timeimmortal

Another wave of atheists seems to be upon me; while I can’t quite set my watch by them, at least I can be assured that there will be periodic sources of content not related to doings on any other blog save this one, which I appreciate.

In this case, the amusingly-handled Aspentroll writes in with a few thoughts on this article.

“Atheism will endure, as it has for many ages now. But it will never dominate a free people, and in due course gives way to the spiritual. Falsehood must necessarily give way to truth in the end, or at least to a less severe falsehood.”

The word “atheism” above could be replaced by the word “Religion” or “Christianity” and the rest of the quote would be just as true.

Atheists believe that the Bible is a huge falsehood and to pattern your life on such a nebulous writing is in most cases dangerous. You cannot govern a country using the laws of the bible which seems to be what some “fundies” want. We would all be up in arms if Sharia Law was allowed in the US, because it is archaic and discriminatory against women and free thought.

Atheism, agnosticism and free thought is the only check and balance we have to keep overly zealous delusional people from taking over and spoiling what is a normal modern way of life.

Did the reader note the tacit suggestion that religious people are necessarily delusional? The footnote to this more recent article seems relevant to mention here.

A good first question I might ask is: what checks and balances exist to keep overly zealous atheists from taking over and spoiling what is a normal, modern way of life that, in the West at least (though it perhaps does not always realize it), benefits greatly from reserves of Christian moral capital built up over the centuries? History has demonstrated that those states which have made atheism an explicit policy of the state have inexorably become brutal and bloody-minded, and several examples of the trend persist to this day.

The Mark Shea article I cited previously addresses this point rather directly: it is within human nature to desire to believe, and when force of will fails to ensure that the populace does not stray back toward the spiritual, force of arms is a necessary recourse of the atheistic state. It might be easy to laugh this off as fallacy, but one observes that in the explicitly atheistic regimes in places such as the Soviet Union, Burma, China, and North Korea (an incomplete list of examples, but sufficient for our purposes) did have something of a penchant for murderously cracking down on spiritual movements and religions within their borders. Certain exceptions to the trend exist, of course, but only in those cases where the religion(s) in question — the Orthodox Church in Russia, the “Catholic” Church in China — has allowed itself to be co-opted by the state.

One possible objection is that the generally secular regimes in many Western nations do not actively persecute the religious faithful in their midst. While the statement about persecution is up for debate, it is generally true that secular Western states do not, at least, murderously persecute their religious citizens. But then, even in various Scandinavian nations, the secularism itself is not explicit state policy, and most of those states still acknowledge that there is a Christian aspect to their origins.

As to the quote of mine that Apentroll cites in opening his message, it should be observed that his attempt to gainsay it, in the first sentence of his response to me, really amounts to little more than saying “I know you are, but what am I?” Although it sounds more reasonable than that on the surface — heck, it even sounds somewhat rational — the statement itself can be revealed to be something of a patent falsehood, on several levels, upon closer examination.

First off, Christianity’s aim — and the aim of true religion (as opposed to the various false teachings one can stumble across from time to time*) — is freedom. And by freedom, I don’t mean being free “from rules of conduct or social constraints” (as the all-too talented authors of the character of Durandal in the Marathon series of games so eloquently word it). I do, however, mean being free “to understand, to imagine, to make metaphor.”

Freethinking, a misnomer if ever there was one, actually ruins freedom. “Freethinkers supposedly want “the pursuit of ideas for their own sake,” but no one pursues ideas simply for their own sake, but in order to understand, to act or to believe, or to have some combination of these. Men pursue ideas so that they may understand the world, and they seek to understand the world to have wisdom. Men desire wisdom in order to live well, and part of living well is to pursue and know the Good, and the Good is that which fulfills human nature and causes it to flourish. The desire to know is a natural desire, one implanted in us as part of our created being; we yearn to know and to enter into the unknown because we yearn for unity with the One Who desires that all things be united in Him. If no religion had ever caused men to live virtuously and flourish, religion would have disappeared ages ago. If no religion had produced saints and cultivated the finest aspects of human nature, very few would adhere themselves to it and even then it would only be the mad and obsessive. There is nothing interesting in rehearsing the catalogue of crimes that religious adherents have committed against each other, since men have always been slaughtering and oppressing one another and they have tended to do more of it when they are less in thrall to their religious tradition than when they are strictly obedient to it. What is remarkable is how much at least some religions have contributed to the civilisation and edification of men, which would hardly seem probable if they were not much more than elaborate exercises in self-deception and nonsense.”

