Ivy League Conservatives

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From Dartblog:

Last night, Dinesh D’Souza ‘83 returned to campus to debate philosophy professor and well known atheist Walter Sinnott-Armstrong on the question “Can We Be Good without God”. Speaking to about 400 students and community members packed into Alumni Hall, the debate followed a string of exemplary efforts on the part of Mr. D’Souza. Sinnott-Armstrong and D’Souza spent much of the evening debating whether atheism should be blamed for the notable atheists who committed mass slaughters during the 20th century. D’Souza argued that Christians are still held responsible for the Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials (though he pointed out that recent studies showed that the death toll for those events was grossly overestimated), and that atheism was a central tenet to the doctrines of Marx, Stalin, Mao, and Hitler. He said that “the removal of God and search for a Godless society has led to an ocean of blood”. Referring to Pol Pot as a “mid-level atheist” who only managed to kill two million people, he proceeded to list the impressive string of well known atheists in our lifetimes who slaughtered their citizens.

While D’Souza easily proves that being without God can produce morally corrupt individuals, it is more difficult to prove that we cannot be good without God. In answering the charge that there are certainly atheists who are “good people”, D’Souza argued that even without an explicit belief in God, their moral systems have been shaped by Christianity which has so deeply stamped America and Europe. With this point, there can be no argument. While people often argue that the separation of church and state is a central tenet of the American political system, I disagree. I find it to be the complete opposite. References to God have been present since the beginning of our nation. God was a visibly present theme in our Declaration of Independence, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, the future third president of the United States. The words “Under God” are added by each new president as he is sworn into office despite no formal requirement. Our money is printed with the words “In God we Trust”. Even our Constitution relies on Christian principles of equality for all men as a result of their divine creation. I look to the First Amendment to limit the role religion should play in our society, but I have always found the claim that the U.S. should have a complete separation of church and state a bit absurd. Perhaps this explains the fervor of atheists who are in the minority- except on college campuses that is. While the rejection of traditional religions has increased over the past few years, the Pope remains the most notable religious figure in the world whose visit to the United States ignites months of press and excitement from the devout. Christianity is far from dead in the United States and continues to exert tremendous control over the morality of our government.

Your thoughts?