America's Christians in Newsweek reactions

I think something is very strange in America. Granted, I think a lot of things about America are very strange, but recent reactions over the Newsweek article on gay marriage have made me concerned about a few things. To say there has been a torrential wave of angry letters and defensive responses to Lisa Miller's article on gay marriage would be somewhat of an overstatement. However, I've yet to see a single response to any of Lisa Miller or Sharon Begley's articles concerning skepticism, and naturalistic materialism.

I found an article in Newsweek called "Why We Believe", where belief in the paranormal is explained in a naturalistic fashion through evolutionary processes. While it doesn't directly claim God's existence as false, the article (and other similar ones by the same authors) imply religious beliefs are motivated by similar evolutionary processes. Arguments like these are used by Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens, Harris and others to argue that, since belief in God is explained away by evolution, the denial of the existence of God is bolstered and believers are idiots.

Yes, Christians take time to respond to Dawkins and Co., but in their case, they were, in a lot of ways, asking/baiting/challenging for a response. Or, at least, they were making direct attacks on all of Christianity and its representatives. If Christian belief can be defined broadly to be a belief in Jesus as son of God (which still leaves room for some liberal Christian theology), then neither naturalistic materialism nor gay marriage directly attacks Christians in the same sense that the New Atheism does.

However, it seems that it's possible to reconcile belief both in Jesus as resurrected and in the gay marriage. It seems a little more of a stretch for most people to believe both that God exists and that nothing exists apart from matter (which a stronger form of materialism, now popular cultural thought, advocates). From a different angle, many pro-gay rights activists do not object to Jesus and the idea of God but to the way churchgoers interpret the life of Jesus and its supporting documents of Scripture, while more secularists, naturalistic materialists, and skeptics object to the idea of God itself, let alone Jesus as resurrected God.

Does it seem kind of strange here? It's almost as if American Christians are more interested in defending their interpretation of a specific doctrine than they are of defending the existence of God. Perhaps they believe the intellectual denial of the existence of God isn't a serious issue (though the past two popes have deemed it a matter of high importance), or that Dawkins and Co. can simply be dismissed as lunatics who won't make a difference (though they have garnered a large number of active supporters). Either way, it seems as if American Christians are missing a huge point here.

I hope nobody takes this as anti-scientific or pro-paranormal, or even anti-naturalistic. If naturalistic causes don't determine the way the material cards fall, mathematical modelers have built their careers (and my current education) on shaky theory. In addition to this, there is a lot of iffy thought built on the Greek notion of mind-body dualism (such as an immaterial heaven and a ghostly immaterial soul), while a more materialistic view of the world may actually give a reason for a Biblically-endorsed physical resurrection (see Malcolm Jeeves). Neither am I saying gay marriage is not a worthwhile point to respond to (especially considering the iffy way Lisa Miller quotes the Bible).

The point is that, even though gay marriage may not be biblical, that's more of a debatable point, and not central to Christian theology, whereas "God does not exist" might be a little more directly contradictory to any confessing Christian's views. Yet, responses from Christians in America to the first point drown out responses to the second.

I'm beginning to understand Mark Noll's beef with the development of evangelical thought in America now (see post on "Scandal of the Evangelical Mind"). Returning to the Newsweek articles, I get the feeling that American Christians would argue about gay marriage to the expensive of thinking heavily about an article that claims belief in God is explainable away by evolution. I get the impression that the lack of Christian reflection on the second point is a grave mistake, seeing that it is rapidly characterizing popular thought in America. It's not a stretch to imagine this fomenting a more atheistic trend of thinking in generations to come.

This was sort of a rant and spur of the moment thing, and I apologize if I don't make much sense (I'll clarify if I can). A more well-thought blog post is to come later, hopefully relating this to the larger problem of a lack of evangelical thinking on issues that influence culture in America.