The Epistemic Play Pen

"Join me, I'm a fundamentalist."

In the February edition of “Christianity” magazine Greg Downes writes about his decision to study theology (see page 49):

When I first expressed an interest in the subject as a teenager, some well meaning Christians advised me against it, saying I would lose my faith. This certainly happens to some people, but I couldn't help but think that if I were to discover some devastating fact that was the death blow to my faith, surely that would mean it wasn’t true after all, and therefore not worth holding on to.

This is not the attitude of many Christians. When “The God Delusion” was published, a Christian advised me against reading it, saying it would undermine my faith. She was surprised when I replied: “Well if Dawkins is right I would want to be an atheist as soon as possible”. The response from this sister was that if Richard Dawkins was right she would really rather not know, since her life would be emptied of meaning. In that sense being an unashamed seeker after truth is what I have in common with men such as Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens, only since my conclusion is that God is, my world view ends up radically different.

Downes expresses an admirable attitude. The only real challenge to faith I can see here is the hint that for some, Christianity only works because a lack of intellectual integrity protects it. There seems to be a swathe of Christians out there who believe their faith is only safe whilst they remain in an epistemic play pen. With this level of gullibility no wonder the anti-science fundamentalists have a market.