Carina Nebula [Courtesy NASA] Ceililng of central rotunda, National Museum of Art of Catalunya

What are the merits of recent claims by atheistic scholars that modern science proves religion to be false and vain?

David H. Bailey
29 Apr 2012 (c) 2012

Introduction

Recently several books written by prominent authors have been published that attack religious belief as a pernicious delusion. The four most prominent authors are Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, who collectively are often called the "new atheists" [Dawkins2006], [Dennett2006], [Harris2006] and [Hitchens2007]. In his book, prominent biologist Richard Dawkins asks us to imagine "a world with no religion ... no suicide bombers, no 9/11 no 7/7, no Crusades, no witch-hunts, no Gunpowder Plot, no Indian partition, no Israeli/Palestinian wars, no Serb/Croat/Muslim massacres, no persecution of Jews as 'Christ-killers,' no Northern Ireland 'troubles,' no 'honour killings,' no shiny-suited bouffant-haired televangelists fleecing gullible people of their money" [Dawkins2006, pg. 23-24]. Cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett asks for a "forthright, scientific no-holds-barred investigation of religion as one natural phenomenon among many" [Dennett2006, pg. 17]. Sam Harris cites contradictions in the Bible as evidence that it is not divine and criticizes those religious and intellectual moderates who try to find a common ground [Harris2006, pg. 1-10]. Christopher Hitchens declares that religion is "violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children" [Hitchens2007, pg. 56].

The above four authors are the best known examples of this genre, but several other authors could be listed who espouse the same general philosophy. For example, William Provine of Cornell University once mentioned a letter from a Texas attorney, who asked, "Is there an intellectually honest Christian evolutionist position? ... Or do we simply have to check our brains at the church house door?" Provine's response was, "you indeed have to check your brains" [Provine 1988]. In a related development, well-known physicists Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow declare that emerging theories of physics "can explain the fine-tuning of physical law without the need for a benevolent creator who made the universe for our benefit" [Hawking2010, pg. 165].

As one additional example, biologist Jerry Coyne is relatively circumspect in he recent book Why Evolution Is True, where he says that accepting evolution need not promote atheism, because "enlightened religion has always found a way to accommodate the advances of science" [Coyne2009, pg. xx]. But in a recent article, he is more direct, declaring, "It would appear, then, that one cannot be coherently religious and scientific at the same time," and "accepting both science and conventional faith leaves you with a double standard" [Coyne2009a]. Coyne, like Harris and others, also criticizes by name moderate writers such as biologist Kenneth Miller and philosopher John Haught, who have attempted to craft a reasonable harmony between science and religion.

Valid points in these books

It must be acknowledged that the above authors have many valid points in their criticisms of religion. It is undeniably true that there are translation errors, internal discrepancies, and other textual difficulties in the Bible (see Bible-inerrant). There is also a substantial amount of violence recorded in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, that is difficult to understand from a modern perspective. Many claims of "miracles," both historical and modern-day, likely have more prosaic explanations. Certain religious doctrines are regarded as dubious, even, in some cases, by adherents of the sects that teach them. For example, in a recent study 45% percent of American Catholics were not aware that the consecrated bread and wine in holy communion are not merely symbols, but actually become the body and blood of Christ, according to official Catholic doctrine [Goodstein2010]. Finally, it is sadly true, as Dawkins correctly points out, that religious beliefs are often misused as an excuse to halt or retard research in science, under the pretext that since "God did it" or "God designed it that way," further inquiry is either unnecessary or even inappropriate.

Criticisms by several of these authors that religion has often led to armed warfare are also quite well taken. Hundreds of thousands died in the crusades of the early second millennium (1095-1291). Between two and four million died during the French religious wars of 1562-1598. Between three and 12 million died in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), which was fought between Protestants and Catholics in what is now Germany. Hundreds of thousands were tortured or killed by the Inquisition and in similar persecutions by Protestants. And millions of Jews died in the Holocaust of the 1940s. Will Durant, after reviewing this history, solemnly declared, "[W]e must rank the Inquisition, along with the wars and persecutions of our time, as among the darkest blots on the record of mankind" [Durant1975, vol. 4, pg. 784].

