Phil Bishop
Kinesiology, Alabama
Complex problems have simple,easy-to-understand wrong answers.”
— mistakenly attributed to H.L. Mencken by Grossman
Richard Dawkins is a professor like us. Except that he is THE Oxford University Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science. In his new book, The God Delusion, Dawkins explains to the world how deluded we Christians (and Jews and Muslims) are to believe in such an arcane notion as theism.
Delusional To Follow God?
I encountered this same belief several years ago when I met Zach. He spent about four years here as a faculty colleague. Like Dawkins, Zach was bright, British and pretty convinced that it is delusional to be a follower of God, let alone of Jesus.
I spent a lot of time with Zach. We are nearly the same age and share a love for university life, for teaching, and for research. After many hours with Zach, I began to gain some insight into Zach’s anti-Christian stance. Like Dawkins, he is a sincere, well-intentioned humanist who sees all religions as obstructive, backwards, and inappropriate for a well-educated person.
Dawkins, Zach and I all think we are smart. Most of us professors have been continuously indoctrinated over the years to believe that we are brilliant. We put up little resistance to the notion of our own luminosity, so we come to believe that it is inconceivable that God Himself could be more than a little smarter than us. And herein is the rub.
Almost As Smart As God
Because we are almost as smart as God, we look at the world and say, “I would have done it differently, and better.”
Now, it is no great challenge to find things wrong with the world. And all of us “smart” folks have solutions (see quote above). Because the world does not match our clever conceptions of how things “should be,” we can then logically eliminate the possibility for God, because our own similarities to God make us realize that He could NOT have made the blunders that we see. So the problem for most atheists on campus is that they are just too smart to believe in God.
But what’s the solution?
First, we can’t argue many folks into the Kingdom. Faith is a necessary aspect of conversions, and faith by its nature goes beyond airtight proof. Anthony Flew, the famed atheist, was convinced of theism recently by reason, but I suspect there was more going on. We professors cannot lose an argument; it’s too hard on our egos.
Second, Richard Dawkins is not the problem. God loves Richard Dawkins and Zack as much as He loves you or me. Dawkins is not a worse sinner than you or I. He may be more influential, but my faults are equal to his. We win a hearing by treating nonChristians with respect, and extending love to them even when we’d rather not.
No Words
One afternoon I was working at my desk when Zack came flying in without knocking. He plopped into the chair and put his arm on the old black Bible I kept there. Without a pause he launched into a tearful story of how his long-time girlfriend had just dumped him. He was devastated and was on the verge of tears for 20 minutes. I didn’t have the time or the words to say anything, so I just sat there, speechless. Once finished, he abruptly left.
The episode struck me as a bit strange, but I didn’t think much about it until some days later when a card arrived with words to the effect that he really appreciated my listening to him in his time of despair, and how this was the greatest Christian witness he had ever seen. Go figure.
The academic world can be cold, demanding, and competitive. When we treat nonChristians with love and compassion, it registers.
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© 2007 Phillip Bishop Used by permission of Faculty Commons