This week, I saw a video of an interview with Richard Dawkins, the famous atheist renowned for his book, “The God Delusion,” and his recently published “Outgrowing God: A Beginner’s Guide,” teaching young people how to outgrow religion. He is a retired professor of Evolutional Biologist at Oxford University. Currently, he is on a tour around the world to promote his ideology.
Like most popular atheists, Richard Dawkins likes to reduce Christianity into a straw man to tear it apart. He is a perf...
This week, I saw a video of an interview with Richard Dawkins, the famous atheist renowned for his book, “The God Delusion,” and his recently published “Outgrowing God: A Beginner’s Guide,” teaching young people how to outgrow religion. He is a retired professor of Evolutional Biologist at Oxford University. Currently, he is on a tour around the world to promote his ideology.
Like most popular atheists, Richard Dawkins likes to reduce Christianity into a straw man to tear it apart. He is a perfect example of a “reductionist,” reducing a whole truth to part of the truth or making part of the truth the whole truth. For instance, he says if you believe in science, you can’t believe in religion, and vice-versa.
That’s completely false because the majority of scientists are Christians. Oxford University, where he taught, was founded by Christians. Christians love science because God assigns us to be stewards of this world, and we must study this world to be good stewards.
Sure, there were exceptions in Christian history, but a real intellectual would not use the anomalies to represent the entire Christianity. On the other hand, there is no shortage of scientists who manipulate data for profit or popularity, but no one accuses all science of being false. Anyone who does is called a reductionist.
Scientific reductionism is the same as religious fundamentalism. It is the root of all evil because when you reduce the truth into part of the truth, you can never discover the truth. Knowing the truth is essential to freedom, primarily mental and spiritual freedom. Jesus said,
“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (Jn 8:32).
Freedom is a human right given by God. That’s why our founding fathers built this nation on the God-given unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our pledge of allegiance ends with “One nation under God with liberty and justice for all.”
We treasure liberty, and Jesus shows us that liberty stems from knowing the truth. To know the truth, you must avoid religious fundamentalism and scientific reductionism. Then what is reductionism?
Everyone knows the famous fable of the Blind Men And The Elephant that we learned when we were young. That fable is to teach us the ridiculousness of reductionism. The first blind man touches the elephant’s truck and says that the elephant is like a snake. The second touches the tail and says an elephant like a rope. The third touches the leg and says an elephant like a tree. And so on.
Every blind man in this story gets hold of part of the truth but not the whole truth. Children find it funny and silly, but we should not forget this fable because it has a profound lesson. Humans are like those blind men regarding the truth because the truth can be too complex for our minds to contain. A reductionist is someone who insists that that part of the truth they know is the whole truth.
Then how can we know the truth? A solution is to resist reductionism and humbly gather more data to create a more complete picture. However, as the fable shows, a pair of eyes that can see the whole picture is better than a hundred blind men trying to feel it.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Recently, something went wrong on the roof of my home. It’s too dangerous for me to climb up to see what’s happening. I have a drone, but I have never learned to fly it. I broke my first drone the first time I flew it by hitting a tree. We have too many trees around. Mine was old, but I know the latest drones are much smarter. They can avoid obstacles by themselves.
Drones are like extensions of our eyes to give us pictures beyond what human eyes can reach. The good news is that Jesus promised to give us a Super Drone that sees what God sees, hears what God hears, and transmits the truth to us to set us free. Jesus nicknamed this Super Drone “The Advocate.” Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit.
I might be oversimplifying the Holy Spirit as a Super Drone. But, based on what Jesus told us in today’s scripture lesson, it functions like a Super Drone, serving as an extension of our eyes to see the blind spots.
Most importantly, it transmits the truth and sets us free. In today’s scripture lesson, Jesus says this Super Drone will reveal three common errors that keep us from knowing the truth. So, let’s find out what this Super Drone does and how to own it. Let’s begin!