Religious warfare in context

Horrible as these conflicts were, however, they need to be weighed in comparison to secular conflicts of the same general time period, most of which were even worse. At least 30 million died in the An Shi rebellion of China during the eighth century. Between 30 and 60 million died in the Mongol conquests of central and eastern Asia during roughly 1200 to 1500. Between 3.5 and 6.5 million died in the Napoleonic Wars. Between 23 and 65 million died in World War I, and between 40 and 72 million died in World War II [Wikipedia2010]. Between 20 and 30 million perished in the Chinese Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976. In none of these conflicts was religion a major factor. Note that the Jewish Holocaust was conducted under the cover of World War II.

Along this line, it is worth pointing out that contrary to the claims of some of the above-mentioned writers, atheistic figures and movements have also wreaked considerable havoc throughout history. In the 1790s, leaders the French Revolution systematically repressed religion in an attempt to replace God, the Son and the Holy Ghost with a new trinity of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Approximately 25,000 priests, who refused to swear allegiance to the new regime after it confiscated the church's property, fled to other lands. In the ensuing Reign of Terror, priests were among the many thousands of Frenchmen who were guillotined. Six carriage-loads of priests were executed on a single day in 1792 [Durant1975, vol. 11, pg. 42-80].

Anti-religious violence, conducted specifically in an attempt to eradicate religion, continued even into the 20th century. For example, Stalin's regime, in addition to directly or indirectly killing millions of Russian citizens, also methodically closed or destroyed thousands of Greek Orthodox churches, and killed hundreds of priests. Fifty-five priests were executed on a single day in 1938 [Dickinson2000; Brown2006].

The atheists' treatment of theology

Several of these authors deal with theology, and here the writings of the "new atheists" are less accurate, to say the least. For example, Hitchens devotes one chapter of his book to historical arguments for God, a chapter which, even from a cursory examination, is both superficial and, in some places, inflammatory. He termed Augustine of Hippo, for whom even the contemporary philosopher Bertrand Russell had profound respect [Russell1954, pg. 352-366], as "a self-centered fantasist and an earth-centered ignoramus" [Hitchens2007, pg. 64]. Hitchens concluded this chapter by saying, "Now that religion's monopoly has been broken, it is within the compass of any human being to see these evidences and proofs as the feeble-minded inventions that they are." [Hitchens2007, pg. 72]. Along this line, these authors are fond of setting up unrealistic dichotomies that are reminiscent of those proposed by religious fundamentalists when they tell impressionable youth that one must choose evolution or God but not both. Sam Harris, in particular, writes "Either the Bible is the word of God, or it isn't," and "Either the Bible is just an ordinary book, written by mortals, or it isn't." Harris then mentions a few passages, such as the Law of Moses directives to stone adulterers and beat rebellious children with a rod, as evidence that the Bible cannot possibly be divine [Harris2006, pg. 3-9].

In addition to the openly polemic tone of much of this material, none of it is really new -- all of these topics have been studied at length in the field of religious history and biblical studies. Indeed, the treatment of these topics by the "new atheists" is decidedly cherry-picked -- these writers have culled out a handful of provocative details but have utterly ignored the much larger context of religion in western culture. Historians and other scholars who have investigated these matters in much greater detail than the above-mentioned authors have, in most cases, fully acknowledged the many positive aspects of religion. For example, historians Will and Ariel Durant (neither of whom were particularly religious) wrote that "Even the skeptical historian develops a humble respect for religion, since he sees it functioning, and seemingly indispensable, in every land and age. ... There is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion." [Durant1968, pg. 43, 51]. Along this line, Michael Shermer, a well-known skeptic, has noted that religion has its undeniable positive side [Shermer2000]:

However, for every one of these grand tragedies there are ten thousand acts of personal kindness and social good that go unreported. ... Religion, like all social institutions of such historical depth and cultural impact, cannot be reduced to an unambiguous good or evil.

Here and there one can find some conciliatory comments in the writings of the new atheists. Dawkins, for instance, recognizes that religion has valuable "cultural and literary traditions," and suggests that we can give up dubious supernatural beliefs without "losing touch with a treasured heritage" [Dawkins2006, pg. 387]. But beyond this it is hard to find much balance in the writings of the "new atheists" -- their treatment is almost entirely polemic.

