Dreamseeker Magazine, he says his questions like “What if there is no God?” eventually “hardened into atheism.”
Through much questioning and biblical study, including the Hebrews 11 vision of faith as “the conviction of things not seen,” King found God and became a Mennonite pastor. “It can be possible to live by faith even when not entirely convinced we can know, based strictly on the evidence, whether or not there is a God,” he wrote.
Theologically, it seems, we can either doubt God, or we can doubt ideas or opinions about God. The Book of James warns about the former: “The one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind” (1:6). But when we ask God for wisdom, perhaps even in spite of our doubts, we can trust God will give us what we need.
Jesus’ crucifixion cry marries doubt and faith: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” We may never fully understand this text. But Jesus’ agonizing question “why?” validates life’s pain, abandonment, doubt and despair. He shows us faith and doubt can coexist.
As followers of Jesus, we can and need to ask questions, even ones without clear answers. Questions help us gain knowledge and strengthen our faith. Let’s not deny doubt but allow it to be transformed into better understanding. Perhaps even an atheist could agree with that.
Comments
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Your conclusion seems to advocate questioning "ideas and opinions about God," but only through the process of asking God for wisdom (without doubting his existence).
If that is what you learned from Hitchens, then no, it appears that you may not be able to learn from an atheist.
If you truly want to learn from an atheist or express an idea that "even an atheist could agree with" you would have to start by honestly asking questions about various tenets of your own -- and other -- religions without a preconceived idea of what the answers will be.
Otherwise, using Christopher Hitchens to promote your idea of asking God questions to strengthen your faith comes off as either a gross misunderstanding of Hitchens' point of view or a crass attempt to twist his words to suit your agenda.
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Indeed -- I agree with Susan.
One of Hitchens' oft-repeated statements in his book God Is Not Great is that Faith quashes free inquiry. The warning you cite from the Book of James not to doubt the existence of God demonstrates this unfortunate concept precisely. To quote this idea in the noble context of "asking questions" undermines your whole point, and underlines the problem with faith and, for me, its pretense of free will.
To respond to the original poster's question, as a former Catholic and seminarian, I have indeed learned a lot from atheists like Hitchens. Thankfully, I've learned that it's okay to ask questions about anything and everything. And that inquiry has confirmed the suspicions I've long held -- that there is no one or nothing monitoring my every thought, and that I am truly free.
Therein lies my salvation.
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Very well put Susan (Comment #1). I agree 100% with what you have said. You can never start off with the assumption that God exists. This is at the very core of what atheists oppose. Each religion's belief in their respective gods (all 5000+ of them) are all theories that must be assessed individually and in the light of evidence that supports them. Unfortunately when looked at it this way they are all so paper thin as explanations, and unsurprisingly similar in their contention, that it is almost impossible to accept any of them being reasonable. In fact, at the risk of offending, the truth is that they are absurd to the point of being amusing. This is, I suspect, why proponents of these religions are so reluctant to entertain any evidence that contradicts them, let alone entertain the possibility that the central figure in their mythology may be just that, a myth.
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I too am surprised to see a MWR editorial suggesting Christopher Hitchens is a positive example of one who courageously pursued truth.
Is this the same Christopher Hitchens that celebrated the ability of cluster bombs to kill Muslims? Who said he was exhilarated by the 9/11 attacks because they would unleash an exciting war against what he loved to call “Islamfascism”? Who called the Dixie Chicks “sluts” and “fucking fat slags” because they criticized President Bush and his rush to war against Iraq? Who never expressed a word of regret about his cheerleading for the criminal war against Iraq?
What I’ve learned from the life of Christopher Hitchens is to never underestimate the addictive allure of power and violence when combined with the arrogance of atheism.
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Berry - I agree that Hitchens championed some despicable opinions. However, the question posed was 'can we learn from an atheist?' to which I would say yes. I have found that the challenges to faith put forth by Hitchens, the other of the Four Horsemen and the Gnu Atheists are more powerful for developing faith than most of the pabulum put forth on Sunday mornings.
