Hard-heartedness makes you stupid
April 19th, 2009 by Ben Rae Posted in Books, Current affairs
Check out this paragraph from Richard Dawkins’ book “The God Delusion.”
“A common argument, attributed among others to C.S. Lewis (who should have known better), states that, since Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, he must have been either right or else insane or a liar: ‘Mad, Bad or God’. Or with artless alliteration, ‘Lunatic, Liar or Lord’. The historical evidence that Jesus claimed any sort of divine status is minimal. But even if that evidence were good, the trilemma on offer would be ludicrously inadequate. A fourth alternative, almost too obvious to need mentioning, is that Jesus was honestly mistaken. Plenty of people are.”
There’s lots in this paragraph to make me cranky. It’s patronising, smug, and historically misleading. But its main problem—almost too obvious to need mentioning—is that Dawkins’ fourth alternative to Jesus as ‘Lunatic, Liar or Lord’ is not merely ludicrously inadequate, but blatantly, spectacularly, laughably wrong! Honestly thinking that you’re God when you’re not isn’t some new category—Lunatic, Liar, Lord, or Look I honestly thought I was God and what do you know it turns out I’m not—it’s a textbook case of lunacy! How has Dawkins not seen this? (And what was his editor doing?)
There are literally hundreds of errors and misrepresentations in ‘The God Delusion’, but this is the worst that I’ve come across. You don’t need to know anything about history, philosophy, or religion to recognise it. All you need is half a brain and 30 seconds—on a bad day. So why does a brilliant man like Dawkins appear to believe it?
In Ephesians 4:18 Paul says that those who don’t trust in Jesus “are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.” It seems to me that Dawkins’ problem isn’t fundamentally intellectual—in many ways he’s a brilliant man—but when it comes to God, hard-heartedness makes you stupid.
5 Responses to “Hard-heartedness makes you stupid”
By Daniel Patterson on Apr 23, 2009
Harsh but fair.
I have just recently watched a 2007 Atheistic Alliance Convention DVD and I was alarmed at how they mirepresented Christianity. The Christian resolve to see this ideology/philosophy/postulating debunked is in no way helped by poor and uninformed opinion and perspective. In the DVD he pulled up Youtube clips (which we all know is a credible source)that argued against himself, which were were so poorly informed and that he used them to support his own premise that Christianity is stupid and is nothing more than a social engineering tool to manipulate the masses. You’ve mentioned Eph. 4 and we can also look at 1 Cor 1, in particular verse 21, ‘Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?’ Most certainly. Let’s pray that God will soften the hearts of men like Dawkins that he might see truth in what seems so foolish.
By Ben on Apr 23, 2009
Yeah, it was a bit harsh
I agree Dan, we should definitely be praying for Dawkins and others like him. After all, C.S. Lewis was a pretty determined atheist before God opened his heart and mind!
By Matt D on Apr 28, 2009
“Or with artless alliteration” … did others note the hypocrisy?
By Jon Rumble on Apr 30, 2009
Nah, that’s not alliteration :p