Comments on: Book review: Letter to a Christian Nation

By: required name

required name — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:45:23 +0000

“It can’t be sugar-coated. Let’s spread this meme, gently.”

Who writes this has a somewhat limited perspective on religion. There are people believing in mean gods, but still believing.

By: RC Metcalf

RC Metcalf — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 07:01:00 +0000

You may be interested in a new book that has just been published in response to Sam Harris. It is entitled “Letter to a Christian Nation: Counter Point” by RC Metcalf. It is available through Amazon and B&N or through the author’s website at http://thinkagain.us. Please let others know about this important work!

By: DavidD

DavidD — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:22:24 +0000

I doubt that the ratio at which religious beliefs decay is a number as fixed as that for radioisotope decay. In my own vision I see the traditional beliefs holding up fairly well for a few generations, certainly enough for traditional religion still to have significant power in 100 years. But at some point they’ll be a generation where there is heavy defection, as with the birth of rock ‘n’ roll in music, which was followed by a generation very similar in musical tastes.

It’s all about a world being transformed by the Enlightenment and scientific revolution. I bet the cultural effects of this will take more like 500 years to sink in than 100 years, no matter what individuals do to push it one way or the other. I wish I understood cultural evolution better to see this more clearly, but this is still my best guess. And of course, who and what God really is will have some effect on the outcome, I would think.

By: Ben Paul

Ben Paul — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 07:14:13 +0000

I have been thinking of your thoughtful and unique suggestion to spread memes rather than quibble on confusing theology. It is especially interesting that the examples you give presuppose God’s existence but ascribe bad qualities to Her. I think this could be a successful strategy to decrease the incidence of religious belief (and consequently, the negative effects of religious belief). I am going to forward this entry to USC’s Secular Alliance, of which I am a part. Let’s see what happens!

By: Claire

Claire — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 06:06:50 +0000

It appears your theory is that the world would somehow be better if more people stopped “believing in magic.” Although this seems a difficult theory to test, given the challenge in finding a suitable control group, I found myself wondering what kind of studies have been done of communist countries where significant efforts were made to reduce the number of people with strongly held religious beliefs? Was there a correlation between a reduction in believers and the kinds of changes you hope for?

By: David

David — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:59:31 +0000

I found this site because I was interested in the premise of this book.

I clicked, expecting a review, but instead found a surprisingly bigoted diatribe.

The author(Mary Ann Parker) is ignorant of Christian thought; the Christian God is rarely blamed for human tragedy because it is believed that all of human tragedy is caused by humans/the fall of Adam and Eve - disease, environmental instability, war, even abortion. The author also promotes this ignorance despite confessing to at least limited exposure to Christian doctrine as a child.

Keep this discussion open. ‘God is X’ exposes your inability to dialog and blemishes the notion that secularism is some how progressive and more intelligent.

As for our household, my children will learn about various faiths - billions of adherents to a multitude of belief systems, including secular humanism.

In any case, how about a review next time?

By: Mary Ann Parker

Mary Ann Parker — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 00:32:17 +0000

I’d love to hear you comment on Alan Watt’s “Beat Zen and Square Zen”. He decries the people who practice Zen either because it’s cool or because it’s what their parents do; neither is really understanding the point. I wonder if some of your reaction to these books falls in the same category. Consider the following:

1. Attrition goes both ways. The total number of evangelicals is on the rise, so by definition there are actually more converts each generation than fewer.

2. A lot of religious belief is tied closely to family traditions, which are extremely hard to break. There are many Jews or Mormons, for example, who are as “bright” as the best of them, but don’t you dare ask them to stop practicing their religion. They love their parents and family traditions deeply, and don’t see why they shouldn’t continue practicing all the rituals, whether they “believe” in them or not. I don’t believe in Santa Claus, but in my family we still hang stockings on the chimney each Christmas.

3. Religion is an instinct, biologically built into us. With enough effort, we can overcome our instincts, but don’t think it’s as easy as just spreading the right “meme”.

4. I’m not sure some of the crazy things done in the name of religion are always bad. A lot of under-educated housewives in Kansas know and debate obscure aspects of Evolution more passionatey and with more detail than a lot of university biology departments. The creationists are completely wrong of course, but come on, what other country has housewives who can quote everything Stephen Jay Gould ever said?

By: Justin

Justin — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 00:09:33 +0000

I saw a sign held up at an abortion rally by a guy who was protesting the anti-abortion protestors. His sign said “God Kills Babies”. It isn’t the most pleasant thought, but there is no way to argue against it.

By: Ettsem

Ettsem — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:07:47 +0000

Gently spread the meme
That “God is really mean”
His love might be supreme
His violence is obscene

The reason we rebel?
It matters little why
We’re born to live in hell
And then we get to die

We may be incorrect
We’re willing to discuss
But some of us suspect
The answer lies with us