We see this today with how secularists reject the Bible as being a standard of ethical authority (with misrepresentations galore), consistently call the God of the Old Testament a moral monster, and replace the Christian ethical foundation with their own emotive-driven and subjective moral framework. They will determine how they will live and what they will do, and any challenge to that position is met with a strong backlash.
In a debate that recently occurred between Dr. William Lane Craig and Dr. Alex Rosenberg on the topic “Is Faith in God Reasonable”[1], it took Dr. Rosenberg about ten seconds to start insulting his opponent. In fact, much of his opening monologue contained belittling content that many debate reviewers found unnecessary and out of place at such an event.
By contrast, Dr. Craig used the time given for his initial statements to lay out eight reasons why faith in God was indeed reasonable, using both logical syllogisms and other evidential and historical arguments. Never once did he refer to Dr. Rosenberg in a disdainful way, but rather he quoted directly from his opponent’s book multiple times to showcase Rosenberg’s extreme positions on scientism and naturalism, which supported Craig’s arguments.
Why do such things happen? Why do atheists like Rosenberg choose to not only disagree but be disagreeable in the manner with which they interact with those who believe in God?
Over and over again in such cases, we see the words of Ravi Zacharias ringing true: “Is it not odd that whenever it has power [or a platform], liberalism is anything but liberal, both in the area of religion and politics?”[2]
Intolerance in the Age of Tolerance
Let’s face it, arguments and disagreements happen every minute of every day, and sometimes those conflicts can get heated. Invite opposing political party spokespersons to a syndicated news program and it isn’t long before tempers flare, insults are traded, and other’s ideas get maligned.
Further, we should be honest and admit that Christians are guilty far too many times of being discourteous to non-Christians and committing the error James wrote about long ago: “With the tongue we praise our Lord and father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be” (James 3:9-10).[3]
But still, whether a person is a Christian, member of another faith, or atheist, no one argues that our society today encourages us to respect everyone’s beliefs and be ‘tolerant’ of worldviews that may not agree with our own.
Strangely enough, though, the spirit of tolerance that is supposedly such an integral part of the philosophical pluralism that pervades our culture hasn’t found its way into the new atheist movement. Instead, what we find is a haughty swagger, disappointing misrepresentations, and a snarky vocabulary for any who dare to profess faith in God.
We hear atheist Bill Maher say, “We are a nation that is unenlightened because of religion. . . . I think that religion stops people from thinking . . . . I think religion is a neurological disorder . . . . I am just embarrassed that it has been taken over by people like evangelicals, by people who do not believe in science and rationality.”[4]
The mischaracterization of Christians not being scientific or rational thinkers is also seen in a Huffington Post article where writer Rob Brooks states: “As it becomes clearer that religion is, in some senses, the opposite of rational thinking, we may have to shed the comfort of ‘I’m OK, you’re OK’ ideas”.[5] If you’re a Christian, then by Brooks standards, you must not be OK.
We see Richard Dawkins tell the world that the difference between Christians and atheists is that, “Well, we’re bright”.[6] That same spirit of intellectual superiority is highlighted in a 2012 speech Dawkins gave where, speaking of those who believe in God, he encouraged his atheist listeners to “Mock them, ridicule them in public.”[7] Dawkins also bemoans the thought that all children are open to “infection” by religion, which is a virus and a “warped reality”.[8]
Speaking of reality, new atheist billboards appearing this month in San Diego proclaim how unbelievers have a “personal relationship with reality.”[9] The obvious message is that anyone who’s not an atheist is out of touch with reality. What do we call people like that? As one atheist I dialoged with last year said when I asked him, “clinically crazy”.
It seems we’re at a point in society that G. K. Chesterton described long ago:
“You are free in our time to say that God does not exist. You are free to say that He does exist but He is evil. You are free to say like some poor satirists that He would like to exist if He could. You may talk of God as a mystification or a metaphor. You may boil him down with gallons of long words or boil him to the rags of metaphysics, and it is not merely that no one punishes you for it, but nobody protests. But if you speak of God as a thing like a tiger – as a reason for changing one’s conduct – then the modern world will stop you somehow if it can. We have long past talking about whether an unbeliever should be punished for being irreverent; it is now thought irreverent to be a believer.”[10]
Why does the atheist feel this way? Is it because they care deeply and passionately for what they believe is the truth? That they (mistakenly) believe that “religion poisons everything” as Christopher Hitchens is famous for saying, and it’s responsible for the majority of violence in the world?[11]
Or is it something else?
[2] http://goo.gl/iGH2V.
[3] The examples, sadly, are numerous (e.g. Westboro Baptist church, etc.)
[4] http://www.wnd.com/2005/02/28970/
[6] http://www.christianity.com/11555977/print/
[7] http://www.christianpost.com/news/atheists-rally-for-reason-urged-to-mock-the-religious-72033/
[8] http://old.richarddawkins.net/videos/106-root-of-all-evil-part-2-the-virus-of-faith
[10] http://goo.gl/W1AAZ.
[11] See my post here that shows how incorrect this thinking is:http://blogs.christianpost.com/confident-christian/the-myth-of-religion-being-the-1-cause-of-war-10924/
[Editor’s note: Some of the original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid, so the links have been removed.]
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