A Wonderful Life - Without Religion

CNN: shame on you. Not for publishing Larry Alex Taunton’s (“Special to CNN”) opinion piece on why the country would decline without Christian belief: My Take: When Bedford Falls Becomes Pottersville. Not per se. But for making it their main story. This was what greeted me when I turned on my screen this morning:

That was right in the middle, up front and at the top, on the home page of a supposedly “news” organization. Hard to miss. In case you can’t read the blurb, it says:

The 1946 classic "It's a Wonderful Life" is a fitting metaphor for a nation absent Christian belief, author Larry Taunton says. Those wanting to do away with the faith should be careful what they wish for, he says.

After a brief summary of the film and a couple of paragraphs of how “voters think America is in decline” he gets down to the thing he believes is causing all the trouble:

Richard Dawkins, the Oxford scientist and atheist provocateur, calls Christianity a “mental virus” that should be eradicated.

The professor should be more careful in what he wishes for. Like many others, he grossly underestimates the degree to which his own moral and intellectual sensibilities have been informed by the Judeo-Christian worldview.

Or alternatively, Larry Alex Taunton grossly overestimates such things. The notable thing about  these ‘oh noes, without Jesus life would be terrible’ pieces is just how little evidence they offer to support their view, and this one is no exception. Look at the arguments presented and marvel that CNN thought this worth publishing:

Jesus Christ said that his followers were to be like “salt”; that is, a people whose presence is felt for the good that they do. As a man or woman’s evil nature is gentled and restrained by the grace of God, there is a corresponding outward transformation of society. The data bears this out. According to the research of The Barna Group, Christians are the most charitable segment of the population by a substantial margin. Hence, any society that is liberally sprinkled with them has a greater concern for the poor, sick, orphaned and widowed - “the least of these,” as Jesus called them.

And yet the USA, of the rich nations in the world is one of the most religious, but has the greatest income inequality. While Sweden and Denmark, the least religious, are the most egalitarian with a comprehensive social safety net. More Than 9 in 10 Americans Continue to Believe in God, so how can unbelief be responsible for the problems Taunton identifies? How does Taunton explain all that? Well, by ignoring it.

(This is precisely what Nietzsche, and Hitler after him, hated about Christianity.)

Except that Hitler was a Christian, and Nazi racial ideology was religious, creationist and opposed to Darwinism.

But Christian influence goes well beyond benevolence: Our laws, art, literature and institutions find meaning in a rich Christian heritage. In his new book "Civilization: The West and the Rest," Harvard historian Niall Ferguson argues that the decline of the West can, in part, be attributed to the decline of a robust Christian presence in Western culture.

Note, not “Niall Ferguson,” but “Harvard historian Niall Ferguson.” Classic appeal to authority without, you’ll note, one shred of evidence to support the “argument.”

Ferguson’s point is largely an economic one, but the inference that Christianity has served to strengthen the fabric of life in the West as we have known it is unmistakable. T.S. Eliot made a similar observation: “If Christianity goes, the whole of our culture goes.”

T.S. Eliot now. Taunton sure loves his argument from authority.

That is just another way of saying that the difference between a nation with meaningful Christian influence and a nation without it is the difference between Bedford Falls and Pottersville.

It may be “another way of saying” it, but that doesn’t make it true.

To summarize, Taunton’s arguments that Pottersville shows us what life would be like without Jesus, were:

• Assertion
• Jesus said so
• Hitler (seriously)
• A Harvard historian said so
• T.S. Eliot said so
• er… that’s it.

Pottersville doesn’t even show us what life would be like without religion, it just shows what life would have been like if just one man hadn’t been born. The other inhabitants of the town were presumably just as religious (or non-religious) as they were before. As I recall, there was not even a suggestion that mean old Potter wasn’t religious. In reality, if we want to know what life would really be like with less religion we only have to look at Sweden and Denmark. And CNN is still the mistrusted name in news.

Comments

[Pat]

I was shocked by CNN putting the opinion piece as the main story too. But that was because nothing good is ever posted on CNN about Christianity.