One point, in particular, that can be taken out of the above quotation is that “we yearn to know and to enter into the unknown because we yearn for unity with the One Who desires that all things be united in Him.” It is the result of no accident that science and discovery flourished in the Christian West after ending up misfiring almost everywhere else in the world (historically speaking). As David Warren notes, “[to] those who know some history, the modern sciences emerged in an unambiguously Christian milieu. They flourished, over centuries in the West, as the direct result of the Judaeo-Christian teaching that “God does not contradict Himself.” The whole notion of unalterable physical laws, and thus a universal order that will repay inquiry, is the product of a theological position unique to the West. It is a view that has been glimpsed in other civilizations, but could only be doggedly pursued in this one. Science was stillborn in all other civilizations.”

And the same is true of the wider concept of freedom. Nowhere else in the world, save in a West born out of Christendom, did the concept of human freedom, individual liberty, and human rights genuinely flourish. It did not, certainly, flourish in the Islamic world, nor in the castes of Hinduism in India, nor in any of the places where Buddhism took hold, nor in…any other place, really, save for the West that Christendom birthed. Indeed, the ideas that man should be free and that all men are “equal” is, ultimately, only defensible from within a teleological framework, and then a Christian teleology.

And in the numerous examples one could draw out of the 19th and 20th centuries, one can observe that in those regimes where atheism has, so to speak, become the law of the land, not only has human freedom been impaired and/or outright trampled on, but so too has science, to say nothing of human rights.

Now, I will grant that I stand in agreement with Aspentroll’s objetion to governance by “fundies” — fundamentalism leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Equally, though, I don’t think that society has any right to demand that a politician leave his Christianity at the door when he takes office.

Atheists are welcome to consider the Bible a book of falsehoods; I consider it God’s inerrant, infallible revelation to the world**. Who is to say which of us is right? I will grant that many, many people have a poor understanding of exactly what the Bible teaches, and fundamentalists seem especially prone to this unfortunate reality. But is it genuinely dangerous to pattern one’s life on the core teachings of Scripture? Exactly how terrible a place would the world be to live in if we all actually followed what Christ taught? Exactly how terrible a place would the world be to live in if everyone followed, as a bare minimum, the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes, and patterned their lives on the concepts articulated therein?

I very much doubt it would be a perfect place to live in…but I’ve no doubt that it would be a much better world. But then, Chesterton had it exactly right when he noted that “the Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult, and left untried.”

I also agree with Aspentroll that it would be horrible if Islamic sharia law became the law of the land, in Canada or anywhere else. I suspect that Aspentroll, however, has temporarily taken leave of reason and erroneously assumes that because some types of religious law are brutal and evil, all forms of religious law must necessarily also be brutal and evil. It’s a rather common logical fallacy among atheists to assert this — Christopher Hitchens is particularly vulnerable to it.

The main problem with the assertion is that a thing may be true even if certain individuals don’t accept it as being true. This is easily understood in the case of the fundamentalist objection to e.g. the theory of evolution and the geological research that has revealed the approximate age of the Earth. Young Earth Creationism insists, passionately, that Earth is a mere 6,000 years old, and most creationists of this bent do not accept as truthful or valid the various discoveries made in the fields of geology, astronomy, and evolutionary biology (among others). That doesn’t mean that the theories and discoveries aren’t true, however.

The same is true in regard to atheistic assertions regarding religions. Aspentroll would hardly be the first atheist to look at, say, the evils perpetrated in the name of Islam and declare that all religions are murderous death cults obsessed with paedophilia and suicide belts. That might come as news to Buddhists, and indeed to most Christians, but not everyone can be counted on to let facts get in the way of good rhetoric, especially if it sells books with provocative titles. And yet, a more reasonable, rational person would notice that there are many critical differences between, say, Islam and Catholicism, visible both by a close analysis of doctrine and by taking an honest, objective look at the actions of the followers of each respective faith on a global scale.

As previously noted, the creature we call a human being is wired to be a believer, and the only real question is what said human being will believe in. We’ve seen this played out through history, and we see its logical consequences played out in that movement which denies this very aspect of human nature: atheism. In individual atheists like Sam Harris or Andre Comte-Sponville, we see the beginnings of post-atheistic spiritualism beginning to creep in. The same trend can be observed in Russia, in the wake of the collapse of an explicitly atheistic regime. It’s regrettable that the spirituality that such people are gravitating towards is, quite often, some new form of paganism (or “new” in that Roger Daltry “same as the old boss” sense of the word), although it is good that people are also finding, or rediscovering, the Church.

There seems to be a rather pernicious lie going around that religion and freedom are antithetical to one another; this is not completely true. It is true in regard to specific religions (e.g. Islam), but not in regard to the Christian truth. Indeed, it was a particularly Christian sense of telos that informed the very constraints, concepts, and ideals which enabled the West to value freedom. By contrast, the application of atheistic ideals as the formative values of a state has tended to be the true antithesis of freedom, of science, and of human rights.

And in perhaps the most amusingly ironic twist, I just realized that if I re-worded Aspentroll’s message to me and flipped the references to religion and atheism in every instance (and substituted the title of any New Atheist tract for “the bible”), the message itself would not only be a lot more truthful, but also a lot more historically defensible.

* this statement said with tongue firmly implanted in cheek

Samuel Skinner evidently objects to this article. Mr. Skinner has written in before, but I’ve never known him to go off half-cocked like he does below.

Wow… I always thought believers carried about what they believed and what they said- the whole “truth” thing.

Still, I have to hand it to you- you manage to attack truth AND to declare Chrsitianity to be true. Make up your mind! If “people are a religious species” than you don’t care about truth. If you focus on “Christianity will prevail” than you DO care about truth.

Well? Truth or Christianity?

Hmm.. do I count as a fan of Dawkins? Cause I am more of an Ignersol guy myself…

Just for reference, O Reader, Colonel Ingersol would be one of the men that Chesterton credited with his becoming inspired to convert to Christianity. I trust that Richard Dawkins needs no introduction.

As to the dichotomy that Mr. Skinner is attempting to establish between Christianity and truth, by assuming that there is a dichotomy in existence between two of the statements made in my previous article. I think the source of his erroneous assumption is that he looks at my statement that “humanity is a religious species” and thinks it false, which of course gives him the basis with which to declare that I “don’t care about truth.”

This would be a straw-man argument, O Reader.

That’s not to say that I don’t regard humanity as being a religious species — indeed, we are. At every turn, and in every age, humanity has sought after a deeper understanding of the supernatural, from our primitive understanding of the divine through powerful acts of the natural world, to the present revelation of God as Trinity that is the utmost truth of that realm which is beyond our own. The question, for humanity, has never been whether we shall believe, but what we shall believe, and that remains true even today, even in regard to those who profess atheism.

Because even atheists have their beliefs. The aforementioned Richard Dawkins would have us believe in science. Daniel Dennett would have us believe that the randomly-evolved chunk of meat situated a few inches behind our eyes is capable of rational thought as an outcome of random chemical and hormonal interactions. Sam Harris would have us believe in Buddhism, more or less. It’s not necessarily a case, in such instances, of seeking after the supernatural…but it’s still acting out the human impulse to believe.

Humans are designed to believe. That’s one truth.

We’re designed to believe because there is a supernatural divinity “out there” that desires us to believe in it, and which has fashioned us with the capacity to believe*. That’s another truth.

Christianity is the final revelation of the nature of that divinity. That’s another truth.

Christianity, being the final revelation of that divinity, will prevail. That’s one last truth.

And there’s no conflict between any of those statements, those truths…especially not between the first and the last.

Update: Welcome, Steynians!

* a number of atheists tend to adopt the stance that religious belief is a form of mental illness. Given that most human beings have been and are religious, and given that humanity has been designed to believe (as evidenced by the fact that in every age, humanity has pursued belief), it seems more reasonable to suggest that those who are passionately atheist are either suffering from some form of mental illness, or else struggling under a genetic/evolutionary defect of some kind.

