06AR11-43
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Apologia Report 11:43
December 22, 2006
Subject: Atheists' Bleak Alternative
In this issue:
ANTHROPOLOGY - responding to "the most secular of the disciplines"
ATHEISM - a secular recognition of hopelessness without God
+ U of Chicago prof sees atheist publishing surge as a denial of Enlightenment's unfulfilled expectations
ENVIRONMENTALISM - scientist E.O. Wilson's failed attempt to comprehend evangelicals
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM - Ellen White Summit calls Dale Ratzlaff the "fountainhead" of SDA critics
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ANTHROPOLOGY
"Why Are There So Few Christian Anthropologists? Reflections on the Tensions between Christianity and Anthropology" by Dean E. Arnold, professor of anthropology at Wheaton College -- from the abstract: "According to a Carnegie Foundation survey, anthropology is the most secular of the disciplines. It has a record of hostility to Christianity that is borne out by the experiences of many evangelical Christians. This essay elaborates some of the tensions between anthropology and Christianity and provides a response to some of these tensions. It suggests that evangelical Christians can influence the academy by immersing themselves in it and by pursuing pure research rather than just focusing on more applied concerns such as missions, development and the church."
Arnold describes "tensions between Christianity and some of the most basic ideologies of anthropology, the cultural critique of Christian institutions that anthropology provides, the problem of [related sources of stress from field research challenges to an anthropologist's] family, the problems stemming from the church's values, and the orientation of Christian higher education." He also describes the professional subculture in graduate school and the field itself.
After a brief "history of Christians in anthropology," Arnold explains that issues related to origins/creation are the first major area of tension for the Christian. He discusses various Christian responses. The "second ideological conflict" for Christians in anthropology is the cultural relativism seen in the profession's majority view that "all cultural diversity, including morality, is relative to the culture in which it occurs and that no ethical or moral pattern ought to be universally applied to all cultures."
Arnold's sensitivity to the struggle of Christians who aren't prepared for the pressures in the field is especially evident. His insights on what we can learn from anthropological criticisms of the Church are quite valuable. Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, Dec '06, pp266-282.
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ATHEISM
"Atheists' Bleak Alternative" by Jeff Jacoby <jacoby@globe.com> -- begins by noting that "Nearly 99 percent of Christmas cards sold in Great Britain contain no religious message or imagery." In response, Jacoby quotes London Telegraph editor-at-large Jeff Randall, "who describes himself as 'somewhere between an agnostic and a mild believer' [and] announces that any Christmas card he receives that doesn't at least mention the word 'Christmas' goes straight into the trash. 'Jettisoning Christmas-less cards is my tiny, almost certainly futile, gesture against the dark forces of political correctness,' he writes. 'It's a swipe at those who would prefer to abolish Christmas altogether, in case it offends 'minorities.' Someone should tell them that, with only one in 15 Britons going to church on Sundays, Christians are a minority.' ...
"What is at stake in all this isn't just angels on Christmas cards. What society loses when it discards Judeo-Christian faith and belief in God is something far more difficult to replace: the value system most likely to promote ethical behavior and sustain a decent society. That is because without God, the difference between good and evil becomes purely subjective. ...
"Belief in God alone does not guarantee goodness. But belief tethered to clear ethical values -- Judeo-Christian monotheism -- is society's best bet for restraining our worst moral impulses and encouraging our best ones.
"The atheist alternative is a world in which right and wrong are ultimately matters of opinion, and in which we are finally accountable to no one but ourselves. That is anything but a tiding of comfort and joy." Boston Globe, Dec 13 '06, n.p. <http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/12/13/atheists_bleak_alternative?mode=PF>
"Atheists Agonistes" by Richard A. Shweder, professor of comparative human development at the University of Chicago and co-editor of Engaging Cultural Differences [1] -- asks what is behind the ÒfervorÓ in Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell [2], Sam Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation [3], and Richard Dawkins' God Delusion [4]; "in which authors lampoon religion or rail against the devout under the banner of a crusading atheism."
