Religious people say to atheists: “Why don’t you leave us alone? Why can’t we be left to believe what we believe? Why are organisations like the National Secular Society, and people like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris so angry with us and advocating that people should speak out against us?” The simple atheistic stance, as I understand it, is this: “Why should we go on listening to people who believe things which are so irrational and absurd? Despite the advances in the sciences, the social sciences, and in textual criticism that have taken place since the Enlightenment, if people have a medieval or pre-medieval mindset and persist in believing in the myths, and yet in America or Iran (at least) these same people have access to nuclear weapons, the whole world should be concerned, and not just the atheists.”
The danger and the pain of the conflict between pre- and post-Enlightenment cultures were illustrated yesterday in a court ruling fining Westboro Baptist Church, Topeka, Kansas, £5.2 million.
The church comprises around 70 members of the pastor’s (Fred Phelps) extended family. For years the church has denounced homosexuality, initially targeting the funerals of Aids victims. But they later extended their pickets to the funerals of soldiers, who they say are being punished by God because of America’s tolerance of homosexuality. Last year they caused outrage when they attended the funeral of Matthew Snyder with signs reading “Thank God for dead soldiers” and “You’re going to hell”.
Matthew’s father, Albert Snyder, wept when he heard the verdict. “I hope it’s enough to deter them from doing this to other families. It was not about the money. It was about getting them to stop.”
Daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper - co-defendant along with another daughter, Rebecca Phelps-Davis - vowed to continue picketing military funerals.
The church-goers would, of course, rationalize their stance something like this: Our pre-Enlightenment reading of a book we call the bible (conveniently ignoring the fact that the Jews, the Protestants, the Catholics all claim to have bibles which are very different) condemns homosexual practice. We believe the bible and wish to live according to its precepts (conveniently ignoring the fact the bible blatantly contradicts itself and that there are many things in the bible that we don’t practice because they no longer fit in with our culture). We are entitled to free speech to proclaim what we think we know about the actions of our god (conveniently ignoring the fact that we don’t, even though we imagine that we do).
There are so, so, so many things wrong with their arguments. Let me briefly expand a few of them:
- It is a myth to think that there is a definitive answer as to what the bible is. Even today, leaving aside the Jewish bible, the Catholics and Protestants cannot agree what books to include in the canon. The accident of Constantine gaining power over the Roman empire meant that some of the books in use in some of the churches at the time were suppressed and the books used in the churches he favoured were canonized. A different emperor would almost certainly have lead to a different bible.
- The bible on the one hand condemns various people to be put to death and on the other hand proclaims: “Judge not that ye be not judged.”
- The book of Leviticus, the one of the mainstays of fundamentalist condemnation of homosexuality, contains all sorts of injunctions including those about religious sacrifice, dietery laws, and clothing. Why such an ancient text of religious cultic practice should inform twenty-first century society is not clear. And why some parts of the books are seized in justification, and others ignored is illogical. “Aha,” some say. “We now have the New Covenant. We live under grace, not the law. We don’t have to do the food stuff, or the sacrifice stuff, or the clothing stuff.” Well, if they conveniently ditch those, why not ditch the whole lot?
- Claiming that what you think you ought to do is definitely god’s will, and claiming that you know what god will do is extremely dangerous. It shows signs of detatchment from reality that is bordering on mental illness. It’s amazing how often the voice of god sounds very much like our own! If god telephones you and says: “I want you to picket these funerals, and by the way, I am definitely sending them to hell,” fair enough. But she or he didn’t!
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Update: 4/11/07. I have just read in the Economist Special Report on Religion and Public Life (3/11/07) that Christians in Kenya recently denounced the exhibition of the Turkana Boy - the most complete prehistoric human skeleton - because he inconveniently lived thousands of years before Adam is supposed to have met Eve. And a lavish new $27 million Creation Museum in Petersburgh, Kentucky, aims to set the record straight, showing how dinosaurs could have mingled with humans shortly after time allegedly began in 4004BC, and how Noah squeezed pairs of all the world’s animals into a boat only 135 metres long.
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Update: 5/11/07.
