The Religion of Straw Men

Straw man

noun.

    1  a mass of straw formed to resemble a man, as for a doll or scarecrow.

    2  a person whose importance or function is only nominal, as to cover another’s activities; front.

    3 a fabricated or conveniently week or innocuous person, object, matter, etc., used as a seeming adversary or argument: The issue she railed about was no more than a straw man.

Origin: 1585-95                            Dictionary.com

  

I am reading Sam Harris's book Letter to a Christian Nation and have discovered that the straw men are so frequently placed in his writings that if they were all planted in the ground the skies would be dark with crows who were too frightened to find a place to land.

I have to admit to being disappointed. As a Christian I welcome spirited discussion about the existence of God with atheist and others. I, unfortunately, meet a great deal of atheist, and Christians for that matter, who have little working knowledge of the authentic Christian faith which is Biblical Christianity. This leads to the unfortunate circumstance of many of the people who attack as well as defend the Christian faith are attacking and defending the same old straw men, and fail to contribute anything of value to the discourse. Do not misunderstand me. It is not a crime to be unfamiliar with aspects of another person's views on God but the crime that is being perpetrated on both sides of the discussion is intellectual laziness. If you are a Christian or an atheist and are not doing your basic homework before spouting off at the mouth and yelling at each other with your hands over your ears you are doing a disservice to yourself and those who believe your point of view. 

I do not believe Sam Harris has his hands over his ears but I do believe that he has fallen victim to the religious bait and switch that permeates the world of Christianity. What is this bait and switch? The fact is that what is portrayed as the Christian faith throughout much of popular culture is not Biblical Christianity. We are all shown this pop culture knock off of the Christian faith and many of us, including a surprising number of Christians, take it for the genuine article. Trust me; Biblical Christianity is not being represented in your Facebook timeline.

If you are not sure you believe that there is authentic Christianity and a cheap knockoff both being presented to the culture, let’s looks at an example that we can all identify with. Whether you are an atheist or a Christian you are probably familiar with the nativity story of the Christian faith. We have all heard how Jesus was born, laid in a manger, visited by three wise men there, and given gold, frankincense and myrrh as gifts from these wise men. It has appeared in any number of children's books, videos, holiday TV shows, etc. There is only one problem, it’s mostly fiction. If we actually read the story in the Bible we find that the wise men were not at the birth of Jesus but arrived in Jerusalem one to two years later. They then proceeded to the royal palace in Jerusalem to look for "he who was born king of the Jews." Not finding Jesus in the royal palace they followed the star to the house were the young child, not the new born, lived. You can find the Biblical account of the birth of Jesus in Luke 2:1-20 and Matthew 2:1-12.

The facts concerning the birth of Jesus are some of the most plainly spoken, easily understood scriptures in the Bible. If our popular culture version of the birth of Jesus can be so far off from the easily understood Biblical version, how much more can the subtle nuanced Bible concepts like, the love of God, the nature of humanity, the age of the earth, etc., be misrepresented. What is disappointing is how many author's, speakers and public figures do not do the simple diligence of Biblical study before they make sweeping statements about the truth of the Bible.

If you are going to attack or defend the validity of Christian scripture at least consult the basic biblical scholarship through a commentary, or knowledgeable Christian. Yes, whether you are a Christian or an Atheist I am sure you have opinions and questions about the nature of God. Do not be lazy. Consult the plentiful scholarship that is all around you or you might find yourself singing the same words as the most famous straw man of all time – “if I only had a brain!”

A reasonable Question to the Reasonable Atheist

A Short Introduction to the Question

The belief that God does not exist, which is what defines an atheist, is a belief that needs defending. For those of you who would say that the burden of proof is on religion I would say I agree with you fifty percent. Much of atheism is based on its attacks on religion but not, ironically, on attacks on the existence of God. Atheist can play an offensive game, no pun intended, by attacking various religious doctrinal beliefs because the burden of proof is on religion to defend those beliefs.  But atheist must switch to defense when they change their arguments from those of attacking religious doctrine to those of declaring their own doctrinal belief that God does not exist.

Let me further explain my position with a concession. Let’s say for the sake of argument, and just for the length of this piece, I concede those atheists are right about religion. Yes, I am conceding, for the sake of argument, that every religious belief is false. The statement that all religion is false will not definitively prove that God does not exist but it will only prove that every religion has got it wrong.

I will pause here for those few of you who will tell me that you cannot prove a negative,  and use that statement as an argument that atheist do not have a burden of proof for the doctrine that God does not exist. Of course you can prove a negative. I can prove I am NOT a German shepherd. I can prove my water glass is NOT filled with crude oil. I can prove that I am NOT a resident of Mars, although it is true my Martian citizenship has been proposed as a theory for my personality my entire life.

Any dictionary will tell us that atheism is the belief that God does not exist. Saying that God does not exist is a declarative statement that goes far beyond the belief that religion is false.  

The Question

If atheism is not just the faith based shadow of religious belief, 
then what are its reasoned intellectual foundations for the notion that God does not exist?

I look forward to your comments.