“In the world shown us by Darwin, there is nothing that can be called progress. To anyone reared on humanist hopes this is intolerable. As a result, Darwin’s teaching has been stood on its head, and Christianity’s Cardinal error – that humans are different from all other animals – has been given a new lease on life^[1]  John Gray. Straw Dogs. 1st ed. N.p.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Print..”

John Gray

In this series of posts, I will attempt a critique of John Gray’s Straw Dogs. Specifically, I will be postulating that two of his arguments against humanism, though intriguing, are unfounded; and that this in turn renders his assessment of Christianity as a “failure” equally unfounded. The reasons for this connection will become clearer as one reads the text and begins to see that Gray’s arguments against humanism are one and the same with his supposedly solid arguments against Christianity. Ergo, as we dismantle the former, we likewise dismantle the latter.

While some of his conclusions regarding humanism are quite on point, many of his supporting proofs are greatly lacking. Specifically, his proofs regarding (a.) humans as lacking a radical separation from the animals and (b.) the non-progress everywhere except internal to science. As a dogie is a calf orphaned from its mother, so too are these arguments orphaned from reason.

I hope to show that Straw Dogs fails in its dismissal of Christianity, and I will attempt to do so by means of a careful critique of two core arguments deployed in this regard.