Richard Dawkins is an eminent British ethologist, evolutionary scientist, popular science writer and an outspoken Atheist. His recent book, The God Delusion, has generated a lot of controversy because of its harsh criticism of religion and faith. In Time magazine his debate with Christian Physicist Francis S. Collins is the subject of the cover story of the November 13th, 2006 issue.I am always puzzled by how any intelligent person, particularly a scientist, can claim to be an atheist.
Atheism; (noun) - the belief that God does not exist.
For someone to claim to be an atheist is to say that they believe that God does NOT EXIST. This does not seem to make any logical sense. This is equivalent of confessing to believe that hippos are not pink - it is a redundant belief - in essence a double negative. If something really does not exist , it seems to be meaningless, or at least pointless, to even discuss that you don't believe in it! What a tremendous waste of time.
I don't think that this is really what most so-called atheists mean when they say that they don't believe that God exists.
During the debate Dawkins makes this interesting point:
“My mind is open to the most wonderful range of future possibilities, which I cannot even dream about, nor can you, nor can anybody else. What I am skeptical about is the idea that whatever wonderful revelation does come in the science of the future, it will turn out to be one of the particular historical religions that people happen to have dreamed up. When we started out and we were talking about the origins of the universe and the physical constants, I provided what I thought were cogent arguments against a supernatural intelligent designer. But it does seem to me to be a worthy idea. Refutable--but nevertheless grand and big enough to be worthy of respect. I don't see the Olympian gods or Jesus coming down and dying on the Cross as worthy of that grandeur. They strike me as parochial. If there is a God, it's going to be a whole lot bigger and a whole lot more incomprehensible than anything that any theologian of any religion has ever proposed.”
Often, when I read articles or books by atheists, I agree wholeheartedly with their arguments against the kind of God that is painfully represented by high profile TV evangelists and preachers. That's the kind of God that I rejected very early on in my life. When I looked at the complexity and great beauty of the creation I had to acknowledge that reality went much deeper than the simplistic view that seemed to be held by most religious people that I met. So, when I began my spiritual seeking over 40 years ago - I approached the search for truth from a viewpoint that was more like that of a sceptical scientist than that of a religious pilgrim.
FAITH IS A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION
Richard Dawkins once publically made this statement about faith:
"Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence." -From “The Nullifidian" (Dec 94)
Atheists seem to have the habit of coming up with a bad definition of something, like God, or faith, and then they spend considerable amounts of time proving it to be wrong!!!
A few years ago during a discussion with a very vocal Atheist, I asked him what evidence would inspire him to consider further investigation into the truth of Christianity, He thought for a moment and said - "I'd like to read an eyewitness account of a contemporary of Jesus who was not a believer - that would convince me." He really thought that he had come up with an impossible challenge but I responded with another question: "If you were an eyewitness of something that you observed to be true - wouldn't you be a little crazy not to believe it??"
He wasn't very happy about my response. I believe that in his case he was not someone who believed that God didn't exist - an Atheist, or even someone who didn't know if God exists - an Agnostic. He was simply like a lot of "unbelievers" - He didn't WANT TO KNOW if God exists.
Orthodox Christianity is a journey, not a destination.
Faith, to an Orthodox Christian is believing beyond the facts, in the same direction of the facts. It's this kind of faith that leads to an attitude of constant discovery of deeper levels or realities of the truth - not to an attitude where truth is possessed or becomes a closed opinion. One grows in faith by investigation - Jesus encouraged doubters to investigate (i.e. He invited St. Thomas to touch His side). Jesus did not expect blind faith from His followers.
This kind of faith is not too much different from the motivation that inspired one of Dawkin's heroes, Charles Darwin, to investigate and seek evidence for his theories for the origins of species. If Darwin had taken the attitude of unbelief in his theories due to insufficient evidence - perhaps Dawkin's destiny may have been different.
“When you set out to seek the truth, one provision for the journey that’s very helpful is: Be sure you allow for accepting it when you find it."
- Happy Dodds, “Spiritual Being – A User’s Guide,” p. 83
2 comments:
Actually, it depends on where you get your definition from.
If a theist is someone who believes in the existence of god. an atheist is just the opposite of that.
Consequently, an atheist is someone who doesn't believe in the existence of god/gods.
Some atheists go a bit further and claim that the gods (none of them) exist.
I merely don't believe that they exist.
Of course there are scientists (as in all occupations) who believe in a god/gods, and there are those who don't.
I think definitions, and where we get them from are a huge part of the issue - when we say we don't believe something exists - it really depends on HOW WE DEFINE that thing. If my definition of that thing, or perhaps my understanding of it is wrong, or skewed, then it probably DOES NOT EXIST. All we can know of realities outside our understanding are by defining them within the context of our experience. Something outside our experience then appears not to exist. If we can consider that there are unknowable aspects of reality outside our circle of understanding - then the possibility exists that God could exist in that unknown dimension.
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