Movie Review- The Genesis Code

This is one of the best Christian movies that I have seen with regards to a passion of mine. The usefulness of Christian Apologetics. It treats the role of Christian Apologetics with honour, dignity and seriousness. It is, as Ravi Zacharias would emphasize, apologetics with a touch. It is sensitive, it is not overly cerebral except perhaps in its cosmological foray into reconciling "the Big Bang" with the Genesis account. In that scene it got somewhat rushed and a little artificial but the rest is very good.

It is a sensitive struggle of a young man and his acquaintance with a young Christian woman who was solidly grounded in the faith. I don't wish to add any other spoilers, but in the following clip I have added some subtitles to it, to emphasize the moral relativism and absolutizing of tolerance that I think the director did such a great job portraying. I also took the liberty of adding at the end of this clip, some thoughtful comment I found on a website devoted to philosophy and the art of critical thinking. The usefulness of being able to spot logical fallacies.

Every Christian should be totally aware of what is going on here. After watching a few times I also became aware of some nuances in the script that went over the top of my head at first. In the scene where Kerry's dad speaks with the Professor observe the subtle "appeal to authority" as she introduces herself as "Professor Myra Allen"- to which her dad eventually responds in kind, asking her to respect his own credentials as "Reverend..." 

Richard Dawkins and the "Fundamental Attribution Error"

I want to make a series of comments that are relevant to the idea that indoctrination of children with religion amounts to "child abuse" that has been popularized by atheist Richard Dawkinks. I refer to a paragraph out of his book  "The God Delusion" 

In the preface to his book "The God Delusion", Richard Dawkins makes this observation:

 "If you feel trapped in the religion of your upbringing, it would be worth asking yourself how this came about. The answer is usually some form of childhood indoctrination. If you are religious at all it is overwhelmingly probable that your religion is that of your parents. If you were born in Arkansas and you think Christianity is true and Islam false, knowing full well that you would think the opposite if you had been born in Afghanistan, you are the victim of childhood
 indoctrination." 

Richard Dawkins "The God Delusion", Preface- P3 (Bantam Books 2006)

That is a great definition of a "cultural Christian", or more generally a product of childhood indoctrination into a religion. You may not feel either "trapped" or a "victim"; but the effect of his words will certainly get you thinking about the roots of your belief. Are you really free or have you indeed been "brainwashed"?

I think it is an astute observation, designed to unsettle any but the most well-prepared religious person. It is astute because the reality is that most people do indeed follow a religion as a result of the cultural background that has conditioned the thinking of the person when they were a child. And most of the time this happens at an early age when the undeveloped cognitive systems have little or no power to resist or distinguish a lie from truth and of course coupled with this is the relationship of love and trust that ordinarily accompanies a child/parent relationship.  Our parents are most commonly the agents of this cultural assimilation into the particular belief system involved.

It is at such a time as this that we need a sturdy defence to this point of attack that he (Dawkins) no doubt feels is the "achilles heel" of religion.

•  - First note that a lie is always parasitic to the truth.  That means that a lie cannot stand on its own two feet but must "piggy back" on some relevant truth. While it is true that this is how the majority of people may become Christians, or Muslims or Hindu or Zoroastrian,  or whatever, we must also not neglect the reality that this is also how  "secular humanists"  become members of that belief system. It is how atheists become atheists as well.  In other words, it is a double edged sword,  what is true of religion is also true of any belief system taught to the young. Up until the age of around 17 or 18, looking back, I can now appreciate that I was a perfect prodigy of my own familial, cultural, secular conditioning. The things I believed about reality were not consciously thought out, they were simply assumed. It is always good to point that out to atheists, or followers of other philosophic and religious systems.

•  Second, and most important, is what he conveniently neglects to say.  The real issue is- not how we came to believe something to be true, but- is it true or not?  By attacking the indoctrination of children as "child abuse" by religious parents, Dawkins makes the "fundamental attribution error" of calling into question their character instead of looking at the situation. That's how a psychologist might term it. In philosophical terminology it is called "the genetic fallacy". Every woman would know what that means: "Oh, you only say that because you're a woman...." It is no different in this case. "Oh, you only believe because of your cultural upbringing. In a Muslim country you would be a Muslim..." Correlation does not necessarily mean causation.  And this is where Christian apologetics comes into its own. It is not only the answer we give to an unbelieving world, it is the missing assurance that we need as adults to understand that we do not-  " follow cleverly devised myths when ... [they] made known to ...[us] the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ..." 1 Peter 1:16.

Jesus is not afraid of our doubt, he invited Thomas to see the wounds made in his flesh, and he invites our skepticism and doubts to give momentum to the effort needed to help us see for ourselves the truth of Christianity. There are answers.

The scriptures help us here in understanding the cultural dynamic of parental indoctrination: "You parents--if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?"  "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"  Matthew 7:9 and  11. (emphasized)

No parent goes out of their way to teach children lies, but that doesn't mean that parents are perfect,  they simply teach what they believe to be true. And  this only goes to show how important it is that we  as "grown-up" children need to satisfy our own skepticism and doubts and to  make every effort to prove to ourselves and understand the historical and existential basis that underpins Christianity  as the Truth, and in that assurance teach our children.