Opinion Fighting faiths
Just a few years ago,it seemed curious that an omniscient,omnipotent God wouldnt smite tormentors like Richard Dawkins,Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris.
Just a few years ago,it seemed curious that an omniscient,omnipotent God wouldnt smite tormentors like Richard Dawkins,Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris. They all published best-selling books excoriating religion and practically inviting lightning bolts. Traditionally,religious wars were fought with swords and sieges; today,they often are fought with books. And in literary circles,these battles have usually been fought at the extremes.Fundamentalists fired volleys of Left Behind novels,in which Jesus returns to Earth to battle the Anti-Christ (whose day job was secretary general of the United Nations). Meanwhile,devout atheists built mocking websites like http://www.whydoesGodhateamputees.com. That site notes that although believers periodically credit prayer with curing cancer,God never seems to regrow lost limbs. It demands an end to divine discrimination against amputees.
This year is different,with a crop of books that are less combative and more thoughtful. One of these is The Evolution of God,by Robert Wright,who explores how religions have changed improved over the millennia. He notes that God,as perceived by humans,has mellowed from the capricious warlord sometimes depicted in the Old Testament who periodically orders genocides.
Wright also argues that monotheism emerged only gradually among Israelites,and that the God familiar to us may have resulted from a merger of a creator god,El,and a warrior god,Yahweh. Wright also argues that monotheism wasnt firmly established until after the Babylonian exile,and he says that Mosess point was that other gods shouldnt be worshipped,not that they didnt exist. For example,he notes the troubling references to a divine council and gods plural in Psalm 82.
Wright detects an evolution toward an image of God as a more beneficient and universal deity,one whose moral compass favors compassion for humans of whatever race or tribe,one who is now firmly in the antigenocide camp. Wrights focus is not on whether God exists,but he does suggest that changing perceptions of God reflect a moral direction to history and that this in turn perhaps reflects some kind of spiritual force.To the extent that god grows,that is evidence maybe not massive evidence,but some evidence of higher purpose, Wright says.
Another best-seller this year,Karen Armstrongs The Case for God,likewise doesnt posit a Grandpa-in-the-Sky; rather,she sees God in terms of an ineffable presence that can be neither proven nor disproven in any rational sense. To Armstrong,faith belongs to the realm of lifes mysteries,beyond the world of reason,and people on both sides of the God gap make the mistake of interpreting religious traditions too literally.
Over the centuries people in all cultures discovered that by pushing their reasoning powers to the limit,stretching language to the end of its tether,and living as selflessly and compassionately as possible,they experienced a transcendence that enabled them to affirm their suffering with serenity and courage, Armstrong writes. Her book suggests that religion is not meant to regrow lost limbs,but that it may help some amputees come to terms with their losses.
Whatever ones take on God,theres no doubt that religion remains one of the most powerful forces in the world. Another new book,The Faith Instinct,by my Times colleague Nicholas Wade,suggests a reason for the durability of faith: humans may be programmed for religious belief,because faith conferred evolutionary advantages in primitive times. That doesnt go to the question of whether God exists,but it suggests that religion in some form may be with us for aeons to come.
Im hoping that the latest crop of books marks an armistice in the religious wars,a move away from both religious intolerance and irreligious intolerance. That would be a sign that perhaps we,along with God,are evolving toward a higher moral order.
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