Humanity is a religious species — in all ages of our existence, we have sought after the supernatural and sought to believe. Atheism, ostensibly a simple state of non-belief that more practically seems to take the form of a belief in a universal not, creates something of a vacuum in the human heart that both the design of the human person and millions of years of human experience desires to fill.

The question, then, is what the void gets filled with.

…atheistic fads tend to wane and latch on to some form of “spirituality.” Sometimes that can mean reversion to the Faith. Sometimes it means the embrace of the occult or some form of paganism. Sometime it means embracing one of the Great Religions, such as Judaism, Islam, or Buddhism. But the only way a society remains “atheist” once the fad is past is by force of arms, as in the Soviet Union. And the moment the state cannot enforce it, the culture inhales whatever “spirituality” it can find. That’s why Russia has not only seen a big return to the Faith, but a huge growth of fascination in all manner of National Enquirer twaddle about UFOs, New Age twaddle, horoscopes, divination, and all the rest. atheism tends to achieve not a shiny rationalist society, but a spiritually ignorant (and deeply hungry) population that will latch on to anything in its desperation to fill the God-shaped hole in the heart.

…

Atheistic societies tend to be extremely bloody ones, it’s true. So a step toward theism is better than nothing, and the waning atheist fad is cause for a small celebration. But do remember that nobody involved in the Crucifixion, the persecution of the apostles, and the ancient pagan persecutions of the Church was an atheist. A culture that turns from being strictly materialistic to being a culture of Materialist Magicians is not a culture that is automatically re-Christianizing. Such a turn may be a first step toward Christ, but it can just as easily be a first step toward Moloch. For a materialist who comes to worship the reality of “spirit” is not necessarily worshipping the Lord our God, and Him only. In the words of Lewis’s Ransom, “There’s nothing specially fine about being a Spirit. The Devil is a Spirit.

Atheism will endure, as it has for many ages now. But it will never dominate a free people, and in due course gives way to the spiritual. Falsehood must necessarily give way to truth in the end, or at least to a less severe falsehood.

One wonders, then, just how much darker the woods will have to get before the light from the other side begins to shine in? These are the interesting times of the Chinese curse, methinks — Christians would do well to keep on their toes and, in a manner akin to Scouts, “be prepared.”

Update: Welcome, Steynians!

Nicholas writes in with a response to…well, to what I assume is this article.

It is an interesting discourse, to be sure.

I agree with you that atheism is a philosophical position that cannot be proved beyond all possible doubt. But it can be proved beyond all reasonable doubt that all the gods so far postulated do not measure up to any reasonable standard of what a god should offer. Almost all of humankind has accordingly rejected Thor and Zeus and Baal and countless others.

If people honestly read the Torah, they are bound to conclude that YHWH is a depressingly human fantasy of a depressingly human god, if anything a nastier tyrant than Stalin. And if they actually read the gospels, they will note that Jesus’s recorded remarks do not contain anything that marks him out as decisively superior to other prophets, or to previous philosophers. (For example, in the Crito dialogue, Plato attributes to Socrates the stance that we should not return evil for evil.)

I’m going to interject at this point, simply because what follows is a shift of topic. Formulating a coherent response is not something I’ll struggle with either way, but it occurs to me that it will be easier for the good Reader if I respond to each charge at the moment it is made, rather than in a large final summation.

First, I observe that with what could be called depressing truth to form, Nicholas assertion that “all the gods so far postulated do not measure up to any reasonable standard of what a god should offer” is not followed up with arguments from evidence or reason in support of it. It may well be that no deity postulated until this point in history satisfies even a reasonable standard of what a god should offer, but Nicholas in no way details any examples of any supposed inadequecies of any particular deity.

Of course, the whole issue of a “reasonable standard” seems laughable to me — precisely what would constitute a reasonable standard for a deity to uphold? Who defines what that standard should be? Indeed, where in the human-deity hierarchy does humanity fall relative to God? Are we even in a position to demand that God conform his actions to what our definition of a “resonable standard” is? It smacks of hubris, and one cannot help but conjure in mind the image of a loinclothed man armed only with a spear criticizing as “destructively inadequate” the quantum torpedos of the USS Enterprise (NCC 1701-E).

