Tue 24 Feb 2009
Religious people do bad things. So?
Posted by Darren under Apologetics , Atheism , Christians , Epistemology , Faith , God , Philosophy , Popular Culture , SkepticsIt's no secret that "religious people" have, over the last several thousand years, done a lot of bad things. And they continue to do a lot of bad things today. I touched on this issue previously in a post titled "Christians do bad things, where I started off by saying: "I’d like to begin this short post with an apology: I’d like to apologize on behalf of Christians who have, throughout history, done some pretty rotten things supposedly in the name of Jesus Christ."
While it is indeed lamentable that such things occur, what does this prove about whether the Christian faith is true or not?
I was thinking about this yesterday while spending some time with a friend who is very distrustful of "organized religion". I don't know the exact reasons for this distrust, but perhaps it's because my friend has been exposed to many stories of religious abuse, scandal, and charlatanry. But while this may prove something about humankind, it proves nothing about God.
While I was walking to the mall today (in the brisk -16C Toronto weather) I thought … "Just because people cause problems, does that mean that God is not great?" The latter doesn't follow from the former.
The latter ("God is not great") also happens to be the title of a book by Christopher Hitchens, who in my humble opinion is a skilled orator and rhetorician but not necessarily a precise thinker or researcher of facts, which will make his upcoming debate with William Lane Craig very interesting. I hope that Craig realizes this debate will be much different than his usual debates against his philosopher peers.
6 Responses to “Religious people do bad things. So?”
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March 1st, 2009 at 10:29 am
As christians we are not perfect though it is our goal to follow the footsteps of Christ Jesus. He is our Lord and King! Our example to follow. Read 1 John Chapter 3
March 21st, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Yes. I've never understood the logic of this one. Christians certainly don't say that any person is perfect. And so when Hitchens or anyone else starts pointing out what horrible act some Christian or other has done, I get the feeling that they have totally missed the point.
Bring on the debate with Craig and Hitchens. Hitchens is a skilled orator, but his thinking is muddled. Craig's thinking is very clear, but he will have an uphill battle against someone who acts more like a politician than a scholar. We'll see.
May 21st, 2009 at 4:40 am
Perhaps God is great.
But history would seem to suggest organized religion, many times, takes any of God's supposed greatness and completely demolishes it, yes?
Wouldn't your faith be better if practiced privately or among a small amount of people, rather than 300 people listening to one man's interpretation (which is very likely to be different from all 300 people's in that room)?
February 3rd, 2010 at 11:35 pm
Ok, here is the thing,, my spouse became extremely religious after moving south..now he is a different person who is soon to point out things are a lie, and he is not so much wrong. I have grown to part further from religion now then before after seeing what living in a bible belt does to someone.
October 16th, 2010 at 12:24 am
here's a good one liner
you don't judge a religion by those that fail to practice it
December 23rd, 2013 at 10:00 am
I do love the manner in which you have framed this specific situation and it does indeed give us a lot of fodder for thought. Still, thank you for this excellent piece.