Gallup makes baby Hitchens cry (UPDATED)
Most Americans, pollsters find, think the Bible is true. And not just in the "there's a lot of truth in that" or "fake but accurate" sense, but that it is inspired by God or His literal word:
The three surveys found that an average 31 percent of the respondents said that "the Bible is absolutely accurate and should be taken literally word for word," according to Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll.It's funny: if I were an atheist, I would still rejoice at this news--because I have private knowledge of how sincere religious faith affects believers and makes them better citizens. I've seen first hand--in my own life and in others'--the millions of little ways that faith mitigates the sharp, ugly parts of our nature and fills in the hollow parts.
Forty-seven percent said the Bible was "the inspired word of God," and 19 percent said it was a book of ancient fables, history and "moral precepts" recorded by man.
But, you might say, an an atheist, you would be advocating the propagation of something you believed to be a lie!
To which I would answer, So what? I'm an atheist! Am I...going to hell?
Mind you, I've also seen the negative consequences of religious faith. Chief among these is the absolutist delusion, pace Islamism. It's scary when one feels that faith or just one's own inherent rightness justifies any measure to enact one's vision, and abnegates the humanity of those who don't share it.
The thing is, though, the twentieth history has shown us that that is a problem with humanity, not a problem with religion. When Kim Jong Il pours molten iron on Christians, he doesn't do so because he worships Caesar. Well, he's probably not the best example, because he is a totalitarian Caesar who encourages supernatural myths about himself. But his ideology, like that of Robespierre or Stalin or Pol Pot or Mao or Ho Chi Minh--or really, despite early some lip-service to the worst parts of Lutheranism before he turned against Christianity altogether in favor of worshipping of the Master Race--of Hitler, was grounded in a materialist, supposedly historical, and pseudo-scientific tradition instead of a religious one.
You don't need God to build a dangerous mythology with grave political consequences. In fact, all too often, He seems to just get in the way.
UPDATE: Qutb? Marx? Same thing, argues Theodore Dalrymple. I especially liked this observation:
Just as Marx expresses his admiration for the work the bourgeoisie has done in the past, so does Qutb pay tribute to Europe: but both Marx and Qutb are full of hatred. Of course, Qutb would have claimed to be nothing more than a humble instrument of God, expressing God’s design for humanity, just as Marx would have claimed that he was merely the mouthpiece of historical inevitability. But all is not humility that claims to be humble. Self-knowledge and self-examination is no more part of Qutb’s programme than it is of Marx’s.JYB Tailwag to Isaac Schrodinger.