The apostasy of Jonathan Edwards

John Williams asks: are religious athletes nothing more than cheats?

In recent months there has been rather a lot of press (relatively speaking) about World Triple Jump Champion and sometime world record holder Jonathan Edwards and his apparent 'fall from grace' and / or 'apostasy' and / or 'coming to his senses' depending on what newspaper or magazine you happened to be reading.

I suspect that if the former Christian Mr Edwards had retired quietly after his magnificent athletics career and dealt with his own faith privately then there would have been no 'drama' at all. Instead he took a position presenting 'Songs of Praise' and then quit in a storm of atheism.

His story and his famous reliance on God to guide him through his career raises an important question, both from a philosophical position, and a medical one: Is God's assistance in sporting events immoral and are devout athletes cheating?

Mr Edwards has repeatedly claimed that prior to winning the world title he prayed to God 'to do with me what you will' and clearly God's will was that he should win the title.

In my less generous and more cynical days I imagine that prayer to be like this:

"Our father. I am about to gird up my loins and enter the field of battle on your behalf. I am entering a stadium full of people to represent you. I know, understand and empathise with all the people of the world who are starving, who are in a war zone, who are diseased. I know that at any one time there are thousands of children desperately calling out your name asking for your help, your salvation, your mercy.

I need you to ignore all that for a bit.

I need you to help me to hop skip and jump really really really far over a sandpit just so I can tell other people I jumped the furthest. I know that sounds like I only want bragging rights in the pub this evening, but there is a difference – I'll get some real gold that I'll keep in a safe away from people who can't afford gold. That medal will actually be like getting a 'star' from you! Other people in the world will gaze in wonder as you help me run and hop and skip and jump!!!

So, will you help me? Amen"

I despair at the type of system that thinks 'Yes' is the correct response to that prayer.

Irrespective of the actual words of any prayer offered in such a situation the request remains utterly disgusting and repugnant: a pious person should not be asking for God's help to win a trivial (in terms of morality and suffering) sporting contest when there are real catastrophes on earth – surely the prayer should have been:

'Dear God.
I'm going out to play with my friends. You have already given me talent, now leave me alone and cure cancer or something. Or let an amputee grow an arm back, which you have never ever done. I'll tell you how I got on later.
Ta muchly.
Jonny."

Mr Edwards actually believed that God was helping him win a jumping competition. This is the heart of my enquiry. Does a strong belief, such as that of Mr Edwards, actually have a placebo effect that could be compared to performance enhancing drugs? Should God be illegal in sport?

I have been searching in vain for studies on this question and can find none. However the placebo effect is very real and has great medical benefits. Obviously there is a difference between that kind of 'medication' and an athlete taking a steroid – no one would ban an athlete for mistakenly believing he had been taking a steroid even if it did have a positive impact, and more to the point an athlete is likely to consider the drug a failure if there was no improvement. A religious athlete would never dream of considering that God had failed in an attempt to assist, particularly if the other competitors were of different faiths or none at all: that religious athlete would never accept that his one and only true God was beaten by the fakes and charlatans and even worse, the puny humans who think they can beat a warrior of God without any type of help at all.

I would very much like to read an investigation by medical experts with appropriate experience of the placebo effect. Of course finding subjects might be difficult as, taking Mr Edwards as an example, he is no longer religious but is no longer an active athlete at the height of his powers. I would welcome any psychological input on that though: there must be a valid hypothesis even if the actual experiment would be difficult to perform.

In moral terms however the modern sporting arena is the closest most of us will get to actual conflict and as a result God needs to be banned from sport lest the winner decide that other Gods are the fakes based purely on the outcome of a 100-metre race. Sounds silly? Yes of course it does, but it is no more silly than believing that a 2000 year old Jewish zombie rose from the dead and invites you to eat his body and communicate with him telepathically so you can reserve a booking in a place that no one has seen.

Perhaps Mr Edwards will now hand back his medals in recognition of the immoral performance enhancing placebo effect of the delusion he conveniently no longer suffers from? That would at least purify the wonderful intent of the Olympics and other sporting activity where the aim is to push forward ‘human’ excellence without assistance from outside, no matter what form that assistance takes.
26 October 2007

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