Howlers About Evangelicals (and Other Christians)

In the new issue of Books and Culture, Alan Jacobs catalogs some recent "howlers" -- laughably uninformed or at best simple-minded statements about evangelicals and other Christians -- made by reviewers who are oh-so-concerned about those uninformed, simple-minded evangelicals.  He includes quotes from Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, and this one from biologist Lee Silver, in his book Challenging Nature: "American Christian evangelicals . . . believe that God in the form of Jesus Christ will grant them an eternal afterlife only if they work sufficiently hard to persuade non-Christians to become evangelicals themselves."  (Umm, no; whatever you think about preaching to seek conversions, evangelicals -- whose theological cornerstone is justification by faith -- don't teach or believe that their salvation turns on such work.)

Jacobs offers responses to these and concludes:

The first noteable atheists and agnostics, the nineteenth-century critics of Christianity in England and America, were raised in largely Christian cultures and knew, often in considerable detail, the contours of the faith they were opposing. This made them more forceful arguers and more effective debaters, even if it also made them more vulnerable to the power and beauty of the Christian message. . . .

     But today's polemical skeptics not only lack adequate knowledge of Christianity or of other religions, they're apparently unaware that such knowledge would be to their advantage. . . .  Largely or wholly innocent of religious culture, religious language, and religious belief, they make their confident pronouncements and wonder why, for all the articles and books they're selling, the world seems to be getting more religious rather than less.

Tom B.