After some interesting conversations both verbally and electronically with Andy the past couple of months, I've launched out into the depths of atheistic literature. The book I started this weekend is The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, a noted atheist and gifted author, which appears to be a quite potent combination considering that this work is ranked #15 on the New York Times Best Sellers List today, and has been on the list for 32 weeks. I actually referenced Dawkins a few posts ago when I asked Why Believe?, but this is the first time I've read any of his material directly. In the post I linked to an article I found on Arts & Letters daily that I felt was well-written and just enticing enough to probe a bit further, so here I am. As if the article itself wasn't enough, the widely disparate viewpoints of a couple of my friends (Andy & Jabel) on Dawkins & atheism in general have provided the final impetus necessary to get me reading. As a matter of fact, the book was hand-delivered to me by Andy, tucked nicely into a saddle-bag on his beast of a bike and brought the many miles that separate us geographically, so I offer him my sincere thanks. As of this post, I'm better than 10% of the way through, and already I've found many, many intriguing points. Not the least of which is Dawkins' "spectrum of probability" concerning the existence or non-existence of God. He sums it up as follows:
1. Strong theist. 100 per cent probability of God. In the words of C.G. Jung, 'I do not believe, I know.'
2. Very high probability but short of 100 per cent. De facto theist. 'I cannot know for certain, but I strongly believe in God and live my life on the assumption that he is there.'
3. Higher than 50 per cent but not very high. Technically agnostic but leaning towards theism. 'I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God.'
4. Exactly 50 per cent. Completely impartial agnostic. 'God's existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable.'
5. Lower than 50 per cent but not very low. Technically agnostic but leaning towards atheism. 'I don't know whether God exists but I'm inclined to be sceptical.'
6. Very low probability, but short of zero. De facto atheist. 'I cannot know for certain, but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there.'
7. Strong atheist. 'I know there is no God, with the same conviction that Jung 'knows' there is one.'
Not too long ago I would have unquestionably placed myself in category 1, but now I'm not so sure. What I do know is that I'm determined to never latch onto any belief (or non-belief) without a copious amount of investigation...
4 comments:
I would say I am in category two - de facto theist. Like you, I used to be one of those completely certain types. I have a theory that those Christians who place a great deal of emphasis on personal experience with God are much more likely to place themselves within the 100% certain category. After all, they felt God just this past Sunday. He even spoke through them. Those of us who do not place much confidence in experience (in fact, don't really have any experiences) and are more intellectual about faith are going to be in category two.
I figured that's where you'd be, but I wasn't certain due to how much emphasis was placed on the sacredness and infallibility of scripture with you and the Lutheran church. It seems that if you view scripture as 100% "God-breathed", then you'd still be category 1, no faith in spiritual experiences notwithstanding. At this point, I'd safely say I'm a category 3. I like the phrase "inclined to believe in God", because I'd be foolish to say I didn't want to believe He exists. So my being in the "I really don't know" category is probably the most accurate right now. I'm immensely interested in your viewpoint on all of these matters, so make sure you feel complete liberty to add to or counter anything you read or hear me say concerning this book specifically, and the topic in general. Peace!
My view of Scripture doesn't exactly line up with much of the LCMS. In fact, it is a continual work in process. Nevertheless, I believe the Bible is inspired and God's written revelation of himself. That flows from other beliefs that eventually get back to the belief in the existence of God. A belief in the divine inspiration of the Bible presupposes a belief in a personal God. If I was to say that God exists because the Bible says he does that would be to commit the logical fallacy of begging the question, that is, proving the existence of God by an argument that already assumes the existence of God.
Jeremy, regarding comment #3: BRAVO!
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