Time Immortal

Mrs. Ashe writes in with some thoughts about atheist correspondent Samuel Skinner’s most recent message to me.

I think Mr. Skinner presents a FALSE dichotomy. Atheism is a religious belief. It happens to be an anti-God religious belief, but it is religious all the same. It comes from the very centre of religious thinking.

The logical test is that more than one concept may be wrong, but opposing concepts cannot both be true. So then one must examine the way things work in the real world, not just the way we wish they ought. To which I would further add that “ought” is a moral/religious concept.

Perhaps though, I don’t articulate my thoughts well…

By the way, I TRULY ENJOY your blog, and post most of your entries to my Facebook so that my friends can understand how you and I think on certain issues.

As always, it’s nice to hear from the good Reader who has something nice to say about the site, and Mrs. Ashe is certainly welcome (as are all who find something worth reading here).

As to atheism as religious belief, I think that there are many parallels which exist which could, perhaps, justify the conclusion that atheism is a Religion (or something very like a religion) — for most, atheism is certainly something more than the simple absence of a belief in God (or in gods/the divine/the supernatural).

Generally speaking, I prefer to abstract atheism as a metaphysical conjecture, one which is no more grounded in empirical realities than e.g. the Christian metaphysical conjecture that God does exist and that He is merciful and desires, through His grace, the salvation of all.

I also happen to think that atheism fails on several levels, not the least of which is natural law (here taken to mean the unity between the moral law taught in Christ and the ordered function of creation), which is what I think Mrs. Ashe is referring to in her second paragraph above.