The atheists' treatment of science and religion

Well-known physicists Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, in their 2010 book The Grand Design, argue that string theory (in particular, the "M theory" of Edward Witten) leads to a huge ensemble of universes (the multiverse), so that we should not be surprised that our particular universe is life-friendly. They declare that these theories "can explain the fine-tuning of physical law without the need for a benevolent creator who made the universe for our benefit" [Hawking2010, pg. 165]. However, these authors do not address the objections that other well-qualified scientists have raised against these theories, not the least of which is the assumption, on scant evidence, of the existence of at least 10500 other universes -- see Multiverse. Several published reviews of this book are either rather critical or at best lukewarm. For additional discussion, see Hawking.

Richard Dawkins, like Stephen Hawking, is also a very well-known and respected scientist, and he, like Hawking, is frequently quoted elsewhere on this site as an expert in his field. There is no question of Dawkins' expertise in the biological arena, and further, even a cursory examination of the various books he has written on this topic reveal that he is a very talented and lucid writer. However, in his book The God Delusion, it appears that he has overextended his expertise. For example, Dawkins argues that "Any entity capable of intelligently designing something as improbable as ... a universe would have to be even more improbable" [Dawkins2006, pg. 120]. Later he elaborates, "Any God capable of designing a universe ... must be a supremely complex and improbable entity" [Dawkins2006, pg. 140]. But Dawkins' argument relies on the highly questionable assumption that something complex is less probable than something simple. To the contrary, the very laws of nature and of evolution that Dawkins elsewhere champions show that complex entities can be produced as the effects of relatively simple laws and conditions. For additional discussion, see Dawkins.

One common thread of these authors is that they insist that religion be treated as a scientific hypothesis, to be tested by empirical methods and rejected if found wanting. But the overwhelming majority of science-religion philosophers disagree with this premise. As Catholic philosopher John Haught observes, "thinking of God as a hypothesis reduces the infinite divine mystery to a finite scientific cause, and to worship anything finite is idolatrous" [Haught2008, pg. 43]. Ward notes that "the question of God is certainly a factual one, but certainly not a scientific one." Instead, "[i]t lies at the very deep level of ultimate metaphysical options" [Ward2008, pg. 30]. For additional discussion, see God hypothesis.

Ironically, the scientific materialist premise that underlies these authors' criticisms of religion can be turned around and aimed at the philosophy of scientific materialism as well -- there is no way that scientific materialism can be studied, much less confirmed, by empirical methods, so it must be accepted as an article of faith -- see Scientific materialism.

In short, none of the "New Atheist" authors break any new ground in their treatments of biblical scholarship, religious history, world history or theology. No one who is familiar with the depth and sophistication of modern biblical and religious studies will be impressed by this generally superficial and often polemic material.

Published reviews

Numerous observers have deplored the great division that these books and articles have spawned, and have written responses. Many of these responses are admittedly rather amateurish, ignoring or cheaply dismissing many of the central issues that have been raised. Others are highly defensive, employing as much bluster in response as the atheist authors did in their original writings. But other responses to the atheists have been written by some of the world's leading scholars of religion and science, and cannot be so easily set aside. Here are some excerpts from a few of the better responses written by knowledgable scholars:
  1. H. Allen Orr, a professor of biology at the University of Rochester, writes, in a review of Dawkins' book for the New York Review of Books [Orr2007]:

    Despite my admiration for much of Dawkins's work, I'm afraid that I'm among those scientists who must part company with him here. Indeed, The God Delusion seems to me badly flawed. Though I once labeled Dawkins a professional atheist, I'm forced, after reading his new book, to conclude he's actually more an amateur. I don't pretend to know whether there's more to the world than meets the eye and, for all I know, Dawkins's general conclusion is right. But his book makes a far from convincing case. ...

