Wednesday 4 February 2009

Is Christianity Good for the World?

The debate between Christopher Hitchens and Doug Wilson was 'hosted' by Christianity Today recently (well last year!). Then turned into a book. I will blog the highlights and hope that this is both helpful and possibly an appetiser to read the book!

Introduction by Christopher Hitchens
'I myself believe that the duel between Christianity and atheism is the most important in the world. I further believe that the struggle between individualism and collectivism is the same struggle reproduced on another level' (Buckley). In order for me to be able to adopt this statement wholesale the word 'Christianity' would have to be replaced by the word 'religion' and the struggle redefined as one between liberty and totalitarianism.

CH says that the exchanges that follow concern:

a) the falsity of the metaphysical claims of religion
b)the emptiness of religions claims to be the fount of morality in our conduct.

CH says he is not so much an athiest as an anti-theist:

'I am, rather, someone who is delighted that there is absolutely no persuasive evidence for the existence of any of mankind's many thousands of past and present deities.'

'It is to me an appalling thought that anyone could wish for a supreme and absolute and unalterable ruler, whose reign was eternal and unchallengable, who
required incessant propitiation, and who kept us all under continual surveillance, waking and sleeping, which did not even cease (and which indeed even intensified) after our deaths.'


'Countless central passages in Jewish and Christian and Muslim scripture drive home the critical point that god is not content with omnipotence, but is jealous and demanding and impatient, and continually enraged with the built-in shortcomings with which he has deliberately lamed his creatures. Having been 'created sick', in Fulke Greville's words, we are 'commanded to be sound,' and continuously and abjectly to 'thank' a being who need not exert himself in the least to ensure that we live, suffer, and die. In the non-spiritual arena of life, power relationships like this go under the general title of sadomasochism.'
Introduction by Doug Wilson

'God knew that we were going to need to pick up dimes, and so he gave us fingernails. He knew that twilight displayed in blue, apricot, and battle gray would be entirely astonishing and beyond us, and so He gave us eyes that can see in color. He could have made all food quite nourishing, but which tasted like wadded up newspaper soaked in machine oil. Instead He gave us the tastes of watermelon, pecans, oatmeal stout, buttered corn, apples, fresh bread, grilled sirloin, and twenty-five year old scotch. And He of course knew that we were going to need to thank Him, and so He gave us hearts and minds.'
'The issue of thanksgiving is really central to the whole debate about the existence of God. On the one hand, if there is no God, there is no need to thank anyone. We are here as the result of a long chain of impersonal processes, grinding their way down to our brief moment in time. If there is a God, then every breath, every moment, every sight, and sound, is sheet, unadulterated gift. And, as our mothers taught us, when someone gives you presents like this, the only appropriate response is to thank them.'
Wilson raises the issues of truth, goodness and beauty:

'On each of these topics I want the reader to ask what it means for the verbal tools that Christopher Hitchens routinely employs. My argument does not focus so much as a challenge to what CH wants to reject (God) as what he still desires to keep regardless. He has chopped down the tree yet still wants the fruit to be there at harvest. He has banished apple trees from his yard, but still wants apple pies. CH argues carefully, but given atheism, I want him to justify his use of reason.If there is no God, what is truth? CH displays great moral indignation, but, given atheism, I want him to justify that indignation. If there is no God, then who cares? And CH writes as a very capable wordsmith, but given atheism, I want him to justify his vibrant and engaging prose. If there is no God, then yammer, yamber, yak&^%...'

No comments: