Arsenic and old fools

"Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.” ~ Job 38:2 & 4

Every Halloween my family likes to watch the black and white Frank Capra classic “Arsenic and Old Lace”. If you have never seen the film I will try to give you a brief plot synopsis without ruining the film. In movie vernacular this would probably be considered a “spoiler alert” so you have been warned. In the film Cary Grant plays the character Mortimer Brewster who is about to be married and comes home to Brooklyn to visit his two elderly aunts, (Abby and Martha) who are not as innocent as they might appear. Mortimer always thought it was just his Uncle Teddy (who thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt) was the delusional one, only to come to the shocking realization that his aunts have been poisoning elderly gentleman and burying them in the basement. He starts to worry that he shouldn’t get married because with so much madness running in his family that he might be slowly going crazy himself. One of the classic lines from the movie is; “Insanity doesn’t run in our family; it practically gallops.” He is relieved to find out at the end of the movie that he is actually not a Brewster by blood but was the adopted son of the family’s house keeper and that his father was a sailor. He gladly exclaims as he carries off his bride; “I am the son of a sea cook!”

The story is very cute and entertaining and it pits Mortimer not only against his “sweet” aunts and their homicidal intentions, but also against his sinister and evil brother Jonathan who is a serial killer on the run from police. Jonathan is depicted as the villain in the story and the aunts are presented as benevolent euthenics; they only kill sad lonely old gentleman with no family. But if you step back and think about it the Brewster sisters are also taking the position of God by determining who should die and when and how. They think that their poisoning is a helpful service and that they are simply doing their “gentleman” a favor by relieving them of their misery. Their delusion has led them to put themselves in jeopardy with the law and acceptable moral practices, and they are taking others down with them.

Delusion in everyday language is a fixed belief that is false, fanciful, or derived from deception. Clinical delusions is further defined as “A false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everybody else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. The belief is not one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person's culture or subculture.” In laymen’s terms in spite of all of the evidence to the contrary we deceive ourselves into the belief that our opinion or stance is incontrovertible. Being delusional also carries with it the complete and utter unwillingness to consider an opposing view and going as far as misrepresenting that evidence.

Recently there have been a number of books penned by the “New Atheists” that have hit the best seller lists. The three most prominent atheists are Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens; who can be best described as a scientist, a philosopher and a curmudgeon. Of the three the one that is the most ardent and outspoken is Richard Dawkins who was featured prominently in Ben Stein’s movie Expelled: No Evidence Allowed, (which I would highly recommend). Dawkins wrote the book “The God Delusion” which has been on the NY Times Best Seller list. I was challenged by a co-worker to read the book and I took him up on his challenge much to his surprise. I am fascinated by the world-views and presuppositions of others, and I truly want to understand what they believe and what led them to their “faith” and there is no denying that putting your trust in science or atheism takes a huge step of faith. (This is a topic addressed at length in the book “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist” by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek).

Dawkins main delusion is that he claims omniscience; he believes he knows that with our limited knowledge of the natural and physical world as well as science and the universe we can prove that God does not exist. When pressed on the issue about God’s existence he states it is “very unlikely”, that it would be “an unpleasant prospect” and that he is 99% sure but that he really doesn’t know for sure. God would be “incompatible” with what he has said and written. But that uncertainty does not stop him from continuing in his delusion or from poisoning others with his doubts.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Dawkins based on the book’s title, but I knew he was a respected scientist who was known for his scholarship. I was more than a little surprised at the lack of scholarship in this book and it was hard to take his work seriously based on how little knowledge he displayed about the subject matter he presented, (The Bible), and how blatantly he took it out of context or misquoted it. What immediately jumps out at you is that Dawkins is angry at someone he claims he doesn’t even believe in. He tries to pass off religion as something we outgrow as adults while failing to explain why so many adults have accepted Jesus Christ later in life. Dawkins rails against moral absolutes for a good portion of the book but then as the book concludes he tries to detail his utopian view of society and defines what he believes should be our moral underpinnings. He tries to pin all the blame for the world’s problems on religion and points out individuals who have done bad things in God’s name, but writes off the atrocities of atheists like Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Hitler as irrelevant. Other authors have done a much finer and detailed analysis of Dawkins and I would suggest “The Dawkins Delusion?” by Alister McGrath, “The Delusion of Disbelief” by David Aikman and “The Devil’s Delusion” by David Berlinski.

Sam Harris has written "Letter to a Christian Nation", a much shorter tome than Dawkins, but it is no less inaccurate on how he presents the God of the Bible or Christianity. Harris is also mad at a God who he doesn’t believe exists and states that religion and people of faith do no good for society. What he conveniently forgets are all of the faith-based groups that run women’s shelters, homeless shelters, provide disaster relief, run adoption agencies and so on. (For a more detailed rebuttal to Harris I would suggest “Letter from a Christian Citizen” by Douglas Wilson). Harris is no less antagonistic to Christianity, God or the Bible than Dawkins and the straw man arguments he uses are nothing new. One of the most honest statements Harris makes on the very first page is this; “If Christianity is correct, and I persist in my unbelief, I should expect to suffer the torments of hell.” He goes on to say on the very next page; “If the basic doctrine of Christianity is correct, I have misused my life in the worst conceivable way.” And the most sobering statement he makes for all of us to consider is this; “If the basic tenets of Christianity are true, then there are some very grim surprises in store for nonbelievers like myself.”

I have read, listened to interviews and debates featuring these three men and have come away with the thought; this is all you’ve got? But the truly sad thing is that they are not simply content in their disbelief but they want to poison the minds of others. They offer little if nothing in logical or reasonable arguments and if they cannot assure me beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are right doesn’t it behoove me to consider the alternative? Hitchens states that his desire is to “free people from cosmic tyranny” and that he cannot believe in the God of the Bible because the story “lacks magnificence”. The story of a God that loves His creation so much that He sent His only Son to die and pay the penalty for our rebellion isn’t magnificent enough? If there is even a remote chance that there is a God wouldn't it be logical and reasonable to learn about Him and what He expects of us?

Who is calling who delusional?

“The fool says in his heart, "There is no God.” ~ Psalm 14:1