Comments on: Who’s afraid now? Academic intellectualism and the rejection of God.

By: The Omniscient Narrator – Targuman

The Omniscient Narrator – Targuman — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 02:03:00 +0000

[...] he prefaced his talk with needless attacks on anyone who believes in a god or religion. I have written about that before, but never commented on the substance of his lecture before. I do not remember the details, but the [...]

By: Pseudo-Polymath » Blog Archive » Wednesday Highlights

Pseudo-Polymath » Blog Archive » Wednesday Highlights — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:00:46 +0000

[...] Atheism and assumption in the Academy. [...]

By: Chris Brady

Chris Brady — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 03:57:58 +0000

Alan, thank you very much for your comments. I would just add that Culler knew full well the reaction he would get and has been saying such things for the reaction for decades. That was part of my ire, knowing that he may well have been doing it to try and call out the theists in the audience, to see if he could get our dander up.

At some point I think I will have to address how I “manage to salvage or even strengthen their faith despite the intense historical research and critical evaluation [my] profession requires.”

I look forward to reading our wife’s post as well.

Looney, it is precisely this nature of the founding of Cornell (the only Ivy that never had a seminary or divinity school and did not have religious studies until 1992, I was the first to graduate with a minor and helped to establish the program) that has bred a particular ethos of aggression towards religion.

By: Looney

Looney — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 01:58:14 +0000

Given that this is a story about Cornell, I would point out that Cornell was founded by Andrew Dickson White who wrote the book “A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom” around 1896 or so. He was not a scientist, but rather a historian and the warfare was something dreamed up by earlier scholars, while it was something that apparently weighed heavily on his psyche. Washington Irving earlier falsely wrote that Columbus was opposed by flat earth Christian theologians, and White gave credibility to this nonsense and made sure that in the textbooks I read as a child in public school in Tennessee. Virginia Wolfe was probably just born as a child of this culture. Drew has a related post referring to the 1920′s and the changes that occurred as fundamentalists reacted against modernism. What modernist did to society, beginning in the late 1700′s along with their methods is rarely discussed.

By: Alan Lenzi

Alan Lenzi — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:06:20 +0000

On a related topic, you might find my wife's post on being an atheist while working at a Christian bookstore interesting.

By: Alan Lenzi

Alan Lenzi — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:32:55 +0000

I’m going to say it up front: I am an agnostic (former Christian) and an academic. So I sympathize with the quote on one level. But I totally agree with you that there is something really wrong with what happened at the event you described.

Culler’s citation is hard to analyze (in terms of his motives) but he should have realized that such an extreme reaction to theism would be offensive to some. (Of course, most of our statements about important matters could easily prove offensive to some.) Even if it wasn’t malicious, it was insensitive. One can’t be held entirely captive to the “lest I offend someone” thing, but some statements are better left unsaid in public discourse. Culler should have known better.

What really gets me in your essay, however, is the reaction in the small group. That kind of crap is ridiculous. It merely perpetuates the stereotype that academics are a bunch of smug, godless twits. My father calls them “pin-heads.”

Just to work the other side now: Looking at her statement, I can say that I understand where Woolf’s comment is coming from. I am surprised, because of my own journey from Christian faith, that some biblical scholars can remain faithful. It seems hard to believe that some manage to salvage or even strengthen their faith despite the intense historical research and critical evaluation their profession requires. But it happens all the time. I have no time for simplistic fundamentalism; it’s anti-intellectual. And I’ve contributed more than my fair share of giving someone a hard time on their blog because they let their faith / dogma frame certain biblically-related issues rather than allowing the historical and comparative research inform their dogma (over at ancienthebrewpoety, e.g.). OK, I’ve even asked some loaded questions and made some pointed statements about faith and biblical scholarship. But even in all of this there must remain some modicum of mutual respect and civility between intelligent people. If we grant such respect to our students (hopefully!), how much more so should we to our peers! (How’s that for working in a Qal-wa-Homer?)

There’s something to be said for the old “scholar and a gentleman” characterization. We would all do well to remember that civility is a hallmark of civilization.

Nice piece.