{"id":71914,"date":"2019-03-23T11:37:46","date_gmt":"2019-03-23T17:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=71914"},"modified":"2019-03-23T11:37:46","modified_gmt":"2019-03-23T17:37:46","slug":"theism-power-and-wealth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/theism-power-and-wealth.html","title":{"rendered":"Theism, Power, and Wealth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Queen\u2019s College, Oxford \u00a0\u00a0(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This blog\u2019s resident atheist commentator likes to link theists to horrific world-historical violence, as if all or most war and genocide were driven by religion and as if irreligious people and militant atheists had never soiled their hands with such misbehavior and as if even most so-called \u201cwars of religion\u201d weren\u2019t motivated largely or at least to a significant degree by quite this-worldly factors. \u00a0The stance is historically ridiculous, of course, and that fact has been pointed out to him multiple times with no effect. \u00a0He continues to repeat the libel.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yesterday, though, he reverted to another of his themes, though a much less common one, insinuating that a major motivation for religion is that it can \u201cbe\u00a0monetized and used to fill a cash drawer, I guess you could say that where there\u2019s a till, there\u2019s a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not infrequently cute like that, and there\u2019s no question that human beings have often used religion to acquire wealth. \u00a0But then, of course, humans have also sought to satisfy their greed by means of power, status, sex, and just about everything else. \u00a0So, as a distinguishing mark of theism, avarice fails. \u00a0(Which is putting the case mildly, since religious belief has, quite undeniably, been a principal motivator of selfless service and remarkable sacrifice, whereas the lust for sex, status, and power can\u2019t reasonably make that claim.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But his little quip reminds me of an anecdote related by the Oxford philosopher Keith Ward, who is a Christian. \u00a0One night, after a debate somewhere in Oxford with the prominently and outspokenly atheist Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins, Dr. Ward was waiting for bus to go home. \u00a0Rain was falling by the bucketful. \u00a0Suddenly, out of the wet darkness, a Rolls Royce pulled up by the bus stop. \u00a0Down rolled the window, and the driver, who was none other than Dr. Dawkins, asked Dr. Ward if he would like a lift. \u00a0As Dr. Ward climbed into Dr. Dawkins\u2019s Rolls Royce, he later wrote, he wondered whether he had perhaps chosen the wrong side.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yesterday morning, I posted an item under the title of \u201cSan Antonio and the rise of anti-religious tyranny in the United States.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

With that issue still on my mind, I was struck this morning by a passage on the very first page of the late British scholar F. F. Bruce\u2019s classic book New Testament History<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRoman law set its face against Christianity, so that a man was liable to suffer \u2018as a Christian\u2019 [1 Peter 4:16] without its being necessary to produce evidence of positive criminal action on his part.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 This blog\u2019s resident atheist commentator likes to link theists to horrific world-historical violence, as if all or most war and genocide were driven by religion and as if irreligious people and militant atheists had never soiled their hands with such misbehavior and as if even most so-called \u201cwars of religion\u201d weren\u2019t motivated largely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nTheism, Power, and Wealth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    This blog's resident atheist commentator likes to link theists to horrific world-historical violence, as if all or most war and genocide\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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