When I was soliciting feedback on the Introduction to my book, The Shortest Leap, I received a package in the mail from an atheistic friend. It contained the book, A Letter to a Christian Nation, by atheistic evangelist Sam Harris. My friend suggested I take a look, and he even commented that my writing reminded him of Sam Harris’. (If you’re wondering, at the time, my book was titled, “101 Reasons to Believe Jesus Is God.”) Here is my response letter:
Dear XXXX,
Thank you so much for taking a look at the preliminary Introduction to the book I am writing. Your feedback on my arguments would be very helpful, if you would like to give me any. I hesitate to thank you for your left-handed compliment that my writing reminds you of that of your favorite religion writer, since I find Mr. Harris’ writing to be blunt, sarcastic, hateful and vitriolic at every turn. I certainly hope I don’t come across the same way in my book, and if I do, please let me know when and how. He demonstrates that he greatly misunderstands Christianity, and it leaves me to wonder whether he has read any books by Christian authors or has limited his research only to writings by atheists like himself. Moreover, if his true audience really is the fundamentalist Christian, as he claims, he couldn’t have written a worse book to convince them to change their minds. His attempt at eliminating division in our society is like trying to carve an intricate ice sculpture with a blowtorch.
Fortunately (or unfortunately, perhaps), I had already read “Letter to a Christian Nation” a few months ago, so it is easier for me to respond to you because I’ve marked the margins of practically every page with comments. (Unlike Harris, I try to stay informed of opinions that differ from my own. Richard Dawkins’ latest book, “The God Delusion,” is in my pile of books to read next, and if you have any other recommendations on books that defend the secular viewpoint – perhaps ones that aren’t so hateful – I’d gladly read them.)
I am not sure where to start, as I could write a book of equal or greater size in response to his. In fact, one of the main reasons I’m writing my book on the reasons to believe Jesus is God is to respond to books like this one. I’ll be happy to send it to you when I have completed it. But I don’t think you would want to read that much of my opinion in a single response letter! Therefore, I will broadly respond to his major assertions, both correct ones and false.
I’ll start with his correct assertions, the first of which he states on page 5: “If the Bible is an ordinary book, and Christ an ordinary man, the basic doctrine of Christianity is false… and the history of Christian theology is the story of bookish men parsing a collective delusion.” This is absolutely correct. (The Bible itself says this if you look at 1 Corinthians 15:13-14.) Unless Christians believe that Jesus really was who He claimed to be, God in human flesh, there is no use being a Christian. In fact, I agree with what he says on page 90 – if there is no God, religion has served its purpose already and can be discarded now. Most “liberal” Christians don’t get this point. Sam Harris is absolutely right – there is no point in being a Christian unless you believe Jesus is God and the Bible is the inspired word of God. Yet we devout Christians don’t just believe it because we want to, or because we want to think that others who disagree with us are going to hell! There are many good reasons to believe that there is a God, and that He cares what we think about Him (i.e. we can’t just make up what we like to think because it’s what our culture tells us, it “works” for us, or it lets us live life the way we want to). I will include my list of 101 reasons to believe with this letter, and I am happy to recommend some good books on the subject, but I’ll leave it at that for now.
Second correct assertion: Mr. Harris states: “Understand that the way you view Islam is precisely the way devout Muslims view Christianity. And it is the way I view all religions.” Basically, he is admitting that he is doing the same thing that he criticizes Christians and Muslims for doing. He is putting forth his view of spiritual reality (that there is nothing beyond the natural world), a view that he accepts entirely on faith, and he is telling all others to believe like he does in order for there to be peace on earth. It takes just as much faith (and I believe more) to believe that there is no God as it does to believe God revealed Himself in the Bible and in the person of Jesus. I agree with Mr. Harris when he blames much of the discord and bloodshed in the world on those who make fundamentalist religious truth claims. But the answer is not to just get rid of religion, as he suggests, since his own opinion that there is no God and that belief in God is bad is just as much a religious truth claim that causes division and strife (unless of course everyone believes like he does, which is just as unlikely as it would be for everyone to believe like I do).
Third correct assertion: On page 86, Mr. Harris states: “It accomplishes nothing to merely declare that ‘we all worship the same God,’ We do not all worship the same God, and nothing attests to this fact more eloquently than our history of religious bloodshed.” Very true. If you look at the core beliefs of Christianity, nowhere does Jesus say we should kill those who disagree with us. In fact, He tells us to love our enemies. If you look at the core beliefs of Islam, you will see that it’s riddled with commands to convert non-believers using force, it promises heavenly rewards to those who kill others (and themselves) to spread Islam, and it orders believers to persecute (even kill) those who convert from Islam to Christianity. This is definitely not the same God! Christianity calls for religious tolerance (the majority of the writers of the U.S. constitution were devout Christians). It is one thing for Christians to believe they have the “truth” about God and to want to share it with others. It is quite another to force this belief on others using violence. Anyone who claims to be a Christian and uses violence to get others to believe is not truly following what Jesus taught.