It only follows that humanity is in any position to hold God to a “reasonable standard” if, in fact, humanity is “above” or “equal to” God. Of course, if humanity is “above” or “equal to” God, then humanity likewise has no need of God, but that’s beside the point. If, in fact, God is “above” humanity, however, then humanity is in no position to demand God behave according to any human standard since, by definition, the human standard is the inadequate one, and the ways of God superior to it. That’s not to say that we can’t complain, but if we do complain it must be understood that we will be doing so with all the reason and rationalism of a six-year old denied the right to begin watching a fourth hour of television by its parents.

Fundamentally, when I read Nicholas‘ statements above, I am left with the impression that Nicholas is bitter and/or upset with religion in general — his statement equating the Judeo-Christian God with Stalin certainly points to this. Likewise, his dismissal of Jesus’ teachings as nothing new illustrates, I think, a conscious desire to reject something about Christianity. Not that this comes as a surprise, of course. Atheism tends, as a rule, to adopt as its own the prevailing morality of the culture in which the atheist(s) in question reside, minus whatever proscribed activity the atheist(s) desire(s) to engage in (which usually is something to do with sex). I’ve heard all manner of arguments in this direction, from the sort that bemoan the fact that 25-year-old virgins still exist (Hans Machel) to those which argue that marital fidelity is a biological inclination that we need to rise above (Richard Dawkins).

Yes, others may have articulated similar sentiments to those that Christ spoke of, and perhaps that should be clue for us that some truths are universal. But equally, just because truths were articulated by other philosophers independently of Jesus does not mean that the teachings themselves were fully understood (if at all understood) apart from Christ.

Regarding the explicit statement that Plato attributed something akin to the Golden Rule to Socrates well in advance of Jesus’ life and death, I and others have observed that “[t]his is another sample of Thomas’ second objection at work. It boils down to saying the natural law is knowable to all, so we don’t need to believe that the natural law comes from God. The sleight of hand comes in when “God” is confused with “Religion“. So the atheist routinely speaks as though Christians believe that nobody had ever heard that murder or theft or adulter were bad until Moses “revealed” this and imagines it a great coup to announce that, in fact, people have always known such things are wrong. Apparently, the people who say these things have never read the story of Cain and Abel. If they had, they would know that this was no news flash to ancient Israel. Nor was it a news flash to Paul, whose entire arraignment of the pagans in Romans 1 makes it clear that the natural law is knowable by everybody and that the failure of the pagans (who never heard of the Ten Commandments) to obey the natural law was blameworthy. In fact, no educated believer says the Ten Commandments revealed the natural law. Rather, the point of the Ten Commandments is that they make clear to Israel who is the author of the natural law which humanity has known for time immemorial. It makes clear that the natural law is not a mere artifact of wind and weather which can be ignored when it inconveniences us, but an iron fact of our being put there by the author of our being.

Being ignorant of this elementary fact makes the author ignorant of another elementary fact, that Jesus’s Golden Rule was, in fact, often *not* understood in even the most rudimentary of societies long before it was enunciated by Jesus. That’s because the Golden Rule requires grace in order to be understood, much less lived. Judaism articulated the basic norm that all pagan societies, at their best, could attain: love your neighbor, hate your enemy. It’s the norm we still basically live by today. Jesus’ Golden rule implied love for enemies because it included enemies in the term “neighbor”. It remains, apart from grace, an impossible and (for the worldly) ridiculous standard. The notion that anybody — especially an atheist — would aspire to it is a classic example of the way in which atheists live off Christian capital.”

I agree with you also, Ken, that we all believe many things that we cannot prove. For example, I believe that I have free will to make choices, and even to act on a whim. But I cannot disprove the assertion that an entity with a complete understanding of human psychology could forecast my every choice, including what I thought was a whim.

Gods with all of the attributes frequently claimed for gods, cannot exist. For example, if I am right that I have free will, there cannot be any omniscient god. If on the other hand I am wrong, there cannot be any just god, if it punishes my predictable mistakes.

