"...belief in the full efficacy of prayer...becomes an emphatically public concern...the moment a surgeon lays aside his worldly instruments and attempts to suture his patients with prayer, or a pilot tries to land a passenger jet with nothing but repetitions of the world "hallelujah" applied to the controls..."
I think this quote fits in the category of unfounded stereotyping or other hateful prose and is an example of Harris's opinionated, insulting, subjective, and sometimes illogical discussion of faith, as Jonathan pointed out in his initial response to our selection of "The End of Faith" for discussion.
Referring to the the Baylor University study mentioned in the "Dear God, America Calling" post on Sunstone's blog, approximately 40% of Americans believe in one of the following two "types" of God:
Type C: Critical God (16.0%): God does not really interact with the world; nevertheless, Critical God still observes the world and views the current state unfavorably and will punish the bad (and reward the good) in the next life.
Type D: Distant God (24.4%): God is not active in the world and not especially angry either; individuals who believe in a Distant God tend to think of God as a cosmic force which set the laws of nature in motion; God does not “do things” in the world and does not hold clear opinions about our activities or world events.
Based on this statistic, I would argue that already, 40% of Americans believe in God yet do not believe God interacts on such a micro-level that anyone should feel comfortable with a surgeon or pilot who places 100% responsibility on prayer. Or 50%, or 10%, for that matter. A Type C or Type D God is not going to suture a patient or land a plane.
The Type A or Type B God referred to in the same study does actively interact with us, but I think (and the study implies) that this God intereacts mostly in the way of rewards and punishments, and probably wouldn't "reward" an un-practiced doctor or half-hearted pilot by taking over and creating success for them.
It could be argued that the patient or the passengers are worthy of God's reward and are therefore saved. But how many faithful God-believing people would undergo surgery by a doctor who wasn't quite sure or board a jet with a pilot who wasn't quite sure just because he or she believed God would save them?
I think people, in general, are much more reasonable and scientific about such decisions than Harris seems to imply with such statements as the quote above.
Does this mean prayer isn't a public matter? No. I'd hate to think that leaders are making decisions solely based on prayer, or doctors are trusting the lives of their patients solely to prayer, etc. For me, though, prayer is rarely a plea for life-altering, deserved or un-deserved miracles and almost always a period of meditation where I re-connect with myself, open my mind, get rid of distractions, and feel a sense of peace and clarity. If this is the type of prayer my skilled, learned, and practiced doctor or pilot was engaging in, I'd be more than happy to undergo surgery or board the plane.
After reading chapter 1 and processing Harris's attack on religious extremists, I'm left wondering if his type of extreme is much better.
2 comments:
Great Post! It seems if this [praying only] were an issue, our society would have stopped Christians from ever being pilots or surgeons a long time ago. This is a very silly and ignorant sterotype, I would almost think Harris is trying to instill a paranoid perspective of Christians as being hopelessly unstable and insane. This section of his is ridiculous because in an earlier passage he says that Christians are quite reasonable and need proof to believe stuff like everyone else.
While I think he is knowingly indulging in stereotypes, I back up and realize that I'm not so sure. I end up running into many atheists who I admire, and when we talk deeply about religion, they tell me they think about Christians just like Harris does regarding prayer all the time. When they meet me, they get confused because I'm a Christian but I really break that stereotype. I began to wonder if many atheists just don't know how we actually think? I mean I really confuse them - and I'm just a regular run-of-the-mill Christian guy, why haven't they seen hundreds more like me or better?
Sam Harris is unnecessarily (in my mind) derogatory and inflammatory to his readers. I wonder if it stems from actual ignorance.
I once heard a story about a man who decided to follow the teachings of a righteous hermit he knew of. He walked into the hermit's home and said, "master! my faith is so great that I have not tied my horse outside your home. god will provide." The hermit smacked him upside the head and said, "you idiot! God cannot be bothered with looking after your horse!"
I think that this is the right approach to the Divine: sort of a god-helps-those-who-help-themselves sort of interaction. If you think it makes your hands steadier to pray or meditate before surgery, by all means, pray or meditate before surgery, but very few people expect immediate external results from prayer...Harris' assertion that the faithful have this kind of expectation is not only demeaning to people of faith but alienating to fence-sitters.
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