Fourth correct assertion: On page 90, Mr. Harris says, “But any genuine exploration of ethics or the contemplative life demands the same standards of reasonableness and self-criticism that animate all intellectual discourse.” I totally agree. While I understand why they do this, it bothers me to see Christians just accept their beliefs without fully investigating the rational evidence for Christianity. This is why another primary objective of my book is to educate Christians about the evidence in favor of Christianity so they can defend it rationally. But let me clarify that belief in Jesus doesn’t require intelligence, logic or education, since there is nothing in anyone that enables them to believe. The core of the Christian Gospel is that faith comes from God’s grace alone, not from human effort. One more thing, Mr. Harris ignores his own advice by writing a book that so obviously reveals a misunderstanding of what Christians really believe. For intellectual discourse to be reasonable, one must look at both sides of an argument in the course of one’s research.
Fifth correct assertion: On page 13, Mr. Harris says, “If you think Jesus taught only the Golden Rule and love of one’s neighbor, you should reread the New Testament.” It is true that Jesus taught more about hell than about anything else. If you understand the Christian concept of hell, you will see that it is not a place that God sends anyone. You only go there if you choose to. Hell is simply the absence of God, and anyone who chooses to ignore God in this present life will get what they have asked for, complete separation from Him. The “hellfire” imagery that is used throughout the Bible is most likely only figurative, but it is indicative of an equally (or more) terrible situation. Do I believe in hell because I want to? Not at all! But I don’t choose what is true and what is false based on what I like or don’t like. I have examined other reasons to believe that what Jesus says is true, and based on these, I must accept everything He teaches. If God made the universe, it is not my place to make Him the way I wish He were. Moreover, because hell is a central teaching of Jesus, it behooves everyone to investigate whether He really is who He says He is (rather than just reject Him because you don’t like His message), because if He is, there is a huge risk in rejecting Him.
Now I’ll turn to Mr. Harris’ major flawed assertions.
The first major flawed assertion: Mr. Harris says in the “Note to the Reader” on page viii: “The respect they [fundamentalist Christians] demand for their own religious beliefs gives shelter to extremists of all faiths.” He basically is saying that for fundamentalist Christians to request tolerance for their own faith requires tolerance of even the most violent fundamentalist Muslims. First of all, isn’t religious tolerance a good thing? Secondly, the actions of fundamentalist Christianity in no way resemble those of the jihadists. I mentioned above how very different the core beliefs of Christians and Muslims are, but it goes beyond this. Salvation in Christianity is not about being a good person, but about recognizing that we can never be as good as a perfectly holy God requires. Instead, we can only accept on faith what Jesus did for us by taking our punishment for us. This “salvation by grace alone” is totally different from all other religions, which are based on “salvation by works.” One of the key outcomes of a religion built on works is a disdain for anyone who isn’t as good as you are (or doesn’t believe as you do). Unfortunately, it is like falling off a log on a river for any human to try to look to his works or beliefs in order to claim he is better than others. All humans are innately looking to build ourselves up, and one of the easiest ways to do so is to cut others down. Therefore, many Christians fall into this instinctual tendency, even though the core belief of Christianity is that we are no better than anyone else. My tendency, to be honest, is to want to vilify Sam Harris for saying the things he says. But instead I am called to recognize that he is a fellow flawed (aka sinful) human being with just as much a desire for peace on earth as I have. It’s tough, but that is what my beliefs call for. However, Sam Harris definitely doesn’t think that about Christians (or any religious person, for that matter!). You just have to read the first page or two to see how much he hates us, blames us for all of the world’s ills, and thinks we’re stupid idiots. So, the solution to the world’s problems is not to get rid of fundamentalists (since Harris himself is a fundamentalist), but to find out which fundamental (if it is followed perfectly) leads to the greatest peace. I believe the fundamental that most leads to peace is the Christian Gospel of loving one’s enemies and seeking the good for one’s neighbor over oneself. Again, just because Christians don’t always act in accordance with this fundamental is not a reason to put the blame on the fundamental.