It appears of your critique of the article that you are not a Christian. Please reconsider your position because this irrational world needs critical thinking.

[Steve Phelps]

You said, "Pottersville doesn’t even show us what life would be like without religion, it just shows what life would have been like if just one man hadn’t been born. "

Perhaps that was his point. Maybe you just missed who that "one man" was... Jesus.

[Bob]

Hitler wasn't a Christian, rather a Roman Catholic.

Citation : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler's_religious_views

[Leyrue]

OK, Bob, I've been staring at your comment for a bit and I have to know- are you just trolling/kidding around, or are you really that dense? Seriously, please let me know. I'm fairly confused right now, that's like saying I'm not an American because I'm from Kentucky.

[Michael]

I think if that "one man hadn't been born" (Jesus, sitting aside the question of historical existence) and Christianity never arose, the world, might, in fact, be much better. It can never be known for sure, of course, but Greek philosophy had far more rationalism and skepticism. There were even signs at various points of Rome and Greece being on the verge of an industrial revolution centuries before it happened. Carl Sagan once said that humanity might have colonized space by now were it not for the regress of the Christian Dark Ages. I do not know, and perhaps it was an unavoidable result of the specific cultural development of the era. It still does seem, however, that we might have been a better world absent the dominance of Christianity, and indeed the Abrahamaic religions in general.

[Pat]

I find it funny that the site promotes critical thinking and promotes Hitler was a Christian. Jack Handey had deeper thoughts.

[Yakaru]

Pat,

Hitler was raised a Catholic and never left the church. That might seem insignificant, but here in Germany, it isn't. Leaving the church is a clearly defined act, and until one does it one is considered to be a member of the church one was born into.

This might sound trivial to those who are unfamiliar with the system here, but it is no small matter. The tax office collects a “church tax” of 5%, and has done so since the end of the 19th century. Just to give an idea of how firmly entrenched and accepted is, about 10 billion Euros was collected by the tax office for both the Catholic and Protestant churches last year.

Those who are born into a family that's a member of a church automatically starts paying this tax with their first tax payment. To stop paying it one must officially leave the church, which means going through a specific and highly regulated bureaucratic procedure. This often causes deep conflicts within families. It's a very deliberate conscious act which requires quite some determination to go through with. (There's even a special word for it – Kirchenaustritt.)

The tax itself still hadn't been introduced when Hitler was born, but it was included in the Concordance that Hitler signed with the Catholic Church in 1933. So according to the values which Hitler helped to anchor as part of German culture – values strong and traditional enough to still survive today – Hitler was not just a Christian, he was born a catholic and remained a catholic.

Furthermore, whatever one wants to speculate about his private beliefs, be was certainly comfortable with appearing to be a Christian either. This link shows some pictures from a church near where I live in Berlin-

http://spiritualityisnoexcuse.wordpress.com/2010/09/16/papal-bull/

- including images of a Nazi soldier depicted – I apologize if you find this upsetting – walking as a disciple with Jesus, and Hitler carved into a baptismal altar. There are also pictures of Hitler solemnly leaving church, among other things.

As far as I can see, according to the values of his time, Hitler was a Christian. It would probably make more sense to argue that he wasn't really a Nazi than to argue he wasn't a Christian.

Of course plenty of other groups who should have known better supported Hitler, including the Nobel Peace Prize committee, but the point is the church claims moral superiority over others, yet happily signed the Konkordat with Hitler. That's a matter of record, and one which is more damning than any possible doubts about Hitler's private beliefs.

[JOE]

@ Pat,Hiltler was a roman catholic and invoked god into many of his speeches,and spend a lot of money looking for religious relics(spear of destiny,ark of the covenet ,and so on)because it would give some kind of magical power from Christ/god. Hitler also believed that the arian race was gods true chosen people

[Bronze Dog]

Hitler was most certainly a theist and specifically a Creationist. He made a big deal about doing God's will by trying to reclaim Aryan "purity." His racial ideology was fundamentally founded on Creationism and the idea of uncommon descent.

