Recently I read a comment originating with the atheist popularizer, Sam Harris, deriding Christians for believing accounts of Christ that come from the Bible:
“The Bible, it seems certain, was the work of sand-strewn men and women who thought the earth was flat and for whom the wheelbarrow would have been a breathtaking example of emerging technology.”
This can be found on page 45 of his book, "The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the future of Reason."
I understand that for some people (apparently Sam Harris), this might appear to be an appropriate criticism, but the logic is more than a little muddled. Harris’ argument seems to hinge on the idea that people whom WE consider to be technologically primitive are incapable of perceiving events as they actually occurred and equally unable to report them with fidelity to anyone else. Mr. Harris is welcome to place his faith in such dubious conclusions, but there are a few things the rest of us should consider before converting to his beliefs. Read on in the comments attached.
-CL
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First of all, neither historical events nor truth statements are contingent upon the relative technological advances of the people that witness or record them. By Harris’ logic, anything and everything that ancient people did, said, wrote down or thought is contemptible for mere fact that ancient people were ancient people. Put another way, his argument suggests that technologically "primitive" people are incapable of discerning truth, much less accurately conveying it to those who come after them.
ReplyDeleteUh… come again?
Secondly, statements like Harris’ demonstrate an embarrassing lack of self-awareness when it comes to our own location in history. What I mean is that this sort of logic presumes that we are presently at the pinnacle of knowledge and technological innovation, and this is laughable. While it might initially be tempting to buy into this because of where we are SO FAR in human history on planet earth, a tiny bit of reflection will reveal that the sentiment is ludicrous even if we ruled out the possible technological advances of truly alien races (think ET). To clarify, while we can look back and congratulate ourselves for having come this far (iPods and space shuttles etc.), we are not at the end of time. We are part of a continuum and should consider that perhaps Harris’ wheelbarrow is to the 1st century what the microchip is to the late 20th century. Looking forward, what might we hypothesize that humans in the 41st century would say about the technology and understanding of people in the 21st century? Speculate with me:
"Can you imagine, those poor schleps thought that Apple products were amazing ‘technological innovations’!?!? Since we obviously know better now, we should dismiss anything that those ignorant, 21st century fools did, said or transmitted to us here in the 5th millennium."
The arrogance and impoverished logic here is astounding.
Of course I suspect that Harris’ verbal hand-grenade was not intended to criticize everything about 1st century peoples everywhere, but rather just those who had profound experiences with Christ and his church. I doubt that Harris approaches non-Christian and non-supernatural accounts and events of a similar vintage with the same amount of vitriol and skepticism. That is his prerogative, but it accomplishes little besides pulling back the curtain on his biases and materialistic faith-commitments (at least for those of us willing to look).
To make a final point, I suggest that we turn the tables on Harris and consider the earliest Christians to be well ahead of their time. The argument might sound like this:
“Because extremely educated and technologically sophisticated people believe in Jesus in the 21st century, this demonstrates that people who believed in Christ with the comparative technological limitations of the first century were truly thousands of years more enlightened than their non-believing associates.”
I suspect that atheists will not be impressed by such thinking, and this is precisely why I am amazed that they think Harris’ quote on the matter merits allegiance or why they champion him as a spokesperson for their cause. Is he the best they have to offer?
Happily, I think so. Dig deep.
Thanks for reading me.
-CL
Ahhh! Harris' weakness you pointed out had a name given by C. S. Lewis: Chronological Snobbery.
ReplyDeleteSam speaks not only of Religion in its aspects of fundamentalism and extremism. He speaks very eloquently of religious moderates and their failure to speak up (and speak out)in a time when they should. Every point in his book is based on reason and expertise in much of the subject matter. This is a full of great explanation and discussion. As a son of a Baptist minister long trying to free himself from the bonds of religious thought, I found this book a great help. Having said that, however, I expect most sincere Christians (as well as Muslims et al) will not appreciate this book.
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