Good morning ,
Just one lead story this morning. Quite a few of you picked up on
yesterday's news that Ayaan Hirsi Ali had 'converted' to Christianity, and I included an article by biologist and prolific blogger Jerry Coyne refuting her supposed reasons for so doing
But Michael Shermer says it even better:
- Hirsi Ali claims "Atheism can't equip us for civilisational war". Well, of course it can't because atheism is not a comprehensive worldview, merely a statement of lack of belief in supernatural beings.
- Hirsi Ali claims "We are losing ground .. [despite] modern, secular tools .. to defeat, bribe, persuade, appease or surveil". But Shermer asserts Enlightenment humanism can win the battle of ideas, as it has done in the
past.
- Hirsi Ali claims Christianity can counter the 3 threats facing the West: (i) Islamism, (ii) China and Russia, (iii) woke ideology. Shermer says to adopt Christianity in order to counter these challenges is merely "political pragmatism". We should counter them on the basis of scientifically-based evidence and human reasoning, not supernatural beliefs or manmade sacred texts.
- Further, Shermer claims that, rather than the West being based on 'Judeo-Christian' values, it's actually the other way around: Christianity adopted and absorbed the secular ideas and values that emerged during the Enlightenment. Among other things, this is what allowed Christianity to transcend religon's traditional tribal, xenophobic nature.
I would
add that I think Hirsi Ali has been influenced by the circles she frequents, including her (conservative) Scottish historian husband Niall Ferguson and the conservative think tanks she has worked for.
