The Impact on Faith
Question: As a scholar, were you ever concerned about how the public would receive your ideas? The impact on faith?
RDI: First and foremost I am interested in truth. I know my ideas will be controversial, and that’s just fine. But for that controversy to be substantive it has to rest on debate surrounding facts. This work doesn’t in any way argue one’s faith. One’s faith, or lack of it, is very subjective. What I have done is to attempt to clarify a subject that may or may not impact on one’s faith depending on how receptive, open-minded, the reader is.
Personally, I think a person’s beliefs should be based on facts, not fancies. An example would be attitudes toward evolution. It is hard, scientific fact, easily proved, that evolution exists. To deny this is pure fancy and does not in any way strengthen faith, it only obfuscates it.
To summarize: When faith and fact merge, the result is a strong partnership. When they diverge, the result is confusion.
From an interview by Donna Williams of The Celebrity Editor