This is a curious thing for Nicholas to believe, given his atheistic stance. For really, it is only by first invoking a sense of telos that humanity can postulate that it has a will, especially one that is free. Fundamentally, and from a purely empirical standpoint, a human being is just a fleshy outer shell wrapped around a bundle of opportunistic chemical reactions that are partly random and partly a response to outside stimuli. There is no free will in that — these words that I am typing right now are a testament to nothing more than a churning electrochemical reaction taking place within my brain, and series of signals being transmitted through my nervous system. Indeed, my very theism is nothing more than either an expression of something within my genes (and therefore meaningless, and certainly no indicator that I am possessed of a will of any sort) or the result of a response to either a chemical/hormonal reaction within my body or an external stimuli (and therefore, again, meaningless).

Another problem with atheists, I find, is that they tend to be more fundamentalist in their conception of who God must be than even the most rigid, fanatical fundamentalist theists are. Note the sudden transition to strict either/or thinking in Nicholas‘ writing, O Reader — this was a predictable shift on his part. Now, to be fair, historical theology has given him some ammunition to work with, in postulating on the omnipotence of God. But as others have pointed out, “omnipotence” is not the best word to describe the nature and scope of God’s knowledge and power. Better terms would be “volipotence” and “voliscience“.

“The concept of voliscience describes a Creator who knows whatever He wants, whenever He wants, to the extent that the concept of time is even relevant to such a being. Not only does this concept not limit God, but it has the additional benefit of being far more Biblically accurate than the traditional concept of an omniscient God. In fact, if one thinks about the matter for more than five seconds, one quickly realizes that the concept of voliscience is far less limiting than the use of the concept of omniscience has historically proven to be. One might also consider the concept of volipotence to be of some benefit in better conceiving a rationally sound and Scripturally precise nature of the Biblical God, but it’s probably less necessary since the key stumbling point for most Christians and atheists alike here is not related directly to omnipotence per se, but rather their inability to distinguish between the capacity of omnipotence and the action of omniderigence.

The fact that there is no possible logical conflict between voliscience and volipotence only adds to the rational appeal of the concept in my opinion, although I regard the nominal theodictic conflict between omnipotence and omniscience to reflect thinking so shallow as to border on stupidity anyhow.”

Famously, the life cycle of the Ichneumonidae, and much else, such as the facts that almost all life forms on this planet produce more (often hugely more) offspring than survive to maturity, and the doomed young often die in terror and pain, prove that there is no benign and omnipotent god.

Given that the Bible — especially the New Testament — is full of examples of ways in which suffering and death are shaped into pathways by which God’s glory is revealed, and given that some of Jesus’ teachings even go so far as to point out the role that death and dying play in God’s plan for His creation, the charge that any incidences of suffering and/or death in nature somehow disprove the idea of a benign god is specious and inconsequential…as has been discussed on this site a goodly number of times. Nicholas in particular would do well to remember that he’s been “thwumped” on this issue before on this very site.

These facts are consistent with the existence of any number of cruel gods, including C S Lewis’s “cosmic sadist”. They are also consistent with gods who have only limited powers and bungle important things. I am not atheist about such gods, but I choose (I think!) not to believe they exist, because there is no positive evidence for their existence.

I have long maintained, O Reader, that most strains of atheism are, at their core, built up around some manner of positivism, and certainly that has always been the case with Nicholas‘ atheism (as evidenced here). What is interesting is that he is willing to consider his personal opinions about the relative “cruelty” of the function of the natural world as evidence against the existence of the supernatural, and yet is unwilling to consider things like unexplained healings following in lockstep with prayers of intercession to the saints (Padre Pio in particular!) and other attested miracles as evidence in favour of the existence of the supernatural.

It’s not exactly a rational way of looking at the world, discarding the evidence one doesn’t like and improperly using as evidence that which is, on closer examination, not really evidence in support of one’s point at all. That things like predation, diseases, and often-lethal environmental pressures exist in the world tells us nothing about the intentions of any hypothetical creator; they merely tell us that within creation there are several extant hierarchies and concrete realities. Bigger animals and smaller animals exist, and some bigger animals eat some of the smaller ones. Different environmental forms exist, and sometimes environmental changes or events can have devastating results because — let’s be honest — any time there’s any sort of dynamism on a scale as large as the crust of a planet, there is bound to be the potential for a dramatic release of energy.

And to it all, we can honestly say: so what? Nature is designed by something way beyond human comprehension to begin with; should it be any kind of surprise, then, that we do not always understand the ways and means with which it operates?

