Nouslife: It is possible to respect the believers but not the belief

21 December 2006

It is possible to respect the believers but not the belief

I think this may be the multi-cultural atheist's equivalent of hate the sinner but not the sin. In many ways there's nothing particularly new here, but it is good to see a good restatement of the position. One with which I broadly agree as a Christian; if we are to honour God's gift of free will and to love our neighbour as ourself, then it seems to me that respecting others' right to believe and argue for the "bonkers" is part of that, and to acknowledge that from another's perspective I may look bonkers in my beliefs; that violence and coercion are not respecting others and so there should be some limits on how far one may openly advocate them seems in principle not unreasonable...

in free countries every faith must be allowed - and every faith must be allowed to be questioned, fundamentally, outspokenly, even intemperately and offensively, without fear of reprisal. Richard Dawkins, the Oxford scientist, must be free to say that God is a delusion and Alistair McGrath, the Oxford theologian, must be free to retort that Dawkins is deluded; a conservative journalist must be free to write that the Prophet Muhammad was a paedophile and a Muslim scholar must be free to brand that journalist an ignorant Islamophobe. That's the deal in a free country: freedom of religion and freedom of expression as two sides of the same coin. We must live and let live - a demand that is not as minimal as it sounds, when one thinks of the death threats against Salman Rushdie and the Danish cartoonists. The fence that secures this space is the law of the land.

As usual, the comments to these kinds of comment pieces from the guardian have some entertaining content. From the amusing spectacle of atheists who think that they are simply operating on facts with no beliefs to those who fail to see the irony of the tone of their intervention after an article of the kind just seen. I felt the best comment, because it fits with my own views, naturally! was this,

As a christians we struggle to work out how to relate honestly and lovingly to our muslim or hindu neighbours. Clearly descending into some mush of poly-faithism is not an option (i.e. not it doesn't matter what you believe, all beliefs are as good as any other). I expect my muslim neighbours to think that I would be fulfilled by converting to islam: they would be probably be poor muslims is they did not think so. Conversely, I would love them to hear the christian message. Similarly, I would be very disappointed with my atheist friends if they did not think that I would be better off if I realised that I was mistaken in my view of the world. Believing (in God or in the absence of God) is to have a view of what's true, and it's pretty dishonest to pretend that you would not want others to have benefits of seeing the truth. However, once we get beyond infancy we discover that the world is full of people who, maybe inexplicably, don't see the world as we do, and as we live cheek by jowl with people of differing faiths we have to find ways of living together. It's not clear to me that the secular majority is capable of the respect and mutual listening that will make such living together possible.