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Apologia Report 16:14 (1,064)
April 20, 2011
Subject: Atheist asks: "Is morality the final delusion?"
In this issue:
ETHICS - arguing for the abolition of morality
ISLAM - do Muslims and Christians worship the same God?
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PLEASE NOTE: Our office will be closed for the coming week and as a result, the next issue of AR is scheduled for the week beginning May 1st.
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ETHICS
"Morality: The Final Delusion?" by Richard Garner -- "Just as atheists claim that the beliefs of theists about the objective existence of a god are in error, moral error theorists claim that the beliefs of moral realists about the objective existence of moral rules, prohibitions, virtues, vices, values, rights, and duties are also in error, and for the same reason - what they are talking about doesn’t exist.
"With no god to make the rules, consistent atheists will already have abandoned religious morality, which means that they are left with a choice between some kind of secular morality and a moral error theory. An atheist's eventual embrace of moral error theory will be facilitated, if not forced, by the ease with which arguments used to undermine theism can be recycled to criticize the analogous beliefs of secular moralists. ...
"[A]s I shall claim, and as Jim Holt remarked in a 2006 New York Times book review [www.j.mp/eXFCtp] of The God Delusion [1], 'the objectivity of ethics is undermined by Dawkins's logic just as surely as religion is.' ...
"A natural history of morality with an account of its evolution might be as corrosive to moral beliefs as a natural history of religion has been to religious ones. Furthermore, [Daniel] Dennett's well-known claim that it is possible to be an atheist and believe in *belief in God,* is on a par with the claim that it is possible to be a moral error theorist and believe in *belief in morality.* ...
"Moral memes have burrowed deep into our brains and our public rhetoric, but we can root them out by reminding ourselves that morality is a human invention based on biology, ignorance, credulity, fear, and a lust for control. If the belief in objective values is mistaken as the error theorist argues, and as harmful as the moral abolitionist believes, then we would be well advised to find another star by which to sail." Philosophy Now, Jan/Feb '11, pp18-20.
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ISLAM
Allah: A Christian Response, by Miroslav Volf, professor of theology at Yale Divinity School and formerly of Fuller Theological Seminary [2] -- Josh Olds begins the March 18 blog of his review: "At the beginning of Allah: A Christian Response, I was inclined to answer this provocative question [i.e., God = Allah?] with a firm 'No.' ...
"My previous perception was primarily soteriological - I was confusing worshipping the correct God with worshipping God correctly.
... Volf's perception is not that Muslims are saved or that Christianity and Islam are soteriologically equal, but rather that Muslims acknowledge the true God but know him incompletely."
Volf "begins by giving the topic some historical background, taking a chapter to focus on the recent past and two chapters to discuss the distant past when it comes to this debate. In the first chapter, he brings up some rather inflammatory comments from Christian figures from Pat Robertson to Pope Benedict XVI to John Piper and carefully rebuts their divisive rhetoric. ... These chapters are very interesting as both Nicolas and Luther affirm that Christians and Muslims worship the same God, even if Luther seems to do so only begrudgingly. These chapters serve to show that Volf's perspective is not a part of the ecumenical 'spirit of the age' but rather a serious theological issue that has been discussed throughout the history of these two religions.
"Part two of the book dives into specific discussions, questions,and issues. Volf makes the argument that for it to be accurate to say Christians and Muslims worship the same God, their perception of God must be sufficiently similar in relevant ways. ...
"Volf also puts forth that both Muslims and Christians believe in adherence to what Jesus called the two greatest commandments.... He points out the similar moral framework possessed by normative Christianity and normative Islam, pointing out that both religions that believe correctly or name the faith but do not follow it. If we as Christians can point to the Crusaders and say 'they are not true Christians' then why do we often balk when normative Islams say the same about radical Islam.
"Allah: A Christian Response is truly boundary breaking, for it is able to separate both the Christian and the Muslim from the 'us vs. them' mentality that is so pervasive in this post-9/11 culture and call both sides to work on affirming their commonalities for the political good while peaceably debating on spiritual matters for the religious good. ...
"By focusing on our commonalities without underplaying or denying our differences, Volf makes an argument for political religious pluralism without giving in to soteriological religious pluralism. In the end, for me, it was paradigm changing...." <www.tinyurl.com/3cceeo3>
Christianity Today recently interviewed Volf (Apr '11, pp28-30). He had this to say about his book. "If our understandings of God clash, it will be hard for us to live in peace - not impossible, but hard. So exploring to what extent Christians and Muslims have similar conceptions of God is foundational to exploring whether we inhabit a common moral universe, within which there are some profound differences that can be negotiated, discussed, and adjudicated. ...
"I don't think we need to agree with anyone in order to love the person. ... But will we be able to forge common bonds of social life in some ways? Will we be able to inhabit common space? That is a question distinct from whether I'm able to love somebody. ...
"My argument is that having common values will make it possible to negotiate differences. ...
"First, all Christians don't worship the same God, and all Muslims don't worship the same God. ...
"We need to build on what is similar rather than simply bemoan what's different. ...
"'Do Christians and Jews worship different gods?' ... I would hope the response would be, 'No. Jews and Christians worship the same God. They just understand God in a different way - Christians in a Trinitarian way, and Jews not.'
"Some Jews and Muslims accuse Christians of being idolatrous for believing in the Trinity. My response to both groups is that they fundamentally misunderstand the Christian understanding of the Trinity. ...
"I would also argue that the denials of the doctrine of the Trinity in the Qur'an are denials of an inappropriately understood version of the Trinity. ...
"What binds Muslims and Christians, and what is central to my argument, is that God is one, that God is distinct from the world, and that the one God has created everything that is not God. There is a radical divide between creature and creator. ...
"Muslims and Christians will increasingly share common spaces. If it is a Christian duty to live in peace with all people, then I take it that includes Muslims. ... Christians are obliged to love all human beings, which includes Muslims, and therefore live in peace with them.
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"Just like evangelicals at one point discovered that Catholics can be their allies, I think in a much more attenuated sense (because we are dealing with two religions), Muslims can be our allies in struggles for a proper way to live in the world today." <www.j.mp/dFoUtW>
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins (Houghton Mifflin, 2006,
hardcover, 288 pages) <www.j.mp/g4A37x>
2 - Allah: A Christian Response, by Miroslav Volf (HarperOne, 2011, hardcover, 336 pages) <www.j.mp/hkvAjC>
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