Doing Well to silence the ignorant

I just read a profound verse. 1 Peter 2:15: "For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men".

There is much ignorance in the world. I myself am very ignorant even though I study daily. When I read the above verse, I thought of the ignorant arguments of modern-day atheists such as Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Dan Dennett, Steven Pinker and others. Even though these men are very learned, their arguments against religion are ignorant because they have never given religion a fair trial. They rightly attack many false beliefs that too many religious people hold, but they commit the fallacy of composition by supposing that all religious people hold the same erroneous views. Their suppositions about the world lead them to believe that faith and revelation are foolish things. They have influenced many people—sometimes for better, but mostly for worse.

There are many people who are persuaded by atheist arguments. Sometimes these people (atheists, agnostics, secularists) are our very good friends and acquaintances. However if they are honest, these people cannot help but see that we have achieved what they want if we live the gospel. Here are some examples of the differences between religious people and non-religious people.

• A 2004 study has shown that 43% of religious folks said they were "very happy" with their lives as opposed to 23% of secularists.

• When you account for variables, a religious person is 13 percentage points more likely than the nonreligious person to say he or she is very happy. The difference is even higher for Mormons.

• 36% of people who prayed everyday (regardless of whether they attended church services) said they were very happy versus 21% of people who never prayed.

• Religious people are significantly happier than atheists and oddly enough atheists are happier than agnostics of which only 12% are happy.

• Religious people are more educated and less ignorant of the world around them than people who do not go to church.

• When accounting for variables a college graduate is 7% more likely to be a churchgoer than the nongraduate.

• A religious person is 38% more likely than a non-religious person to give charity and they give away 4X more money per year.

• Religious people are 52% more likely than non-religious people to volunteer.

• They are 16% more likely than non-religious people to give explicitly to nonreligious charities and 54% more likely to volunteer for these causes.

• They are far more likely to donate blood.

• More likely to give food or money to a homeless person.

• More likely to return change mistakenly given by the cashier.

(These figures and accompanying explanations are found in the book Gross National Happiness by the economist Arthur Brooks.)

If we are engaged in "well doing" we will silence the ignorance of foolish men. If they really want what our lives embody, they will be persuaded to learn about our faith. Reasoning with these people will not budge them, but what you are, if you are what you ought to be, will call into question all they have come to believe about religion. I personally want to live my life in such a way that people will say, "There must be something special about Mormonism because Gavin is a Mormon."