Is Christianity a Disease?

By Rev.Tim Pauls

Dr. Richard Dawkins says you’re sick, and he ought to know. He holds two doctorates and a prestigious chair at Oxford University. He says you’re sick with a disorder that often leads to intolerance, ignorance, and violence.

But before you get too worried, consider that Bill Maher and Elton John agree with him. If Bill and Elton think you’re sick, maybe you’re not doing so badly after all.

Of the three, Dawkins is by far the most formidable. He’s been labeled “Darwin’s Rottweiler” for his defense of evolution and is perhaps the world’s most prominent “professional atheist” of our time. Bill Maher, a talk show host who believes in some sort of “higher power,” makes up for his lack of credentials with plenty of face time on TV. And Elton John...well, he plays a really mean piano. It’s a diverse trio. I somehow doubt you’ll find them spending time together, munching Tostitos and playing on an X-Box 360. But they’re in solid agreement about your sad state. According to all three, you’re infected with a terrible disease called “religion,” and your particular viral strain is “Christianity.”

As Maher puts it, religion is a disease—a “neurological disorder.” It leads to violence, since so many wars have been fought for religious reasons; and Dawkins holds that nonviolent religions are no better, because they pave the way for violent religion. Further, religion leads to intolerance, since religions have laws that say what people can and can’t do. Finally, it leads to ignorance, because it seeks to stifle scientific inquiry and exploration.

You violent, ignorant sicko, you.

At face value, these guys sound like we should be worried. No one, after all, wants to suffer a neurological sickness that leads to ignorance, intolerance, and violence. But let’s examine these arguments a little closer. And since all three men would reject Scripture as an authority, we’ll use the common ground of logic.

Does religion lead to violence? It certainly can. The Middle East is on fire right now, and the rest of the world threatened by terror, largely because of one religious group. But does that mean that all religions lead to violence? Not at all! That’s hardly a rational argument. It would be like saying, “Since science brought us the nuclear bomb, all scientific experiments lead to the annihilation of mankind.” Is religion responsible for violence more than atheism? In our local paper, a self-proclaimed atheist has written that all religion should be abolished because religion is responsible for so much death and destruction. On the one hand, consider that it’s usually religious groups that provide vast amounts of aid to those who suffer from war or natural disaster. On the other hand, consider twentieth-century history: over one hundred million people died at the hands of Communist and Fascist governments, regimes that sought either to abolish religion or change it to serve their cause. The argument that abolishing religion would lead to peace is nonsense.

Does religion lead to intolerance? This is where Elton John makes noise. In late 2006, he declared that all organized religion should be abolished because religion promotes hatred against homosexuals. The irony is laughable: those who want to ban intolerant people should therefore ban themselves, since they don’t tolerate people who want to ban things. Still, religion—and especially, it seems, Christianity—is chastised for intolerance. The argument’s flaw is obvious: at some point, everyone is intolerant. Everyone believes that some behaviors are acceptable and others are not. Elton John has one opinion of homosexuality, one that disagrees with Scripture. He’s operating by a different set of rules, which he believes to be better than God’s.

Does religion lead to ignorance? Critics say yes, and one example they use is stem cell research. Stem cell research holds immense possibilities for improving health and lengthening life, but Christians object to it. Right? Wrong. Many Christian groups oppose embryonic stem cell research; they oppose the killing of unborn children for the purposes of research. Stem cells are available from other sources like umbilical cords and fat cells. There’s little need to take human life for the research, and even if there is potential there, it’s still wrong. This isn’t an attempt by religion to stop progress or cast a veil of ignorance on the masses; rather, it’s defending the belief that life begins at conception, that unborn children should be protected.

So do you have a neurological disorder called Christianity? No. By the work of the Holy Spirit, you have a confession of faith. You believe that God is the Creator of all things.You believe that He has given us His Law that stipulates right and wrong. You believe that He is the Author of life.You believe He sent His only Son to save you from sin.

Dawkins, Maher, and Elton John each have a confession of faith. Dawkins believes that there is no God; therefore, religion is useless—except for his atheism, which is a religion whether he admits it or not. Maher believes in a “higher power” who doesn’t communicate with us; therefore, God doesn’t tell us what is right or wrong. And Elton John...well, I don’t know what he believes, other than that his god believes that homosexuality is a good thing.The point is that each one has a faith, and their faiths disagree with yours.That doesn’t make them right; it means they don’t believe what God’s Word says. It doesn’t make you diseased; it means you’re a Christian who walks by faith, and you can expect the world not to like that very much.

Criticism of Christianity is nothing new.When I was in high school, we Christians were accused of being narrow-minded, shutting ourselves into a tiny box instead of opening our minds to great possibilities. In our tiny box, however, is the God who created all things and still preserves them.With us also is His Son, who died and rose again so that we might be forgiven. In our tiny box, the living Lord still comes to us in His Word and Sacraments, keeping us in the faith until He raises us up for eternal life.

You tell me. Is that narrow minded, especially when compared to those who deny a personal God and say that this accidental life is all there is?

Hardly. Our tiny box is infinitely bigger than the world’s open minds.

Rev.Tim Pauls is associate pastor and acting school administrator at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church and School in Boise, Idaho. He is also the Higher Things Executive Editor. His e-mail address is tpauls@goodshepherdboise.org.