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The God of the Bible also allows slavery, including selling your own daughter as a sex slave (Exodus 21:1-11), child abuse (Judges 11:29-40 and Isaiah 13:16), and bashing babies against rocks (Hosea 13:16 & Psalms 137:9). This type of criminal behavior should shock any moral person. Murder, rape, pillage, plunder, slavery, and child abuse can not be justified by saying that some god says it’s OK. If more people would actually sit down and read the Bible there would be a lot more atheists like myself.
Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace on earth! No, rather a sword lf you love your father, mother, sister, brother, more than me, you are not worthy of being mine
Brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death." Matthew 10:21
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Isn't it great when atheists and fundamentalists agree that the proper way to read the Bible is to literally interpret a select number of verses? Its so nice to know that a reading that attempts to make sense of cultural/historical/geographic/philosophical or theological differences, and literary devices such as hyperbole, irony, the rhetorical twisting of Assyrian/Babylonian/Greek/Roman imperial rhetoric to indicate one will reap what one sows (the cycle of violence), in short a reading which embraces complexity, is a reading that is for the intellectual dimwit.
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Sheldon, thanks for the article; it makes us think, which is what it sounds like you're saying Christopher Hitchens did. Causing one to think and ask questions is logically not the same thing as agreeing. one need not agree with sparring partners to learn from them. it seems that some folks feel that to learn from someone is to buy into all that they do and think. I sure hope not.
and the comment by Justin, in response to Mary's random selection of Bible verses is right on target.
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Great piece Sheldon. Thanks. I agree with your question and your conclusion. That there is something about faith that can restrict an open posture to questioning and questing is something to genuinely confront. Indeed, the very act of preaching can too often be the cessation of dialogue and questioning and seeking. I've been critiqued before for not giving the answers, but in opening up too many questions. You're tapping into the fear of thought which pervades evangelicals. I say thanks! Hitchens isn't a dialogue partner of mine, but Freud, Marx, Nietzche, etc... all taught me a lot! As have some Houston athiests who have embraced me down here.
Besides, if we can't learn from those who disagree with us, or who are committed to the same cause but come for different reasons, we don't have much to offer.
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I liked this piece, and it relates to many things i've been going through, although I disagree slightly with you're usage of the passage from James.
Since graduation from College, I wanted to retrace my faith. Find out if I would believe the same thing if I was born on a desert island. It's really shocking talking to many other Christians how scarce knowledge is as far as defending their belief, such as reasons for belief in God, in Jesus, against other religions if they're needed, etc. I encouraged my group of bible study students to 'own your faith.' Really, we're all just trying to find truth to the unanswerable questions in this world. Some find it through belief in a higher power, while other's go against this. Being able to answer the question of 'God' or 'No God' should be the most important question in life. It's shocking to find how complacent people are in either their faith or lack there of.
I agree with some of the comments above, that asking God for wisdom shows a lack of considering that premise. I ask God for wisdom, or acceptance, of the things I cannot even fathom understanding (such as judgement of persons of other faiths), but to accept God as a baseline is never really starting from square one.
One of the reason I really lost respect for the atheist side of the argument was the realization that the "Horus=Jesus" type argument, or the use of any other pagan God as a carbon copy of Christ is just plain wrong. I had to backtrack back to the Book of the Dead, but it's just not there.
Regardless, I completely agree that persons of a particular faith should question it and 'own' it at some point in their life, but I believe it should start from nothing, not even the belief in God, to be fair.
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Patrick, I'm responding to your last paragraph, especially the reference to starting "from nothing" and the use of the word "fair".
Before we begin this heroic quest to own our belief/unbelief, we wouldn't want to extinguish any sense of gratitude and wonder we may have about the beauty, love and justice present in our world in such resilient abundance.
Yet those emotions, and those cognitive observations, are part of what draws us to faith. They are thumbs on the scale, tipping us always toward God.
Might "nothing" and "fair" be overrated?
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Sheldon Good--Thank you for the note. I've enjoyed reading Hitchens over the years, and his God Is Not Great and Hitch 22 were good reads. One can disagree with Hitchens' polemics, but on balance I find him quite generous. This generosity may come in part from his high view of freedom whether in thought or in political and cultural life. As pacifist Anabaptists in western democracies, we generally simply assume freedom which is understandable. Hitchens did not. In any case, I thank God for his life and writings. Levi Miller
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When Mr. Hitchens and I spoke with each other, he was always gracious and polite.
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