You can call this sort of atheism a religion if you like, but it’s rather an eccentric use of the word. In the usual use, I think, religions always include elements of the supernatural, and of ritual. Even a stripped-down version of Buddhism includes mystical elements such as the denial of the self. And, as far as I know, all forms of modern Buddhism as actually practised include rituals. Tibetan lamaism includes all manner of weird spirits and deities.

This is mostly true, although it serves to note that many atheists — Sam Harris being perhaps one of the more prominent — draw upon Buddhism as an example of an “atheist” religion (Harris himself practices some “rituals” — including, but not limited to, meditation — of the Buddhist religion). And at any rate, certain forms of Taoism are almost completely free of supernatural concepts, unless one counts the concept of “peace” as supernatural.

As to whether the “denial of the self” can be counted as “mystical,” I leave up to the reader. Self-denial in various forms infuses many aspects of secular culture (dieting, for an easy example) without seeming to stray into the realm of mysticism, after all.

In contrast, I don’t admit to worshipping anything. I accept modus ponens because it works. I accept the evidence of randomised double-blind trials of drugs, because they have given us drugs which work. But I don’t sing hymns to modus ponens or the smallpox vaccine, or make them burnt offerings.

Employing a touch of Nicholas‘ logic in reverse, I observe that many drugs can and do produce all manner of rather horrifying side effects, including (in some cases) death. Clearly we can posit, then, non-benign (if not outright cruel) intent on the part of pharmaceutical researchers?

Yes, I’m being facetious.

Nicholas is correct in that he does not admit to worshipping anything, and indeed he probably does not ritualize even those things which he does worship. But my contention is that we all worship something — even sex or money — and this contention stands. When I posed a set of questions in the article I linked to at the beginning of this posting, Nicholas responded thusly:

1. What do I feel entitled to? The rights set out in the European Convention of Human Rights.
2. Why? Because this convention is largely common sense, and has been incorporated into the law of the country I live in.
3. Why am I so angry/sad/bitter? What makes you think I am any of these?
4. If I had to, how would I define happiness? Aristotelian eudaimonia, laced with Epicurean pleasure in hugs, snow, and music.

I observe a sense that the law, and in particular human rights legislation, is sacrosanct. After all, the first question asked what Nicholas felt entitled to, and the fact that he answered it as he did is instructive.

If we honestly think about it, we as human beings are entitled to nothing, whether God exists or not. This is especially true if we assume God does not exist, because at that point all we can claim to be entitled to is what we can hold on to until someone stronger, faster, or otherwise “bigger” comes to take it away from us. Appeals to common sense hold little sway in face of the “cruel” laws by which nature operates…and equally, not everyone recognizes things held to be commonly sensible.

But Nicholas feels entitled to these human rights all the same. At the same time, he has in the past argued that an entire category of human beings — the unborn — do not necessarily deserve the same comprehensive protection of their human rights. But for Nicholas, his being protected by those and other legal conventions is sacrosanct. It is his entitlement.

So I leave it here to the Reader: what, exactly, does Nicholas worship, even if not in a way that involves formal ritual?

Blazing Cat Fur writes in concerning David Kahane.

The mind “God gave to Kahane” is a barren place.

I don’t know whether Mr. Kahane’s mind is barren or not. But something amusing did occur to me last night. On his Facebook profile, Mr. Kahane lists his Religion as Buddhist. In addition to explaining the basic methodology of his course, it reminded me of something that white people like.

White people will often say they are “spiritual” but not religious. Which usually means that they will believe any religion that doesn’t involve Jesus.

Popular choices include Buddhism, Hinduism, Kabbalah and, to a lesser extent, Scientology. A few even dip into Islam, but it’s much more rare since you have to give stuff up and actually go to Mosque.

Barren mind? Maybe — I couldn’t honestly say, having never met the man myself. Eerily predictable? Yes, quite possibly.

Religions that their parents don’t belong to

White people will often say they are “spiritual” but not religious. Which usually means that they will believe any Religion that doesn’t involve Jesus.

Popular choices include Buddhism, Hinduism, Kabbalah and, to a lesser extent, Scientology. [Don't forget Wicca! — Ken] A few even dip into Islam, but it’s much more rare since you have to give stuff up and actually go to Mosque.

