Sometimes very smart people say the most ridiculous things. Peter Watson, the author of Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention is the latest example. He was interviewed last weekend by Deborah Solomon for the New York Times Magazine. At one point the interview goes like this:
Solomon: "What do you think is the single worst idea in history?"
Watson: "Without question, ethical monotheism. The idea of one true god. The idea that our life and ethical conduct on earth determines how we will go in the next world. This has been responsible for most of the wars and bigotry in history."
With one short sentence Mr. Watson shows himself to be a most unserious intellectual. The single worst idea - worse, mind you, than the idea of totalitarian fascism which was responsible for over 10 million deaths in the 20th century; worse than the idea of totalitarian communism which was responsible for over 100 million deaths in the same century; worse than the idea that man is just a brute animal which should live for his own pleasures, an idea responsible for millions of wasted and shattered lives - is the idea that there is a transcendent, personal God who enjoins us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
The worst idea in history is the idea that there is a non-arbitrary, non-subjective ground for human rights, dignity, morality, and meaning. The worst idea ever is the idea that there is a basis for believing that we are more than a pile of atoms, just so much dust in the wind.
The worst idea ever is an idea that has inspired the building of hundreds of universities, hospitals, and orphanages. It's an idea which fueled, or gave birth to, numerous charitable organizations, the women's and civil rights movements, the abolition of slavery, the rise of modern science, and it's an idea which has inspired, in addition to a multitude of other benefits to mankind, much of the greatest art, literature and music ever produced by human effort.
Nevertheless, the sage Prof. Watson sees it as "without question" the single worst idea in human history. Has he ever asked what the benefits of atheism have been? Atheism or atheists gave us the holocaust, the forced famine in Ukraine in the 1930s, the Gulag, the Cambodian killing fields, the rape of Nanking and a myriad of contemporay sociological dysfunctionalities like pornography, drugs, and gangsta' rap. But it's the idea that there is a God who judges the crimes of men that Mr. Watson abhors. With all his learning one has to wonder if Mr. Watson has never read Tocqueville.
Solomon: "But religion has also been responsible for investing countless lives with meaning and inner richness."
Watson: "I lead a perfectly healthy, satisfactory life without being religious. And I think more people should try it."
Mr. Watson responds to the objection that belief in God has invested millions of lives with meaning by testifying that he himself doesn't need such belief. What he needs is not the point, of course. The fact is that millions of people's lives have been enriched, directly or indirectly, by belief in God and for Mr. Watson to ignore this fact is to make himself intellectually frivolous and irrelevant.