Second major flawed assertion: On page 6, Mr. Harris says: “Consider: every devout Muslim has the same reasons for being a Muslim that you have for being a Christian.” Over the last few years while writing my book, I have scoured the Internet for Muslim apologetic articles and books. The only articles that cover “Why I’m a Muslim” (and there are only a few) list reasons that are based on cultural pride, blind belief, and “it just feels right.” (I recommend you do a search as well.) On the contrary, there are strong reasons rooted in science and history, as well as personal experience and ethics, for Christians to believe what they do. (Again, see my current list of 101 reasons to believe in Jesus, which I have enclosed.) I can also recommend many other good Christian apologetics books, if you’re interested in finding out more about solid evidence for Christianity, other than “I just want it to be true” or “It works for me” or “My culture tells me to.”
Third major flawed assertion: Intelligent design is stupid. On page x, Mr. Harris expresses how troubled he is that the majority of Americans believe in “intelligent design” and says, “Nature offers no compelling evidence for an intelligent designer and countless examples of unintelligent design.” This shows how little Mr. Harris has actually researched what intelligent design proponents say. I have read many books on intelligent design as well as many books on evolution, and I can honestly say that I have an unbiased (yes, unbiased) belief that intelligent design makes much more sense than unguided evolution. Ironically, evolutionists criticize proponents of intelligent design for not fitting their theory to the facts, when it is really evolutionists whose theory doesn’t correspond with the data. If intelligent design, rather than unguided evolution, explains the universe and life in it, we’d expect the following: (1) scientific evidence demonstrating that the universe had a beginning, (2) scientific evidence demonstrating that the universe was precisely designed in order to exist at all, (3) scientific evidence demonstrating the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of lifeless chemicals giving rise to life, (4) scientific evidence demonstrating that even the simplest, single-celled organisms contain incredibly complex biochemical machinery, such that the likelihood that they evolved by chance is infinitesimally small, (5) scientific evidence demonstrating the appearance of life forms, including modern humans, suddenly in the fossil record, (6) scientific evidence demonstrating that gradual transition from species to species did not happen (or at least a paucity of evidence that it did), and (7) scientific evidence demonstrating that, once formed, species do not change into other species without human intervention (or a lack of evidence that they do), even though there may be “micro-evolutionary” change within the species. This evidence is precisely what secular scientists do find, even in the most recent, cutting edge scientific studies. If you would like to read any books on this subject, let me know, as there are many written by very intelligent scientists. One Web site to check out is www.reasonstobelieve.org. By the way, just because some creationists believe the world was created 5,000 years ago doesn’t mean that all creationists (including me) believe this.
Fourth major flawed assertion: The Bible contains horrific material about stoning others for “imaginary crimes” (p. 8), and we therefore must throw out anything it says. Yes, there are some parts of the Old Testament that completely horrify me. But to conclude that what the Bible says about Jesus is therefore not true is a huge jump in logic. First of all, you must recognize that the primary purpose of the Old Testament laws was to demonstrate the holiness of God and the extreme importance He places on our being holy as well if we are to have a relationship with Him. Moreover, the Old Testament laws demonstrate how difficult, in fact, impossible, it is to live up to God’s standards. Throughout the Old Testament, people are saved not because they follow the rules perfectly, but because God has chosen them and has mercy on them (salvation by grace). God didn’t even give the Ten Commandments to the Israelites until after He brought them out from slavery in Egypt. This is completely consistent with Jesus’ message – first, God accepts us (saves us), then we obey out of gratitude and joy. The only way we can be as holy as God – a necessary prerequisite to live in His presence for eternity – is if we accept Jesus as our “representative.”
With regard to other flawed assertions, I could go on for many, many more pages. I will stop here, unless you write back asking me to do so. In my book, I plan to address what he says about the other issues he raises. Let it suffice for now to say that there are good responses to his arguments, responses that he conveniently hasn’t bothered to research or address in his book.
I do not intend to convince you of the truth of Christianity, but I do hope to at least show you that to be a Christian does not require throwing away your brain, as Harris suggests. In the course of writing this letter, I’ve decided to send you a copy of a book I’ve recently read (and of which I happen to have an extra copy): “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist.” I encourage you to read it if you are truly interested in the Christian perspective. (You may not be truly interested, but I remind you of Harris’ excellent point about the need for reasonable self-criticism for a genuine exploration of ethics.) I’ve also included, as I’ve mentioned a couple times already, the Table of Contents of my book (the 101 reasons to believe that Jesus is God). Finally, I’ve included a CD with a 45-minute sermon entitled “Upside-Down Living,” by Dr. Timothy Keller. It’s a great summary of the Christian doctrine of hell and the Christian responsibility to love even those we would otherwise despise. I promise not to send you any more mail that is related to this topic, except perhaps to send you a copy of my book when it is completed!
I wish you all the best, and I hope to see you one of these days. If you’re ever in San Diego, you’re always welcome to stay with us, regardless of your religious beliefs! J
Yours truly,
Ally
