OPEN QUESTIONS This page intentionally left blank OPEN QUESTIONS Diverse Thinkers Discuss God, Religion, and Faith (cid:2) Luıs F. Rodrigues Copyright2010byLu(cid:2)ısF.Rodrigues Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyany means,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,orotherwise, exceptfortheinclusionofbriefquotationsinareview,withoutprior permissioninwritingfromthepublisher. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Rodrigues,Lu(cid:2)ısF. Openquestions:diversethinkersdiscussGod,religion,andfaith/Lu(cid:2)ısF.Rodrigues. p.cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-313-38644-2(hardcopy:alk.paper)—ISBN978-0-313-38645-9(ebook) 1.Religion.2.Intellectuals—Interviews.I.Title. BL48.R47282010 200—dc22 2010011195 ISBN:978-0-313-38644-2 EISBN:978-0-313-38645-9 14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5 ThisbookisalsoavailableontheWorldWideWebasaneBook. Visitwww.abc-clio.comfordetails. Praeger AnImprintofABC-CLIO,LLC ABC-CLIO,LLC 130CremonaDrive,P.O.Box1911 SantaBarbara,California93116-1911 Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaper ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica Contents Introduction vii StephenM.Barr 1 SwamiBhaskarananda 15 LeonardoBoff 27 WilliamLaneCraig 31 JohnDominicCrossan 55 DanielDennett 75 DavidDeutsch 81 DineshD’Souza 97 NicholasEveritt 115 PeterH.Gilmore 125 A.C.Grayling 137 ChrisHedges 143 ShellyKagan 157 PaulKurtz 177 GerdLu€demann 189 MichaelMartin 201 AlisterMcGrath 209 vi Contents RobertL.Park 223 AlvinPlantinga 233 RobertM.Price 247 JamesRandi 271 RobertSapolsky 281 HenryF.Schaefer 287 PeterSinger 295 RichardSwinburne 299 ThomasL.Thompson 313 NealeDonaldWalsch 323 PhilZuckerman 343 Index 353 Introduction Since the dawn of history, much has been made of the existence of God—or gods. Some people believe in many gods; others believe in just one God. For some who believe in a singular deity, that deity is a per- sonal being, like a father figure; for others, God is Nature, embedded in all things and beings, or a kind of universal consciousness. A minority of humans believe in no gods, one God, or even what is conventionally called ‘‘the supernatural.’’ Although I once believed in God, I now count myself in this atheist minority. Still, I have never dismissed the ‘‘god question’’ as foolish or childish. I do not think that nonbelief in God is a claim to intellectual superiority. I am open to the critique that my journey toward atheism is a journey toward a blindness to the spark of the divine. Nevertheless, I hold this principle: I do not embark on my journey in fear; I have deliberately based my choice of path on the objective tools and tech- niques of rational inquiry and the subjective means by which I interpret the results. (Besides those, what other tools do we have to help us understand the cosmos?) Born in Portugal, a very Catholic country, I was raised in a liberal re- ligious environment. I did not attend Mass frequently, but I was bap- tized as an infant and I took my first Communion at the age of 10, and I must say that I had great pleasure attending catechesis when I was young. I am an architect and painter, and I’ve always had a natural in- clination to draw and to paint, so I spent a lot of time at catechesis not only listening to the gospel but also making drawings of my images of Jesus, the apostles, God, and other biblical characters. It should be clear that I’ve never resented religion in general or the Catholic Church in particular; these were part of my cultural milieu viii Introduction and education. So it must be firmly stated that I am not moved by any kind of agenda against religion. Religion was not a poison in my life: re- ligion was, and continues to be, part of my cultural heritage—for good and for bad. It is true that, in some nations (and families), religion is not an option that one can abandon when inclined to doubt. In such cases, reli- gion is true poison and coercion that objectively serves tyranny. Never- theless, its ‘‘truth claims’’ have nothing to do with the use and abuse of religion. We don’t censure soccer because there are hooligans who use sport to manifest their violent attitude, and we don’t censure politics in general because some politicians are corrupt. The same goes for God, religion, and faith. If we want to question them, the best way to do so is to inquire not only about their effect in society, but primarily, their truth claims. And that was just what I did. Alongside my main activity as an architect, I started to read and investigate everything about history and philosophy of religions. In 2008, while investigating the history of atheism in Portugal, it occurred to me how interesting it would be to interview distinguished scholars and intellectuals in the various areas of knowledge—science, history, philosophy, theology—about God, religion, and faith. I was drawn to scholars and experts from all sides of the religious debate. I sought to have conversations with authors involved in Chris- tian apologetics, with members of the Jesus Seminar, with writers of recent texts against religion. The book you now hold is the result of those interviews. The kindness, availability, and committed interest that these various experts gave to a project suggested to them by a complete stranger can- not be praised enough. Here are great scholars and sages giving some of their precious time for the sake of sharing their knowledge with others. Some say that religion separates people, but this book demon- strates the possibility of the contrary: Debating religion can bind people and bring them closer to one another—even when they are continents apart. The question is, how do we debate religion? As some of my interviewees have pointed out, 9/11 was a decisive date in the history and development of that debate. From that point on, the notion of a ‘‘religious other’’ became more and more prevalent, and that once-forgotten notion of a clash of civilizations proposed by the late Samuel P. Huntington became a frightening reality. Introduction ix If theists and atheists envisage ‘‘the other’’ as the antagonist (the inhuman, the ungodly, the monster, the damned, the irrational, the her- etic, the pagan, the ignorant, the nonscientific), our debate becomes entrenched in conflict. Suspicion will prevail and none will benefit. There will be no ‘‘rational’’ or ‘‘irrational’’ persons, only enemies. Maybe Hobbes was right: Maybe we should be suspicious of one another because ‘‘man is the wolf of man.’’ Nevertheless, suspicion only works as a precaution in a first contact, never as a permanent way of conduct toward ‘‘the other.’’ Suspicion feeds on itself and diminishes belief in the value of trust—and trust is a fundamental value for life in this epoch of increasing globalization. In these interviews, I tried to establish trust and encourage the expression of diverse opinions. You can be sure that, despite my own identification as an atheist, it was with great enthusiasm and delight that I embraced all of these conversations. The main objective is to open questions for both sides (thus the title of the book) and establish empa- thy between believers and nonbelievers. The interviews themselves are conversational and accessible. Readers who are not expert in the areas addressed—historical Jesus studies, for example, or Big Bang cosmology—may find their interest piqued and wish to deepen their understanding by engaging more specific and tech- nical literature. I regard this collection of interviews as a light invitation to reflection about religion, God, gods, faith, myth, history, science, philosophy—life in general! As Socrates is said to have remarked, ‘‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’’ I heartily concur. Wherever the journey of life examination leads, there is no need to live a constrained life just because the banners of science or church tell us to. Theist or atheist, we can—and must—challenge and question conventional science, just as great scientists such as Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Heisenberg, and others did before us. We can—and must— challenge and question the churches, just as great philosophers and the- ologians such as the Cluny reformers, Thomas More, Martin Luther, and many others did before us. Besides the attempt to discover the ‘‘religious other’’ and engage him or her with empathy, this set of interviews also tries to show that reli- gion and faith are not subject matters reserved for scholars or sages. Everyone should talk about it. Fulfill yourself by searching and debating with others in a critical and skeptical manner. Organize a local debate group; try to put atheists and theists together. Create a ‘‘Dead Poets