Does Religion Poison Everything?

Symbio3/17/12

Christopher Hitchens

“Violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children: organized religion ought to have a great deal on its conscience.”

Religion has…1. Instigated atrocities such as the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, etc.2. Led to hate and intolerance3. Oppressed women and minorities4. Created sectarian bigotries5. Opposed scientific process6. Promoted slavery7. Caused environmental destruction8. Initiated wars9. Created harmful superstitions resulting in unjustified death (e.g. witch

hunts)10. Led to oppressive colonialism11. Been a source of extreme moral failures and hypocrisy12. Not offered better solutions (e.g. divorce statistics are similar)

Responses

1. Christians sin

Christians SinGalatians 2:14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

2Peter 1:5-9 5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

Responses

1. Christians sin2. Religion does poison everything

Religion Does Poison EverythingEzekiel 5:5-8 5 "Thus says the Lord GOD: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. 6 And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries all around her; for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes. 7 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, and have not even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you, 8 therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations.

Responses

1. Christians sin2. Religion does poison everything3. Not all Christians are Christians

Not all Christians are Christians

• There is a difference between Christendom and biblical Christianity– Church of Power vs. Church of Piety

Church of Power vs. Church of Piety

“When he (Constantine) showered privileges and status on the Christian clergy he inadvertently caused a ‘stampede into the priesthood’…As a result, many immoral, insincere, and indolent men were ordained, far too many of whom gained very important positions in the church. At the same time, of course, many who entered the religious life were not careerists or libertines, but were deeply committed Christians. Consequently, there arose what, in effect, became two parallel churches. These can usefully be identified as the Church of Power and the Church of Piety.”

Rodney Stark

Not all Christians are Christians

Acts 20:29-31 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.

Not all Christians are Christians

Jude 1:4, 12-13 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ…12 These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

Not all Christians are Christians

• There is a difference between Christendom and biblical Christianity– Church of Power vs. Church of Piety

• 85% Christian America• Divorce statistics• Social causes will often ride faith structures– Peasant wars

Responses

1. Christians sin2. Religion does poison everything3. Not all Christians are Christians4. Attacks on Christianity borrow from the

Christian ethic

Attacks on Christianity Borrow from the Christian Ethic

“But what do we mean by making things better? Most modern talk on this matter is a mere argument in a circle – that circle which we have already made the symbol of madness and of mere rationalism. Evolution is only good if it produces good; good is only good if it helps evolution. The elephant stands on the tortoise, and the tortoise on the elephant.”

Attacks on Christianity Borrow from the Christian Ethic

“…nature does not say that cats are more valuable than mice; nature makes no remark on the subject. She does not even say that the cat is enviable or the mouse pitiable. We think the cat superior because we have (or most of us have) a particular philosophy to the effect that life is better than death. But if the mouse were a German pessimist mouse, he might not think that the cat had beaten him at all. He might think he had beaten the cat by getting to the grave first. Or he might feel that he had actually inflicted frightful punishment on the cat by keeping him alive.”

Attacks on Christianity Borrow from the Christian Ethic

“Just as a microbe might feel proud of spreading a pestilence, so the pessimistic mouse might exult to think that he was renewing in the cat the torture of conscious existence. It all depends on the philosophy of the mouse. You cannot even say that there is victory or superiority in nature unless you have some doctrine about what things are superior. You cannot even say that the cat scores unless there is a system of scoring. You cannot even say that the cat gets the best of it unless there is some best to be got.”

G.K. Chesterton

Responses

1. Christians sin2. Religion does poison everything3. Not all Christians are Christians4. Attacks on Christianity borrow from the

Christian ethic5. Secularism’s outworkings

Secularism’s Outworkings

• 20th Century Genocide– Hitler – Stalin– Mao – Pol Pot

• One middle-of-the-road estimate is that communist governments in the 20th century were responsible for 110,000,000 murders.

Responses

1. Christians sin2. Religion does poison everything3. Not all Christians are Christians4. Attacks on Christianity borrow from the

Christian ethic5. Secularism’s outworkings6. Slanted history

Slanted History

1. Enlightenment biases? Was the Classical Age that classic? Were the Dark Ages that dark? Did the Renaissance come about because

thinkers were freed from religious shackles, or because they were motivated by a biblical perspective spurred on by the Reformation?

Slanted History

1. Crusades At the time of the first Crusade in 1096, Christendom had

been fighting a defensive war with Islam for more than 450 years

2. Spanish Inquisition Historians have recently gained access to complete

records of all 44,701 cases heard by Inquisition courts between 1540 and 1700

Apparently about 2,300 people were executed (previous “conservative” estimates were at least 30,000) over nearly two centuries

Responses

1. Christians sin2. Religion does poison everything3. Not all Christians are Christians4. Attacks on Christianity borrow from the

Christian ethic5. Secularism’s outworkings6. Slanted history7. Christianity’s fruit

Christianity’s Fruit1. Science2. Compassion3. Women’s Rights4. Emancipation5. Appreciation for the environment6. Education7. Life meaning8. Less corruption9. Beauty10. Literature11. Music12. Language

Responses

1. Christians sin2. Religion does poison everything3. Not all Christians are Christians4. Attacks on Christianity borrow from the Christian

ethic5. Secularism’s outworkings6. Slanted history7. Christianity’s fruit8. Living and Speaking the Gospel