Shweder concludes that "the popularity of the current counterattack on religion cloaks a renewed and intense anxiety within secular society that it is not the story of religion but rather the story of the Enlightenment that may be more illusory than real. ...
"At the turn of the millennium it was pretty hard not to notice that the 20th century was probably the worst one yet, and that the big causes of all the death and destruction had rather little to do with religion. Much to everyone's surprise, that great dance on the Berlin Wall back in 1989 turned out not to be the apotheosis of the Enlightenment. ...
"Instead of waging intellectual battles over the existence of god(s), those of us who live in secular society might profit by being slower to judge others...." New York Times, Nov 27 '06, n.p. <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/27/opinion/27Shweder.html>
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ENVIRONMENTALISM
The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth, by E.O. Wilson [5] -- reviewer Joseph Wakelee-Lynch complains that "Instead of creating an opponent he can knock down with a puff of his breath, Wilson creates a straw man that he can easily persuade. But the result is still unsatisfactory.
"An internationally known biologist and winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, Wilson offers his new book as a defense of Earth's biodiversity, which is being perilously reduced by human activity around the world. ...
"The flaw of Wilson's treatise is not in its information but in its framework. The Creation is intended to move a particular audience: Christians who understand the Bible literally. ...
"Presumptuousness is at the heart of Wilson's effort. He presumes, first, that he comprehends evangelicals, or perhaps fundamentalist Christians, but his imaginary conversation partner [the book's protagonist, a fictitious evangelical pastor] is one- dimensional. ...
"Does his co-conversationalist have a steward's view of creation or a dominator's? U.S. evangelical Christianity is complex, but few Christians display both views. ...
"Even Christians who consider mostly benign the benefits and knowledge of science will bristle at Wilson's dismissal of the power of religious faith.
"The media have been filled in recent years with reports of religionists rendering themselves foolish by portraying scriptural explanations for the physical world as credible scientific theory. But less criticized have been the sometimes amusing efforts of a surprising number of scientists striding confidently down that same road, from the opposite direction." Sojourners, Dec '06, pp45-46.
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SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM
"The Ellen White Summit: A Response to Jud Lake" by Dale Ratzlaff -- coming a year after the Ellen White Summit 2005 convened at the Gladstone Park Conference Center (Gladstone, Oregon), this item profiles the weekend event and includes a reply.
Speakers included George Knight, Professor of Church History at the Adventist school Andrews University; and Jud Lake, Professor of Preaching and Adventist Studies at Southern Adventist University's School of Religion. Lake's presentations included "Ellen White and Her Critics," in which he made a reference to Ratzlaff as "the fountainhead of the critics."
Colleen Tinker's introduction reports that the presentations "illustrate the ways in which the church is attempting to shore up Ellen White's reputation. They are apologizing for having misused her writings in the past and for not telling the 'truth' about her 'borrowing.' They are redefining inspiration and comparing her to the Bible writers."
For more info see:
* - <http://ellenwhitesummit.foxyresearch.com> (with MP3 and video)
* - <http://ratzlaf.com/JudLakeLong.pdf>
Proclamation!, Nov/Dec '06, pp12-16.
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Sources, Monographs:
1 - Engaging Cultural Differences: The Multicultural Challenge in Liberal Democracies, Richard A. Shweder, Martha Minow, and Hazel Rose Markus, eds. (Russell Sage, 2004, paperback, 485 pages)
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0871547953/apologiareport>
2 - Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, by Daniel C. Dennett (Viking, 2006, hardcover, 464 pages)
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/067003472X/apologiareport>
3 - Letter to a Christian Nation, by Sam Harris (Knopf, 2006, hardcover, 112 pages)
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393035158/apologiareport>
4 - The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins (Houghton Mifflin, 2006, hardcover, 288 pages)
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0618680004/apologiareport>
5 - The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth, by Edward O. Wilson (W. W. Norton, 2006, hardcover, 160 pages)
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393062171/apologiareport>
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