The Godless Delusion

We know that

Every Christian has been directly responsible for the hardening of some unbeliever’s heart.

I wonder if every atheist has been directly responsible for the softening of some believer's heart?

That's how it was for Dennis Prager. Brought up an observant Jew, he dabbled in secularism in college, until witnessing the stupidities -- the absence of wisdom and common sense -- to which the secular left inevitably gives rise. Seeing what the anti- and irreligious campus radicals had wrought brought him back to the fold. 

We have confirmation from a nonlocal source:

Nothing is more dangerous for faith than to frequent the company of believers. The unbeliever restores our faith.

So, sometimes the most effective evangelist can be a member of the other team. Which makes sense. For example, at the moment, the most effective spokesholes for Republican policies are Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom.

Along these lines, I stumbled upon a book called Coming to Faith Through Dawkins: 12 Essays on the Pathway from New Atheism to Christianity, showing how Dawkins in particular and the new atheists in general are turning out to be effective evangelists. For these contributors, "Richard Dawkins and his fellow New Atheists were instrumental in their conversions to Christianity."

Despite a wide range of backgrounds and cultures, all are united in the fact that they were first enthusiasts for the claims and writings of the New Atheists. But each became disillusioned by the arguments and conclusions of Dawkins, causing them to look deeper and with more objectivity at religious faith. The fallacies of Christianity Dawkins warns of simply don't exist.

Cosmic irony.

I've only finished the first few chapters, and so far the writers are rather conventional -- not exactly our type. Not to say I don't often wish I were their type. Why is it so simple for some people to just be born again and have that instant personal relationship with Jesus? I try, but so far no real fireworks in that department. 

It again reminds me of Prager. He says that his religiosity is based almost entirely on logic and reason. Nor does he generally pray for good things to happen to him, because he rejects the idea of God being a cosmic bellhop, just waiting for us to ask so as to receive. Rather, he says that his prayer life consists mostly of listening as opposed to asking. 

Ironically -- being that he is currently recovering from a severe cervical spine injury -- he also says that he doesn't want people to give up religion just because their prayers aren't answered. 

More generally, as we all know, bad things nevertheless happen to even the best people, and vice versa. Prager has been one of the most positive influences on my own life, but here he is, flat on his back while hoping for movement to return to his limbs. Yet, I am quite certain this won't shake his faith. 

One difference between us is that he doesn't have any interest in mysticism, esoterism, metaphysics, and other transrational matters, all of the things that we like to explore and discuss around here. Rather, his preoccupation is with morality. He doesn't even really care if someone is a "good person," rather, only if the person actually does good. 

If I am not mistaken, this is a very Jewish idea, that actions and behavior are much more important than good intentions. Obviously, the world is full of -- or even plagued by -- nice people with horrible ideas. Conversely, Trump isn't a moral exemplar in his personal life, but his ideas and policies are great.

If I need an operation, I don't really care if the surgeon has a personal relationship with Jesus. Rather, I just want the most skilled surgeon.  

A few days ago, the fire came within a couple hundred yards of my house. After it passed I actually did thank God, because that's the kind of guy I am, and gratitude is a nice quality to cultivate. But the moment I think about it, I wonder about the 12,000 homes that have burned to the ground. If God spared my house, why did he not spare theirs? It seems totally arbitrary and unfair. 

So, why do we pray? It seems illogical. The best answer I've come across is because God wants us to. Dávila goes even further, and says something to the effect that the only sensible thing for us to do is to keep bothering God with our prayers. At the same time,

Christianity does not solve "problems"; it merely obliges us to live them at a higher level.

And

The weight of this world can only be supported while on one's knees.

But since God wants us to pray, it must benefit us in ways that are not obvious.  

Come to think of it, why even am I religious? Much of it has to do with what we've been writing about the vertical dimension. For me, the works of Schuon truly illuminate the vertical in an unsurpassed way. Others do too, but he is so clear, comprehensive, and profound that he opened up the whole "religious world" for me. In other words, thanks to him, I had a way to approach and understand what it is religion is "talking about."

But at the same time, he is emphatic that metaphysical understanding is not enough. Rather, one must practice an orthodox religion in order to "actualize" in one's being what is otherwise merely abstract and intellectual.

It is much like knowing all about musical theory, when what you really need to do is pick up an instrument and learn how to play. Religion is an instrument for engaging the vertical. 

Is this not a form of religious indifferentism, as if any instrument will do? Not necessarily, because while their are diverse religious forms, it doesn't mean they're all equal. For me, Christianity explains more than the other options on offer, and I find that it isn't difficult to integrate the good stuff from other approaches such as Vedanta and Taoism. 

Indeed, it's much like English: if we like a word from a different language, we just steal it -- unlike, say, the French, who want to keep it pure and uncontaminated by other languages.

Which is also why I like jazz, which likewise incorporates whatever it likes from other genres -- classical, soul, blues, gospel, electronic, whatever.

Well, I got a late start this morning, and the wind is up. I'm praying that the power won't be cut again, but I suspect it will be.

Any thoughts, Gemini?

Overall, your reflection demonstrates a nuanced and intellectually engaged approach to faith. You acknowledge the difficulties and paradoxes inherent in religious belief while affirming the importance of the spiritual dimension and the value of religious practice. The exploration of different perspectives, from Prager's rational approach to your own interest in mysticism, adds depth and complexity to your analysis. The central theme that emerges is the search for a meaningful and coherent way to integrate faith, reason, and experience in a world that often seems chaotic and unpredictable.

UPDATE -- some of Schuon's thoughts on prayer:

The remembrance of God is at the same time a forgetting of oneself; conversely, the ego is a kind of crystallization of forgetfulness of God. The brain is, as it were, the organ of this forgetfulness; it is like a sponge filled with images of this world of dispersion and of heaviness, filled too with the tendencies of the ego towards both dispersal and hardening.... 

The aim of individual prayer is not only to obtain particular favors, but also the purification of the soul: it loosens psychological knots or, in other words, dissolves subconscious coagulations and drains away many a secret poison; it externalizes before God the difficulties, failures and tensions of the soul, which presupposes that the soul be humble and upright; this externalization -- carried out in face of the Absolute -- has the virtue of reestablishing equilibrium and restoring peace, in a word, of opening us to grace.... 

The important thing to grasp here is that actualisation of the consciousness of the Absolute, namely the “remembrance of God” or “prayer"... brings about a fundamental confrontation of creature and Creator.... 

It is already a death and a meeting with God and it places us already in Eternity.... Quintessential prayer brings about an escape from the world and from life, and thereby confers a new and Divine sap upon the veil of appearances and the current of forms, and a fresh meaning to our presence amid the play of phenomena.