I ran across an interesting article (adapted from Human Accomplishment) called For God’s Eye: The Surprising Role of Christianity in Great Human Accomplishment (PDF) by the unfairly-reviled Charles Murray, co-author of The Bell Curve. I applaud Murray for his fair treatment of Christ followers, although he issues a disclaimer:
First, I am not arguing that the secular life must be one without purpose. My position is simply that it is harder to find that purpose if one is an atheist or agnostic than if one is a Christian believer. It is harder still to pursue life’s purpose over years of effort if one is not a believer. This becomes relevant to great accomplishment because great human accomplishment has typically required obsessive, relentless effort over a long period of time. Devotion to the personal Christian God has proved to be a potent energizer of that kind of effort.
That a libertarian atheist is surprised that Christianity is revolutionary, remarkable, and played a huge role in the development of our great Western civilization is…not surprising. But Murray recognizes the value of personal faith in the God of the Bible, and not just some ill-defined, amorphous “higher being.” That is refreshing.
[Correction - 10/3: I'm told that Murray is an agnostic, not an atheist.]
Murray’s article reminded me of one I read earlier today, The Bible Tells Me So: Biblical illiteracy is a shame. There was a time when even unbelievers knew what was in the Bible. These days, not only are many Americans biblically illiterate, some (too many) revel in their ignorance and wear it as an “enlightened” badge of honor. Blame part of it on the decline of classical education in general and insidious, anti-intellectual educational trends in particular.
I thank God I was finished with compulsory education by the time ridiculous multicultural curricula began to pop up. I thought I’d blow a gasket when I found out American, taxpayer-supported schools were teaching American children to celebrate Guatemalan “freedom fighters” or some obscure “minority” abstract painter, but bash the “dead white males” who built the very foundation that allows such silly PC nonsense to exist in the first place.
But I didn’t blow a gasket. I just became a bigger advocate for private and homeschooling, and gained a healthier respect for history, warts and all.
Also see a review of Adam Nicolson’s God’s Secretaries.
Update (9/27): Joe Carter writes:
I’ve been a Christian for thirty of the thirty-six years I’ve lived on this earth and yet my knowledge of the Bible is shamefully lacking. This point was illuminated for me several years ago when I was invited to join a Internet discussion group on Biblical inerrancy. The moderator of the list was an elderly retired English teacher name Farrell Till. Till was indisputably one of the most surly, churlish, and impolite men I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet. But he also possessed more knowledge about the Bible than a pew full of Baptists.
