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An Intelligent Person's Guide to Religion

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Philosophy professor John Haldane presents An Intelligent Person's Guide To Religion, a quite scholarly and informative discussion that strives to clarify exactly what atheists deny and theists believe. Individual chapters address the fundamental cosmic questions of death, the meaning of life, value and purpose to existence, the implications of history, the doubting philosophers and more all as applying to religion. An evenhanded treatment, An Intelligent Person's Guide To Religion provides an excellent starting point and reference for theological debate and is highly recommended for its literate, sensitive, and matter-of-fact treatment of passionately charged subjects.

It has often been said that the likes of love and humour are best enjoyed and that any attempt to analyse what makes them tick tends to stop them working. It could be argued that this book comes very close to demonstrating that religion is also in this category.

Professor Haldane is a very lucid writer and he presents his arguments very clearly. Consequently, it is easy to see that his intention is to present a religious "Theory of everything" that lays claim to being able to explain all aspects of the human condition. A key tool that he uses in this endeavour is his concept of "Religious Logic" (RL) and a formal theory of this could be developed. After all, such things have been done before.

Since Galileo won the battle about the Earth being in orbit around the sun, religion has been retreating from rational logical arguments into the shadowy areas of mystery where the unknown reigns supreme. It has had to do this because the scientific method has proved its superiority over Biblical revelation in so many ways and tends not to make claims that it can't substantiate. Haldane's RL rejects all this and presents its own formalism for understanding the world. Inevitably, those of his intelligent readership who are familiar with conventional logic (L) will compare this with RL and, in so doing, they will provide themselves with access to one of the delights that ownership of this book can bestow.

Take, for example, Haldane's "proofs" of the existence of God. His first RL argument is essentially as follows: Michael Behe said in his book (Darwin's Black Box) that a biological structure is "irreducibly complex" if it cannot be produced by incremental improvements to an initial function "which continues to work by the same mechanism".

This "Argument from Biochemistry" isn't powerful enough for Haldane so he proceeds to "strengthen it by an RL decree":

HALDANE: "as one who sympathises with the older medieval ambition to arrive at conclusive proofs I am inclined to treat it in the stronger way summarised as follows.."

So: Galileo's insistence that "sympathy" and "inclination" should be specifically excluded from the scientific method in favour of objective measurement is swept aside, the humble (but interesting) bacterial flagellum is irreducibly complex and, in consequence, God is proved to exist. Such is the power of RL theory.

In taking this step, Haldane rushes in where Behe (and presumably Angels) fear to tread. We now know that there is strong evidence that the bacterial flagellum evolved from the Type III secretory system via an intermediate structure that provided the dual functions of secretion and propulsion. Consequently, by virtue of his "which continues to work by the same mechanism" Behe can shrug and walk off to try (yet again) to find an instance of his irreducible complexity elsewhere. However, Haldane fails to provide a similar "escape caveat" and his RL claims that such counter arguments do not, and cannot exist, are easily refuted by a quick Web search.

His other "proof" is also flawed. He argues, in effect, that the theory of evolution can't explain Adam's existence as a biologically modern human. This of course, is true but only RL concludes from this that the theory of evolution is wrong. L does things the other way around.

The RL case for superiority over L and all things scientific continues in a similar fashion throughout the rest of the book and it makes fascinating reading. Especially the chapter on evil where RL claims that the darker side of sex is a consequence of apple stealing in Eden and that Dawkins' Selfish Gene L theory can't explain it. In consequence, I strongly recommend this book to all intelligent readers who are interested in the relationship between RL and L and which of these should be their guide in conducting the affairs of life. Haldane's lucid style makes the answer to this very important question very easy to arrive at.

John Haldane's elegant and measured prose creates distance between this book and the usual run of culture wars agit-prop, but unfortunately the metaphor of old wine in new bottles applies.

To illustrate, here is the blunt version of the Christian view of the 9/11 atrocities, as delivered by Jerry Falwell shortly after the event:

I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.' (700 Club, 9/14/2001)

Here is Haldane's elegantly euphemized presentation of the exact same conclusion:

Mankind's inherited fallenness leads to a darkening of the intellect and a disturbance of the passions which, particularly when raised to social and cultural levels, make great evils possible. (p. 121)

Do note that the chapter featuring this sentence references Falwell's statement and discusses the 9/11 attacks, so I am not distorting the context.

The flip side of the elegance of Haldane's prose is the way in which it obscures the human reality in vaporous abstractions -- a defect refreshingly absent from Falwell's in-your-face version.

I think it is incumbent on us to imagine the terror and pain of the people killed and maimed on 9/11, and that of those they left behind, when weighing statements like this. We need to put nice phrases aside and ask whether, on a starkly human level, we are prepared to accept a god that "lifts his protection" and permits such suffering to happen. Is this truly what an `intelligent person' should expect from omniscience, omnipresence, and perfect love? Haldane's answer is yes: sometimes god feels the need to make a point about larger socio-political trends, and that may require snuffing out a few thousand individuals. For reasons Haldane fails to state, god couldn't write a pamphlet in the DNA of a fish, render a booming statement from the sky, send a messenger of absolutely unambiguous origins, etc. No, the omniscient and loving god chose 9/11 to register his feelings on gays, abortions, and shellfish consumption.

None of which serves to refute the cosmology, of course. Reality may be as Haldane believes it to be, but if so, this book presents no positive evidence for it. The "theory" of social and historical change outlined above is entirely unfalsifiable. If (say) Spain, Canada, and Belgium suffer no apparent decline as a result of legalizing gay marriage, it will just mean god is back to his mysterious ways again. Or that it was metaphorical after all, or that god has only delayed his wrath, or that their transgression is its own punishment somehow, or what have you.

Stylistically, this is a good read, but a lovely writing style does not erase the nastiness of the cosmology, or fill in its holes. Well-phrased nonsense is still nonsense.

Although I absolutely believe in a person's right to believe in whatever crazy ideas they choose to (Jesus, Bigfoot, UFOs), I must vociferously protest the use of the words "Intelligent" and "Religion" in the same sentence.