What IS So Great About Christianity? (Finally)
Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 2:10 pmWay back in December, I was reading Dinesh D’Souza’s What’s So Great About Christianity? and trying to keep an open mind about it. Which was tough, because it was pretty awful.
Around Christmas, I finished writing up my notes and rebuttals, but never really got around to polishing it up and citing better references and what have you. After four months, I’ve decided that I probably never will, so I’m just posting what I wrote then:
April 24th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Brock, I applaud you for reading a book like this and keeping an open mind. It’s a good testament to skeptics in keeping an open mind and not shutting ourselves off from new (and possibly conflicting) points of view.
I looking forward to reading your PDF.
April 24th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Hi Brock!
I read your great review (found it via “Friendly Atheist”).
Regarding Chapter 19 on the supposed connection between totalitarian fascist (Hitler) and totalitarian communist (Stalin) regimes and atheism, I think one could probably add the following points:
The above regimes had modern technology (machine guns, trains, mass-produced gas, bombs, etc.) at their disposal. If the inquisition or the crusades had had that kind of firepower, the heretics and the Middle East would have been carpet-bombed many times over. So the comparison based on the difference in scale doesn’t hold up once you control for the variable of technological advancement.
Authoritarian and totalitarian regimes who think they have a monopoly on the truth and who keep their population ignorant will always lead to catastrophe, no matter whether they’re theocratic, fascist or communist. Because these regimes are dogmatic and don’t tolerate alternative views, they have to eliminate other powerful institutions within their societies, such as the (rival) Church. Stalin did not go after the Orthodox Church because he was an atheist, he went after the Church because they were a threat to his monopoly on power and “truth”. Hitler is a more complicated case (probably not even an atheist himself), but in a sense he illustrates the point even more beautifully: insofar as the Church supported him and aided his cause, he was all to eager to refer to God and Christian values. When they didn’t support his case, he went against them. So he wasn’t motivated by atheism, he was motivated by opportunism to solidify his power.
This point can be taken as an elaboration of point 2. As you yourself observed, atheism is not a belief system, just the rejection of one. Whether you then take violent action against the belief system(s) you reject, depends on your own belief system. Hitler’s and Stalin’s belief systems were dogmatic and totalitarian nazism and communism. In contrast, take a look at the modern-day Scandinavian countries for a second opinion on the morals of highly secularised nations: open, freethinking, democratic, anti-dogmatic and critical societies with a well-educated populace. So even though the atheistic USSR and the secular Scandinavian countries lie closer together with regard to their rejection of religious faith, the actual belief system of the USSR has more connections with theocratic regimes past and present (dogmatic, suppressive, etc.).
April 24th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I found your review through The Friendly Atheist, and I can’t thank you enough for writing about this book. I found your comments very articulate, fascinating and enlightening, and your counter-arguments very compelling. You are so RATIONAL! You found the words to say what I want to say, but can’t. Bravo, sir–I take my glasses off to you! (And thanks for reading the book so I don’t have to.)
April 27th, 2008 at 3:53 am
Thanks very much for the thorough rebuttal! Even though I wasn’t considering reading the book, I can now sleep easy with the knowledge that reading just about anything else would be an improvement.
(FWIW, I’m also here via Friendly Atheist).