The Missionaries go toe to toe - The End of Faith vs. The Purpose of Driven Life

A Christian missionary with a bit of chutzpah (who identifies himself simply as da) recently challenged me to the following intellectual faceoff:

Here´s the deal: I am a convinced theist (new-born christian) and also a missionary. You propose a book I will read, I propose a book you will read. Each week we read some 20 pages or so and send an email to each other of what we´ve read (to ensure everybody does the homework). Get the most compelling book you know of. If your book is convincing you might convert a theist into an atheist and get rid of one of their missionaries. This blog is about convert, isn´t it? So what about cutting the chitchat and getting serious. Who dares?

Recognizing that this kind of challenge was right up my alley, I responded as follows:

da, your reading assignment is Sam Harris' The End of Faith. I await my reading assignment and I will begin a post to record the respective chapter-by-chapter critiques.

I would like to make it clear at the outset that:

1. I like your style.

2. From what little I already know if you, I am convinced that you are deluded.

3. I embark on this exercise with an open mind and I hope you will be willing to do the same.

da answered the bell:

Hi fellow missionary (although of the other side), this sounds good to me. My book was also a New York Times bestseller, also around the 350 pages, so it seems also a fair challenge among these two books. It´s called The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. I will have to get your book in spanish as I live in Peru, although I´m Swiss (told you, classic christian missionary, traveling from one country to another). But I should have no problem getting hold of the book. Let´s say we get our books by next wednesday or so?

Now my terms:

1. I enjoy your blog

2. I think this will be fun and enriching

3. I open up my mind to the possibility you and the author could be telling the truth

4. Best if we avoid unconstructive argument-bombing at the other, like "You don´t know what was before the big bang" or "The earth could impossibly have been created in seven days". I think you and me are beyond these silly arguments, thinking on a more essential, philosophical and higher level than that.

5. Let us leave the main talking to the books.

6. Discussion should be on peacefull exchange of opinions and for comprehensive issues (if I don´t understand what the heck your pal is talking about)

7. At a given day each week a comprehensive question of the other must be answered (could be "give a short summary" or some more deep thought question about the content, that´s up to each one (to ensure homeworks are done).

8. In your terms: I´m 150% deluded. Hope that motivates you

9. I think you try to convince others to convince yourself

10. This is just a filler ´cause I wanted my points to be 10 like the commandements (proves how deluded I am).

The post sounds good to me, we could have like a public philosophic discussion. So everybody can watch us as if we were in an arena. The entire challenge should take some two months or so. I´m fully committed to it!

So this post will be continually updated until the challenge is complete. My section will begin under the heading "Deconstructing The Purpose Driven Life" while da's comments will be posted under the heading "[to be named by da]". On Sunday of each week during the Missionary Challenge, we will each pose a question to the other about the portion of the book they have read up to that point in time.

Deconstructing The Purpose Driven Life

Rick, I wish I had a video to post on youtube of me buying your book. I would have been less embarassed to buy a how-to manual on masturbation. In any event, I plucked down my $15.99 Cdn. and have cracked open a tall can of Pilsner Urquell to help me through your introduction. You say that you are going to take me through a 40 day spiritual journey that is going to enable me to answer what you tell me is life's most important question: What on earth am I here for? You also tell me that the next 40 days will transform my life and that you have been praying for me.

Rick, I declined to sign your covenant which indicated that I would commit the next 40 days of my life to discovering God's purpose for my life for several reasons:

• I don't need to sign anything to assure you that I will read your book (yes .... one chapter a day ... for 40 days) - my word is my bond;
• I have plenty of other things to do in the next 40 days besides discovering your God's purpose for my life; and
• I find the suggestion of looking for your God's purpose in my life (at least at this early stage) to be about as meaningless as me asking you to look for the Tooth Fairy's purpose in your life.

Finally, before I begin, Rick please do not be mislead by my title. I embark on this exercise with an open mind. I freely admit that I do not believe in a supernatural creator and I certainly do not believe in the literal truth of the Bible. I find it absurd that a significant percentage of North Americans find your reasoning more persuasive than mine. The point of this exercise is to allow me to try to follow your reasoning and, if you can convince me, all the better. I am not blinded by what some call faith in atheism even though I am The Atheist Missionary.

Chapter 1 - It All Starts With God

Rick, you say that focusing on ourseleves will never reveal our life's purpose. However, you are starting with the assumption that human life has a purpose. In your first chapter you use the word "purpose" 30 times without ever bothering to define the term. Of course, "purpose" can be simply defined as: the reason for which something exists or is done, made or used. Rick, are you saying that a maggot has a purpose beyond its bioligical urge to propagate its genes? I presume not. Are you suggesting that apes have a purpose beyond their biological urge to propagate their genes? If not, why would humans be any different than our closest evolutionary cousins? Maybe your book will tell me if your brand of delusion religion doubts the fact of evolution.

In any event, if I accept your assumption that my life (and the life of all my other human brethren) has a raison d'etre, you tell me right off the bat that I can discover my identity and purpose through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Hold on a minute. Jesus Christ (if he even existed) was supposedly born around 4 B.C. By my calculations, humanity as we know it was around for approximately 100,000 years before the birth of Christ. Did the millions of souls who lived and died prior to 30 B.C. (the year of the supposed crucifixion of Christ) simply get the shaft?

Rick, I've gotta tell ya - I didn't get much out of your first chapter. You start with Bertrand Russell's perceptive quote "Unless you assume a God, the question of life's purpose is meaningless" and then go on to tell me that the search for the purpose of life has puzzled people for thousands of years. You also tell me that brilliant philosophers has struggled with this issue and that they are "just guessing". However, for reasons which I presume will become apparent as I keep reading your book, you do not feel that you are guessing when you posit that: 1. human life has a purpose; 2. our purpose is to become what God created us to be (whatever that means); 3, God exists; and 4. the Bible is God speaking to us. Rick that is an awful lot to swallow in your first 5 pages. Have you ever tried to sell encyclopedias or vacuums?

The majority have spoken and each new chapter will receive a separate post.