Emma Gough, 22, from Telford, Shropshire, gave birth at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on 25 October. Just hours later, complications set in - but because of Mrs Gough’s faith, doctors were powerless to save her. Emma was a Jehovah’s Witness and believed that the bible taught that blood transfusions were a sin.
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See also
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3YOIImOoYM]
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See also:
Part of that secular fury, especially in Europe, comes from exasperation. After all, it has been a canon of progressive thought since the Enlightenment that modernity—that heady combination of science, learning and democracy—would kill religion. Plainly this hasn’t happened…from a secularist point of view, the wrong sorts of religion are flourishing, and in the wrong places. In general, it is the tougher versions of religion that are doing best—the sort that claim Adam and Eve met 6,003 years ago. Some of the new converts are from the ranks of the underprivileged (Pentecostalism has spread rapidly in the favelas of Brazil), but many are not. American evangelicals tend to be well-educated and well-off. In India and Turkey religious parties have been driven by the up-and-coming bourgeoisie. From Holy Depressing
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Update: 14/11/07: Terrible report in the Times, yet again, about the Iranian policy of executing homosexuals - including underage boys - and other so-called ‘moral criminals. Recently a woman made pregnant by her brother was hanged (he walked free). It is done in the name of religion, as were witch-burnings in 16th century Europe.
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Update 15/11/07: Terrible report in the Guardian about fundamentalist attacks against women.
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Update 16/11/07: Christian sect in cave awaiting the end of the world. Reuters’ Report.
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Update 23/01/08: Westboro are at it again. See the Humanist Report.
Let’s be fair and say that many Christians condemn the behaviour of these members of the Westboro Baptist Church and have made this clear.
In a civilized society, people are allowed to mourn their dead and to perform their funeral rites in peace and a breach of this rule rightly causes outrage. Behaviour such as this is not merely beyond the pale: it deserves the label “uncivilized”.
A civilized society protects the rights of citizens to express their opinions and to debate ideas freely. Equally, it has a duty to protect its citizens against harassment.
It doesn’t matter to me what is written in the Bible, what the composition of the modern Bible is and whether people obey all its injunctions or pick and choose among them. That is irrelevant to the case, as far as I am concerned. The behaviour of the incestuous-sounding Westboro Baptist Church is simply wrong, malicious and evil by any civilized canon of behaviour. The motives and their origins make no difference.
If Westboro Baptist Church wants to stand up in public and express its view that homosexuality is a sin, then it has a right to do so. But its rights cease at the point where it turns to direct action and seeks to disrupt people’s lives.
You cannot, unfortunately, legislate against stupidity, but you can and should legislate against disruption of people’s legitimate activities.
Good thoughts here. Those folks over at Westboro Baptist Church anger me to know end. I am not sure what is worse, what they believe and practice or the fact that people even buy into it.
Nice blog by the way, glad I happened upon it. I can truely relate with your struggles over the last few years and where you have ended up.
[...] placing the order. If they could afford it after their £5.2 million fine, the fine leaders of Westbor Baptist Church would presumably want to distribute bibles at certain funerals with the words “Homosexuals [...]
Interesting to see that someone propounding the athiest view does so on the basis of virtually zero knowlege and understanding of what he opposes, and little concern for the facts.
It is perhaps no surprise however, as atheism must be the ultimate “closed mind” philosophy denying even the possibility of an alternative to their standpont on the basis of having aboslutely no evidence to support their (lack of) belief.
It must be the finest example of “blind faith”. A thinking person will question. Athiests expound that there is no need to question as they are certain of nothing….literally
Alan Field
Interesting to see that someone propounding the athiest view does so on the basis of virtually zero knowlege and understanding of what he opposes, and little concern for the facts. What arrogance to assume that you know about me! I was a practising evangelical Christian for over thirty years, I was church leader, bible teacher, pastoral counsellor, and Christian author. I think I understand VERY well what I have rejected and why I have rejected it.
The ‘atheists have faith’ argument is old hat and very shallow. I have faith that my car will take me to my next appointment, but that doesn’t mean much. Whereas religions are like selecting which TV channel to watch, atheists just say: “This is boring and weird and doesn’t relate to how I understand the world.” So they switch off the set and do something else with their lives. If that is having blind faith, so be it.