What's So Great About Christianity?

Book Review

D’Souza, Dinesh. What’s So Great About Christianity. Regnery Pub. Inc. 2007.
D.D.- Dinesh is a former White House domestic policy analyst. He is the Rishwain Research Scholar at Hoover Institution at Stanford University. His web site is www.DineshDSousa.com

Comment. Henry
This author aggressively defends the Christian faith as it is being attacked in our culture by atheists and their atheism, e.g. Darwinism, etc. This book is for the seeker, the skeptic and the believer who wants to defend his faith. “D’Souza meets every anti-God argument head on and defeats it on its own terms.” Stanley Fish.

In our culture Christians have not been ‘contenders of their faith’. “The world is witnessing a huge explosion of religious conversion and growth, and Christianity is growing faster than any other religion.” (1) Atheism is on the way out.

The survival of the religious is an anomaly for the Darwinist. “The distinguishing element of modern atheism is its intellectual military and moral confidence.” (22)

The emphasis in education, especially post-secondary, is away from anything religious and toward an atheistic view. The goal is “apatheism- a disinclination to care that much about one’s religion, and an even stronger disinclination to care about other people’s”. Jonathan Rauch. Such educators see their indoctrination as a form of liberating children (young people) who have been imprisoned by religious teaching.

The concept of separation of church and state or “limited government” (41) is shown to come from Christian teaching. Matt. 22:21. There has been an attempt by the courts (in America) to interpret freedom of religion as freedom from religion.

“The problem of evil is not a problem of knowledge (i.e., the philosophy of Plato) but a problem of the will.” (56) The concept of the dignity of fallible human beings is a Christian concept. It is motivated by compassion to respond to the needs of any human regardless of rank or station.

“If the West gives up Christianity, it will also endanger the egalitarian values that Christianity brought into the world.” (67) The notion that ‘all men are created equal’ did not originate with Greeks and Romans but with Christianity. The U.N. Declaration of Rights is based on Christian teaching.

Science has theological roots. The laws of nature that have been discovered and explained have been there from the beginning. “The whole science versus religion story is a nineteenth century fabrication.” (102) The case of Galileo’s experience with the church is explained to support the above quote.

Support for the existence of God can be found in physics, astronomy and biology. “Fantastic though it seems the universe is fie-tuned for human habitation.” (130) This is described as the “anthropic principle”. (131) Evolution “cannot account for the origin of life, the origin of consciousness, or the origin of human rationality and morality”. (150) “Christians and other religious believers should embrace evolution while resisting Darwinism” (153) and its atheistic interpretations. “Modern science was designed to elude the designer” (157) therefore all evidence of God is rejected.

The teachings of Kant demonstrate the limits of reason based on experience. David Hume’s argument against miracles is rendered invalid because of his own philosophy. “Faith is the only way to discover truths that are beyond the domain of reason and experience.” (191) “Doubt is the proper habit of mind for the religious believer.” (195)

It is common for accusations to be made about the “crimes of religion”. (203) “In the context of the history of warfare, there is no warrant for considering the Crusades a world historical crime of any sort.” (206) It was a ‘war’ between Christianity and Islam. The accuracy of statistics is challenged when it comes to religious casualties from events such as the Inquisition, Salem witch trials (and witch trials in Europe), and the Thirty Years’ War.

Christianity has been a special target of modern atheist writers. Powerful atheist regimes have wiped out millions of people, e.g. Stalin, Hitler, and Mao. In a single century more than one hundred million people have been murdered.

The argument for morality is based on natural and divine law. Only humans are moral beings. Conscience is described by C.S. Lewis as “the bridge that links the creature to the creator”. Morality includes the reality that man has a soul. Our traditional morality has been replaced by a secular morality focused on the propensity to ignore evil. “A true opium of the people is a belief in nothingness after death.” Czeslau Milosz (Nobel Laureate) “Atheism is not primarily an intellectual revolt, it is a moral revolt.” (272) The only triumph over evil and suffering is the hope of eternal life. The author closes his book with a strong appeal for an authentic Christian faith in our culture.