If you want to convince anyone here that Hitler wasn't a Christian, you'll need to present damn good evidence, not smug assertions.

[Yojimbo]

Pat also seems to believe that there is some line of critical reasoning that leads one to embracing Christianity. I'd like to hear what that might be.

[Yakaru]

Here's a short clip of Christopher Hitchens on the link between Catholicism and fascism. He mentions that Hitler never left the church and that right up until his death the Vatican ordered prayers to be said for him on his birthday.

Also interesting is the information that Goebbels was in fact ex-communicated for doing something which the church obviously found far more repulsive than anything else the man ever did: he married a protestant.

Moral superiority indeed.

[TechSkeptic]

I've been reading a LOT of roman history recently. Its interesting to note that the decline of the roman empire coincided with the rise of christianity. Shortly after the first roman emporer declared himself a christian, the empire split in two and never returned, it in fact went down hill from there.

to be clear, LOTS of people point at different events in the history of rome as the point where the decline started. But an actual split didnt happen until just after constantine the great.

[King of Ferrets]

Hm. Curious about something.

The thing JOE mentioned. I'm under the impression that Hitler hunting religious artifacts is something that's been featured in media (specifically Indiana Jones, though I've seen a couple other things mention the idea) but was entirely fictional. Am I wrong about that?

(Not going to bother with Pat, everyone else has said everything that needs to be said.)

[Bronze Dog]

I'll defer to someone better versed in Nazi history, but everything I've read about Hitler certainly suggests to me that he was exactly the sort of person to hunt down things like that for their supernatural powers as well as for propaganda purposes. He did identify himself as Catholic, and a lot of them really love those alleged relics.

I do like how story writers have had fun with the idea of Nazis searching for magical relics, though. If they had a real history of doing it, that would make it even cooler.

[Yakaru]

KoF, google "spear of destiny" or "spear of Longinus" - maybe that's what you've heard about. It was a holy relic held by the Hapsburg monarchy. It was the spear which the Roman soldier Longinus used to pierce the side of Christ while he was on the cross. Hitler seized it after the Anschluss, and later the Americans. It really exists, and is every bit as authentic as the Shroud of Turin or the Singing Spam of Santa Christobello*.

*h/t Alexei Sayle

[King of Ferrets]

I have heard some stuff about the spear. It seems the Nazis did seize that purported spear, though I have no idea they he actually looked for it or if the Nazis just went "ooo, treasure/relics" and dragged it back with them...

[gmcevoy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spear_of_Destiny_%28video_game%29

BJ Blazkowicz liberated the Spear from the Nazis who took it from Versailles

[ellen]

This story gives me a potent reminder of why I don't rely on the US mainstream media for news these days.

The same old reactionary "three cheers for the American Way/Jebus/Xtianity (which are actually, according to them, all one and the same thing anyway)"...

I much prefer to get my daily dose of world events from my local MHz/Worldview outlet, where there's some actual intent in presenting news as an objective collation of data and facts as opposed to an exercise in brainwashing the populace with propaganda, stupid 'opinion peices presented as fact'--as in the instance noted above--and mindless 'infotainment' fluff that doesn't inform (and very rarely even does much of a job at being entertaining).

IOW, the same old blowhard, paternalistic status-quo-propping pap that The Big Three and cable have been feeding Americans for years.

[Aquaria]

Hitler also believed the legends about the Cathars having the Holy Grail, and searched for it extensively in the Languedoc region.

Speaking of the Cathars, Hitler borrowed his yellow patches for Jews from the Catholic church, which used them in the 13th and 14 century (albeit in the shape of a cross rather than the Star of David) for publicly mark Cathar "heretics".

Further, what Hitler the christard scumbag actually said about the slacker emo deity:

http://nobeliefs.com/speeches.htm

Worse, Hitler may have had the policy of eradicating the Jews (something Luther and the church had been promoting for centuries), but he didn't carry out a single murder of the Jews himself.

Instead, he relied about tens of thousands of German christers to do it for him. And they willingly helped.

Christardery murdered the Jews. Everything about it was rooted in that despicable mythology.

Deal with it, Pat.