Excerpt from 'Letter to a Christian Nation'

So they were talking about this book in the Reader's Subscription february 2007 issue and I thought that this quote was good enough to quote, I think I agree with it completely.

'Thousands of people have written to tell me that I am wrong not to believe in God. The most hostile of these communications have come from Christians. This is ironic, as Christians generally imagine that no faith imparts the virtues of love and forgiveness more effectively than their own. The truth is that many who claim to be transormed by Christ's love are deeply, even murderousl, intolerant of criticism. While we may want to ascribe this to human nature, it is clear that such hatred draws considerable support from the Bible. How do I know this? The most disturbed of my correspondetns always cite chapter and verse.'

I sent this to Cheryl and she said:

I have heard of Sam Harris, but I haven't read anything of his. John has told me about him, though. Someday, I'll probably read some of his work, since he seems to be one of the more popular and public atheists. I'm not sure whether I agree with the quote, only because it's easy to imagine how his perspective could be skewed by something. Usually, the most vocal people are either those that absolutely love and appreciate something, or absolutely hate and despise it. It would be easy to get a really terrible impression of Christians simply because the ones that even bother to speak up are the pissed off and uncharitable ones, while the reasonable ones just don't have any motivation to say anything. I'm just highly skeptical of such general claims. It may be true that there are lots of Christians who are awful people, in fact, I'm sure of this. But to then draw the conclusion that all or most are just seems unfair. There's lots of Christians who are fine, or just mind their own business.

In general, I think the heart of most of the problem is not that they are Christians, but rather, they are Americans. This country is full of a lot of really stupid, childish, irrational, irresponsible people, with really messed up perspectives of the world.

I replied:

Oh yeah, i totally agree with you that this gentlemen's perspective, and maybe this perspective in general, can be skewed to give an inaccurate picture of christianity or christians. i also think that there's a lot of truth to your statement 'Usually, the most vocal people are either those that absolutely love and appreciate something, or absolutely hate and despise it.'

but what do you think about his claim that 'The truth is that many [or some or even a few] who claim to be transormed by Christ's love are deeply, even murderously, intolerant of criticism.' [or disagreement.]

so what do you think about this from a particular person's example or just religions general disdain for any sort of criticism or disagreement? this obviously isn't true in the accounts of christianity given by philosophers like swineburne, plantinga, etc., because their so well developed and have anticipated and handled objections, but in general don't you think it is true? isn't this a fundamental flaw of religion itself? isn't this why creation science even exists in the first place, among other things? isn't this the basis of almost all religious conflict throughout the world? obviously, that's the quote which really struck a chord with me. if you'd like to wax eloquently about this in your reply, i'd love to hear your opinion.


.