Thursday, February 26, 2009

D'Souza Interview

A worth-your-while interview with Dinesh D’Souza, Author of What's So Great About Christianity here. [ht: Anchoress]
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3 comments:

David Nybakke said...

Pinch me when its time to move on. Dinesh D'Souza may be smarter than all of us in this room, but to me he still, at least in this little interview, demonstrates only a shallow justification for religion and particularly Christianity. He misses huge gaps of current anthropologic understanding of why we have religion and how religion has been our devise to control violence (no matter how inept we have been at it).

Just read this little quote below and see how brilliant this guy is:

Some years ago I read Tom Brokaw’s book The Greatest Generation, which describes the virtues of the World War II generation. I asked myself whether this was truly the “greatest” generation. Was it greater than the generation of the American founding? Greater than the civil war generation? I don’t think so. The significant thing about the World War II generation was that it was the last generation. Last in what way? It was the last generation to embrace an external code of traditional morality. Indeed this generation’s great failure was that it was unable to inculcate this moral code in its children.

So I ask, is there any good reason why someone who 'knows' he is so smart (as the article points out) and as we see how he uses some great insight (as in the quote above) to help us of little mind to see the crack in the floor, yet he has shown (at least to me) his limited or lack of any understanding of mimetic and Girardian theory and thus he misses on his great opportunities to really 'teach' people the how and why we have religion and the significant development (salvation) for humankind that Christianity is.

I should, but I won't, read his book. I feel a bit perplexed why such acclaimed intellectuals who give the pretext of knowing topics as anthropology, history, religion, violence and Christianity have not explored Girard.

So don't get me wrong, he says a lot of good stuff, but oh what the opportunities he and other apologists miss out on in their fight against heresy and atheists to use a methodology of reason that would really drives a stake into the heart of the evil one.

February 26, 2009 at 11:34 AM
Athos said...

Dear brother Aramis, don't you think we should at least pay lip service to those who are considered 'intellectuals' and are allies for the Christian faith, regardless of their lack of insight into mimetic theory?

The Venn diagram will include vvery few intersections of acceptable allies otherwise!

We can't even claim credit for our awareness of the import of Girard. Let's at least give D'Souza a little slack until the Holy Spirit helps him out.

February 26, 2009 at 1:21 PM
David Nybakke said...

Yes brother Athos, yes. Maybe where I fall scandal is to the interviewer - not the interviewee. However I still never saw where D'Souza used any clear methodology to prove "the need" for religion in his arguments against the atheists. He does a good job of shooting holes into their positions but yet leaves the big question that the atheists asks unanswered.

February 26, 2009 at 1:44 PM

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