Of God and His Enemies | Narrative Magazine - November 2008

Of God and His Enemies - Hal Crowther

It's Christmas Eve, and me and my family are celebrating Christmas. But we are not practicing Christians. I'm an atheist, my wife is a reluctant non-believer, though she would never admit it, and my two kids that live at home are devout skeptics.

The kids (ages 15 and 12) acknowledge that people have different beliefs and they are tolerant of those beliefs unless and until they start crossing the line of civility. They have been questioned by their schoolmates, with deep incredulity, about the fact that they don't attend church.

They find this a bit bewildering. They are not passing judgement on their classmates' beliefs, but rather their classmates' behaviors. I point out to them that this is one of those things about "organized" religion, at least as it is practiced in the United States, that makes us look backward and somewhat stupid as a culture.

This brings us to Hal Crowther's essay. He has written a meandering essay (really, though, find a good essay that isn't meandering, I think it is essential to the style of writing as it reflects the thinking of the writer) regarding God and the various types of believers and non-believers and what they get right and wrong about him, according to Mr. Crowther, that is. (Did you notice that I didn't capitalize the "h" in "him"?)

Thoughtful writing on this topic always captures my attention. Mr. Crowther argues, with near belligerence, about America's dogged dogmatism. We are a nation of believers, however casual, that don't seem to mind stories of virgin births, rising from the dead, and other miracles associated with Jesus. We believe without question the stories of the Old Testament, including the six day creation, a massive worldwide flood, and Israel's capture of the promised land with its associated destruction of the local population.

He states, as I have often stated myself, what a vindictive, mean entity Yahweh is in the Old Testament. A semi-close rational reading shows that hardly any of these stories can possibly make literal sense. Yet, the majority of Americans believe it.

Crowther covers a lot of ground here. He points out that we expect our politicians to be believers of some sort and atheists need not appear on any ballots (or if so, make a public showing of faith and attending church services.) He picks apart Leviticus, and deservedly so. By the way, if you haven't read the Bible, it is worth the read, just so you can better understand one of the pillars of Western Civilization, even if Europe is supposedly mostly godless these days.

My favorite parts of the essay are those where he takes atheists, especially writers of popular atheistic works, to task. I agree with him completely that there is a bit of the dogmatic in atheism. The denial of a supernatural being, in my opinion, is somewhat irrational depending on how the non-belief is framed. I have no problem in not believing in the divinity of Jesus. That's easy. I have no problem denying the reality of the personal God of the Old Testament. Seems to be similar to writing about Zeus or Thor or Ra or Shiva, and not many of us believe that these entities ever have really existed.

My problem with knee-jerk atheism is the insistence that there cannot be a supernatural being. How can a rational person be that closed-minded? Before you say it, this does not make me an agnostic. I am not agnostic about my unbelief in the divine characters of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. I do not believe. But if I were presented with evidence, I could change my mind.

Mr. Crowther brings William James into the picture and his one of his masterworks, The Varieties of Religious Experience, which he uses to show the intellectual laziness that modern atheist writers take.  It is easy to demolish the irrationality of organized religion.  But to ponder religious experience, to come to terms with the interconnectedness of things, to have the courage to recognize that something might be happening that is beyond our current science, beyond our ability to reason would require atheism to believe that its position is weak.

Of course, this doesn't mean that suddenly the Bible contains literal truths.  It doesn't mean that New Agers are on to something with their mystical serenity.  Allowing yourself to be open to religious experience doesn't make you a believer in God.

Mr. Crowther nails it toward the end of the essay when he states that this really isn't a struggle between science and religion.  History is a struggle for control and suppression of humanity's impulses toward "authoritarian, xenophobic, and homicidal" behaviors.  A people does not need a religion to have these impulses, though, unfortunately, people use religion as an excuse to justify these impulses.  How does reason address these impulses?  That would a good book for an atheist to write.

Meanwhile, we have to prepare for Christmas.  We listen to holiday music, give presents, have a tree, and a big feast.  I even have a Playmobil creche that I set up every year.  Not because I believe in the literal truth of Jesus' miraculous birth, but because it is part of my culture to celebrate in the dead of winter and to think about a symbol of peace and harmony embodied in a little baby.  I find that comforting and a lot of fun to celebrate.