Is Christianity Anti-Intellectual?

by Drake Moore

an article originally published by Always Ready Ministries

As I worked on projects which fulfilled a real human need, forces were working through me which amazed me. I would often go to sleep with an apparently insoluble problem. When I woke the answer was there. Why, then, should we who believe in Christ be so surprised at what God can do with a willing man in a laboratory? Some things must be baffling to the critic who has never been born again.
—George Washington Carver, former slave, Christian, and brilliant scientist—

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish?
—the apostle Paul to the Corinthian Christians in 1 Corinthians 1:20—

“Religion is based primarily upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly as the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death.” So said Bertrand Russell, the esteemed 20th century philosopher, mathematician, and social critic. He argued that religion, particularly Christianity, is and was founded upon fear. Russell is not alone. This myth permeates the thinking of a great many outside of the Christian religion, whether in popular or academic circles. Atheists, agnostics, and skeptics alike deem their views as those of logic and reason. They therefore condemn Christians as simple-minded and even anti-intellectual. The “Four Horsemen of the Non-Apocalypse” is a name given to the four most prominent modern atheist apologists—Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens. These “New Atheists” have led a movement that often refers to Christianity as a blood cult, and Harris has called Christian theology “ignorance with wings.” Utilizing strong language, these men and their followers have attempted to push all of Christendom under a dunce cap.

The Fallacy of Modern Atheist Thought

The “four-horsemen” who so ardently uphold atheism and claim that Christianity lacks reason actually offer more style than substance. In order to persuade the masses, they have forsaken genuine intellectual arguments and instead appeal to people’s emotions. Rather than argue the intellectual merits of their own worldviews, they tout the age-old problem of a seemingly non-existent God, twisting words and reason to support their claims and entice their audiences. By disparaging Christianity and dismembering rational thought, modern atheists preach the discontinuity of all world religions and lash out against Christianity in particular. Reviewing Sam Harris’s Letter to a Christian Nation, discerning readers come to understand that Harris believes a great number of the world’s problems, both past and present, are founded upon what he sees as the juvenile beliefs of Christianity. Yet, rather than using the rational approach and the intellectual arguments Harris and his colleagues claim they own, members of the New Atheist movement instead urge their followers to hate Christianity by using emotional rhetoric dripping with disdain. To understand what I mean, you need do little more than read these quotes by Sam Harris.

Rather than using the rational approach and the intellectual arguments Harris and his colleagues claim they own, members of the New Atheist movement instead urge their followers to hate Christianity by using emotional rhetoric dripping with disdain.

Just how should we respond to the accusations of the new atheists? Are the minds of Christian academics absent of reason, filled with nothing more than trivial religious dogma? Are Christians motivated by nothing more than a groundless belief in a 2,000-year-old book and an imaginary god? Absolutely not!

Contrary to popular thought, faith and reason are not mutually exclusive. Christian philosopher Dr. William Lane Craig observes that we don’t exercise faith to know something, but to trust something for which we have evidence. In Craig’s words, “Faith is trusting in that which you have reason to believe is true. Once you have come to believe that something is true, using reliable epistemological means, you can then place your faith or trust in those things.”

Therefore, Christian religious tradition does not forsake or forego reason, but rather embraces it. For the Church Fathers, reason was a tool by which the believer not only could inform his or her faith, but also persuade those outside the faith. Through the centuries, Christian scholars spent hours upon hours with Bible, mind, pen, and paper in order to craft reasonable answers for questions relating to the existence of God, the problem of evil, and other pressing matters. They also sharpened their work by reading insights from those who had gone before and by discussing ideas with their contemporaries. Some of the brightest minds since the formation of the New Testament Canon have been rooted in and grown through the study of Scripture and scholarly works by Christian scholars. Scripture, of course, is paramount in its authority and importance.

The Christian cannot assume that every argument from every atheist will be totally void of intellectual qualities or solid reasoning. In general, however, New Atheism’s reliance on emotionalism gives the Christian believer an important opportunity to present a strong case for Christianity as reasonable and rational.

Christian Scholars

Consider that an impressive number of champions in the fields of math, science, philosophy, and other academic disciplines have been Christians (go here, here, and here). Here are some examples.

- - Blaise Pascal, the 17th century French mathematician who pioneered projective geometry and probability theory, was a committed follower of Christ. He spent many hours studying God’s Word and Christian theology. He was reasonable and rational in his approach. In what is now known a Pascal’s wager, he declared, “Christianity must be either true or false. If you bet that it’s true and accept Christ, then if it is true you have gained everything. If it’s false, then you’ve lost nothing and have had a good and happy life. But if you bet that Christianity is false, and it turns out to be true, then you have lost everything.”
  - Gregor Mendel was a 19th century scientist who was born in a part of Austria that now is a part of the Czech Republic. His work in botany has caused him to be remembered as the father of modern plant genetics. Seeing no conflict between science and religion, Mendel also was an Augustinian monk who spent a significant portion of each day attempting to understand God’s self-revelation.
  - Dr. Alvin Plantinga, a former professor of philosophy at Notre Dame University, has spent countless hours debating, writing, and lecturing on the reasonableness of the Christian faith.

Clearly, Christianity has a rich history of scholarship, as well as a mountain of evidence supporting its claims. Modern Christians do well to draw on this heritage. Whether we gain insights from Aquinas’ ontological arguments for the existence of God, or Dr. Craig’s treatise on the sovereignty of God and the free will of man (go here for a brief summary), or any one of many other sets of reasonable arguments for Christianity, we as believers have much to learn that will help us understand the strength of Christianity’s claims.

The Wobbly Foundation of Experience

When the non-Christian asks the believer in Christ why he or she believes in the truths of Christianity, the answer always should be more than “because I know in my heart” or “because I have a personal relationship with Christ.” While a sound defense of the faith certainly can include a testimony, it should not rest solely on one. Here’s why. Christianity isn’t true because we experience it; rather, we can experience it because it is true!¹

Thousands of years of philosophy and science, and reason and critical thinking, support Christianity’s claims. Imagine that the next time you had a conversation with a non-believer about your faith, you could give him or her a solid argument for God’s existence, or answer an honest question with strong evidence for biblical truth.

Christianity is not delusional, nor is it based on fear. It’s informed by reason and wholly consistent with reality.

That’s not to say Christianity can be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt. No belief system can. It is to say that the evidence for it is quite strong—strong enough to validate it beyond a reasonable doubt.

December 30, 2018

Access other articles published by Always Ready Ministries here.

Drake Moore is a Biblical Studies student at Cedarville University, where he also is the Campus Coordinator for Turning Point USA.

Note:

¹Christian apologist, speaker, and author Josh McDowell

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.