  2. Historian Karen Armstrong, author of A History of God and several other widely read books on the history of religion, comments on several of these authors as follows [Armstrong2009, pg. 303-305]:

    Like all religious fundamentalists, the new atheists believe that they alone are in possession of truth; like Christian fundamentalists, they read scripture in an entirely literal manner and seem never to have heard of the long tradition of allegoric or Talmudic interpretation or indeed of the Higher Criticism. Harris seems to imagine that biblical inspiration means that the Bible was actually "written by God." Hitchens assumes that faith is entirely dependent upon a literal reading of the Bible, and that, for example, the discrepancies in the gospel infancy narrative prove the falsity of Christianity: "Either the gospels are in some sense literal truth, or the whole thing is essentially a fraud and perhaps a moral one at that." Like Protestant fundamentalists, Dawkins has a simplistic view of the moral teaching of the Bible, taking it for granted that its chief purpose is to issue clear rules of conduct and provide us with "role models," which, not surprisingly, he finds lamentably inadequate. He also presumes that since the Bible claims to be inspired by God, it must also provide scientific information. Dawkins's only point of disagreement with the Protestant fundamentalists is that he finds the Bible unreliable about science while they do not. ...

    This type of reductionism is characteristic of the fundamentalist mentality. It is also essential to the critique of Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris to present fundamentalism as the focal core of the three monotheisms. They have an extremely literalist notion of God. For Dawkins, religious faith rests on the idea that "there exists a superhuman, supernatural intelligence, who deliberately designed and created the universe and everything in it." Having set up this definition of God as Supernatural Designer, Dawkins only has to point out that there is in fact no design in nature in order to demolish it. But he is mistaken to assume that this is "the way people have generally understood the term" God. He is also wrong to claim that God is a scientific hypothesis, that is, a conceptual framework for bringing intelligibility to a series of experiments and observations. It was only in the modern period that theologians started to treat God as a scientific explanation and in the process produced an idolatrous God concept.

  3. John Haught, a widely published Catholic theologian (mentioned above), critiques these authors in the following terms [Haught2008, pg. xv-xvi]:

    However, even though the new atheists reject the God of creationists, fundamentalists, terrorists, and intelligent design (ID) advocates, it is not without interest that they have decided to debate with these extremists rather than with any major theologians. This choice of antagonists betrays their unconscious privileging of literalist and conservative versions of religious thought over the more traditionally mainstream types -- which they completely ignore and implicitly reject for their unorthodoxy. The new atheists are saying in effect that if God exists at all, we should allow this God's identity to be determined once and for all by the fundamentalists of the Abrahamic religious traditions. I believe they have chosen this strategy not only to make their job of demolition easier, but also because they have a barely disguised admiration for the simplicity of their opponents' view of reality.

  4. E. Brian Davies, a distinguished British mathematician (and hardly a religious believer himself) was deeply disappointed in Dawkins' book [Davies2010b, pg. 209]:

    The worst feature of Dawkins' book is its failure to get grips with the variety of religious belief. Dawkins' real enemy is fundamentalism, but he attacks religion indiscriminately. ... He is unable to grasp that many moderate believes dislike fundamentalists of all religions as much as he does. ... I am afraid that The God Delusion is a deeply flawed book that does not to approach Dawkins' usual standards, and suspect that he got carried away by the sheer enjoyment of writing it.

Conclusion

In summary, the books of Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, Hitchens and others, while bringing to light numerous issues that need to be considered in a dispassionate analysis of modern religion in light of modern science, repeat some well-known issues of biblical scholarship and religious history without any new insights; focus on fundamentalists and ignore more sophisticated theologians; rely, in some cases, on flawed arguments; treat religion as merely another scientific hypothesis; presume, as an unproven article of faith, the scientific materialist worldview; and have, in some cases, descended into hyperbole that is utterly unbecoming of leading scholars -- indeed, some of their rhetoric is every bit as blusterous as their creationist and fundamentalist counterparts. Thus they do not help forge a harmony between science and religion; instead, they lamentably widen the gulf.

Along this line, Oxford scholar Jonathan Lanman has found that in societies where fundamentalist religious movements are weak, atheist movements are also strong; and in societies where fundamentalist movements are strong, atheist movements are strong. Thus atheism is best seen merely as a reaction to fundamentalism [Lanman2011].

For additional discussion, see Dawkins and Hawking.

References

[See Bibliography].