I was prompted to read this book by a Twitter atheist with a large following. His avatar is a picture of the Bible with the word “False!” in big letters across the front, so there is no question as far as where he stands about Christianity. This book, in his opinion, would be a good introduction for me into the science of why most people believe in God, even though he does not exist.
One of this guy’s main points when he shouts down a Christian is that we wouldn’t be a Christian unless we, 1) were born with an inferior, “god prone” mind, and 2) were born to Christian parents or in a Christian area. He likes to tell me that if I was born in Saudi Arabia, chances are I would be a Muslim, therefore my Christianity cannot be rational. This is a common error atheists often make, known as the “genetic fallacy”. It is a fallacy because citing where the belief comes from does nothing to show if the belief itself is true or false. He is probably right, if I were born in Saudi Arabia, I’d likely be a Muslim. So would my Atheist friend if he were born there! Clearly that fact has nothing to do whether Atheism is true or not. In fact, if I were to argue the way my friend argued (which I won’t because its such an obviously fallacious line of thinking) I could say, “the only reason you are an atheist is because you were born in western culture!” or, “your parents are atheists, so your own atheism cannot be rational.” Both of these ideas are obviously fallacious.
In any case, here are my thoughts on this book, chapter by chapter.
Chapter 1
The first chapter is about the scientific evidence that human beings, as a species, have a propensity to believe in gods. There is something about the way our minds work that throughout history, whether its ancient Egypt, Aztecs, Greeks, etc., have made all cultures revolve around the belief in a god or many gods. In the beginning of the chapter he says,
“if an all-powerful, all-seeing god does exist, he designed into the creation and evolution of man something powerful: the propensity to believe in a god.” (Thompson, 27)
With my mind’s eye I could see my atheist friend folding his hands in satisfaction as I read that line, thinking, “Gotcha.”, as if this insight was so profound as to prove my God a fraud.
The only problem is that this idea is not profound at all. It was taught 2000 years ago. It was taught in the Bible by Paul. Now Paul didn’t know the science behind it of course, but Paul knew that human beings were created with a propensity to believe in gods, even if they lacked the knowledge to know the God who is actually there. The following is from the book of Acts, written by Luke, describing Paul as he addresses the city of Athens:
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, - Acts 17: 22-27
As it so often happens, 2000 years ago the Bible taught something that modern science affirms for us today. Yes, God has created us with a desire to seek him. Some use this desire and follow falsely, religious systems set up by men. Some use this desire and find God.
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. -Acts 17:30-31
So the book is off to a weak start. I will follow up with more thoughts on this in future posts.
This is a very interesting site. Your views are quite intriguing.
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