This is my 4th post commenting on the book Outgrowing God by Richard Dawkins, Here I am covering Chapters 5 and 6 which are related to each other. Chapter 5 is entitled Do We Need God in Order to be Good?, and Chapter 6 is How Do We Decide what is Good?
In a way these are silly questions because we are none of us “good” by God’s standard of perfection. Mankind’s standard is somewhat lower and we certainly do not need God for other people to consider us good or not. So in a couple of sentences I have answered the question that heads Chapter 5, yet he found it necessary to write a whole chapter. He finds it necessary to go through the 10 Commandments one by one, commenting on each. I really don’t think that Christians agonise over the 10 Commandments – we have internalised them even though we might well have to think carefully if asked what they are. The point is that we know we are not perfect and that we have sinned “in thought, word and deed”, for which we ask forgiveness and resolve to do better. “Sin” is an emotive word, but is a conveniently short one for falling short of perfection.
So being a Christian is not about “being good”, it is about praising God for the goodness of his creation, about thanking him for his goodness to others and to ourselves, and asking for what we deem to be important to us and to others and, importantly, giving us guidance on how to live our lives. If we have faith in Jesus Christ, we are promised eternal life, but that is not our motivation. I believe that Christianity is right for this life.
So on to Chapter 6, How do we decide what is good? Well Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist (not a theologian nor educated in logic) so he gives us an evolutionist view on how we decide what is “good”. So although it is perhaps interesting to see how people’s idea of good develops and changes, it is not really relevant as far as faith is concerned. I believe that God tells us through his Holy Spirit, whether what we are thinking, saying or doing is good or not. Not for us to judge whether what other people think, say or do is good or not, unless what they are doing is manifestly evil in its impact on others.
So that brings us to the end of Part One of the book. I should have mentioned earlier that he calls Part One “Goodbye God”. He certainly has not persuaded me to say goodbye to God. He has told us that people have had many gods over time: that does not preclude the existence of God. He has questioned the truth of the Holy Bible, without considering how much is eye-witness or second-hand at most. He has told us about myths. He has questioned whether the Bible is “good”. He has talked about goodness in a way that is irrelevant to faith. He has to do better to have us say goodbye, but will persuade those who have already said it.
Part Two is entitled Evolution and Beyond. As an evolutionary biologist, he has to include his pet subject. Some of it is quite interesting. Of course the origins of the universe and of life are complete unknowns, but he has faith that science will come up with answers, but more of that later in future posts.