Last week Bill Maher was swapping blows with Bill O'Reilly. (Television is such a tease.) But not to be outdone by FOX, CNN wanted to give Mr. Maher airtime too. It wasn't dull. Hopefully this post won't be either.
Looking for an email of said celebrity, I wanted to offer a reasonable response to a reasonable question posed by Mr. Maher. Indeed, it was posed. I happened onto another website dedicated to bashing "blind" believing sheep. There's nothing in my response that was terribly original. But for those who might be interested, here's what I wrote:
Bill Maher asks how faith makes people of faith better off. By the nature of the question, many responses would be experiential anecdotes. Who gets to define what we mean by “better off”? Any definition has a certain spin on it: and that will defy universal agreement.
I earned my way through college working with the terminally ill. My observations are admittedly colored by my beliefs. From personal observation, in the hours approaching death, people who have lived in faith DIE differently than those who have not. For those assuming death is the last stop, you can say, “So they feel better? They play the last scene with marginally more tranquility? They still die. Is that better off?” My point can be tested by clinical observation: will people of faith be better prepared for death at the end of life? Unless you’re into the paranormal, as no true atheist should be, let’s agree that dead people don’t get to say. The exception to that rule is whatever legacy they left behind. Who else actually benefited because they believed?
Does it strike us as a sell-out, when the medical community, immersed in the sciences, is doing more to make institutional provision for spiritual care? Chalk it up as marketing to customer preference. But then they can show us research that statistically supports the idea that faith is a significant variable toward healthy recovery. Eventually death comes around anyway. Neither belief nor unbelief cures that.
Again it’s anecdotal. Much good has come in my life because of faith. Reduced anxiety. Destructive life patterns averted. Connection to some of the most amazing people I have ever been privileged to know. More energy to invest in the well-being of others. A standard by which I can evaluate my own motives and behavior. At the risk of sounding religulous, fewer expletives in my vocabulary– this effect could be devastating to a comedian’s career. Lasting benefits? Hey, I’m not there yet.
Millions, through faith, have found a desire to live stronger than they did before. Their self-improvement schemes had been blow-outs. They found themselves part of caring communities of faith that stood by them in good times and bad. Many others signed up and later felt jaded. Some of us had that experience, and we refuse to forgive. If this applies, then again it’s anecdotal. All the same. In believing God, many others have found behavioral, relational, and motivational power they were not able to independently access before. If that angers you, guess who’s the irrational extremist?
Historically, most of the undercurrents of humanitarian reforms have stemmed from people of faith. You can despise that fact, but you can’t change it. Some atheists have the guts to admit that atheism, as a whole, can’t boast that track record. Give me a list of societies where atheism became the predominant belief system, and the world was better off. Go ahead and point the finger at religious extremists and their violence. Governments that institutionalized atheism are the least tolerant, most violent of societies known in history. The damage they’ve done and will do, literally, is of apocalyptic proportion. Meditate on that truth, beloved.