Mostly they are into religion that fits really well into their homes or wardrobe and doesn’t require them to do very much.

I don’t know who this guy is, but he’s good.

I’ve always been fascinated by atheism, or rather by secularism in general. Not in a “sign me up” sense of the word, but in the sense of regarding them as a curiousity of sorts. I can understand that person could believe that there is no God, no spiritual dimension to our existence, but what I cannot understand — what fascinates me — is the smug self-assurance, the 100% conviction of empirical correctness, the arrogant dismissal of those who do believe in something supernatural as under-educated and ignorant, or delusional, or in need of an emotional crutch. I’m not saying that believers aren’t 100% convinced of the correctness of their position — many are. But I am saying that what fascinates me about atheism as a belief system is that it arrogantly dismisses every other belief system as a child’s fairy tale, a coping mechanism, at the same time refusing to acknowledge its own nature.

Because what is atheism, and indeed what is secularism, if not a belief system unto itself, one that worships as deity such things as the individual person, or government, or science?

I was visiting Meta Religion, another of those websites devoted to promoting understanding between all the varied and often eclectic faith systems of the world. Unlike Religious Tolerance.org, however, I found that some of the articles on Meta Religion were somewhat meaningful. In particular, I was impressed by their inclusion of articles by Ian Barbour, one of the leading proponents of dialogue between faith and science today.

However, Meta Religion showed many of the same biases that Religious Tolerance.org shares with the modern atheist/secularist. If you bother to browse all the non-Christian faith descriptions on the website, you’ll find links to transcriptions of their holy texts, analysis of their beliefs, and a generally open-minded view of even the more bizarre belief systems in the world. But if you flip over to the Christian faith description, you’ll find something else. The analysis, the transcribed holy books, and even some lesser-known books (Gospel of Thomas, the Dead Sea Scrolls, etc.) can still be found, but also included is a section of “anti-Christian” articles.

When I saw that, I immediately clicked back to the description of Islam, and then to that of Buddhism, then of Judaism, and then randomly through other belief systems from there. In no other place, for no other religion, did I find articles of refutation and harsh criticism. In no other place did I find links to articles proclaiming that religion evolved as a comforting response to stress. In no other place did I find links to atheist literature. In no other place did I find links to the holy texts of other religions and discussions of the ‘parallels’ that exist. In no other place did I find links to lists of Biblical ‘contradictions’.

And that got me thinking.

In years of debating in web forums, in years of discussions with friends who are atheist, or at least secular humanist ‘agnostics’ (which is different from atheism…how?), it has become clear to me that the average atheist does not reject all concepts of God, despite claiming to. Instead, the rejection is almost exclusively that of the Christian God, and it seems to me that the majority of an argumentative atheist’s energies are directed into refuting Christian beliefs almost exclusively. Which I find interesting, to say the least — for a group that prides itself on its ability for logical and rational analysis, atheists seem only too willing to conflate all religions into Christianity, or a distorted perception thereof.

And at the core of it, the arguments aren’t even that well thought-out. Take my one friend’s quick criticism of the Bible: that it was written by a bunch of old men. Well, granted that most of the authors were male. Were they senior citizens at the time it was written? Some of them probably were older, but others were probably quite young. We really can’t say with any certainty — not that this minor factual error seems to be an obstacle to my friend’s hasty condemnation.

Take the other favourite condemnation of Religion, Christianity in particular: that religion is an evolved response to external emotional/psychological stress and worry, that it is a coping mechanism to deal especially with the problem of death. As an argument, this might have some merit, but there is a converse argument that has equal merit that most secularists are unwilling to discuss. Is it not possible that, as the pinnacle of evolution on Earth that humanity seems to be, we have evolved in such a way that our minds and hearts, our psycholgical and emotional selves, are ‘tuned in’ to God in a way that no other animal can enjoy? Is it not possible that God has used the process of evolution to create at last a being that He is able, in a small but powerful way, to actually communicate with? Is it not possible that an understanding of God, an ability to perceive the works of and perceive the call of purpose from God, is the ultimate outcome of neurological evolution? Perhaps the believers are not the ignoramuses after all, but the more evolved among us after all. Jesus taught that the meek shall inherit the Earth — perhaps this is the victory of the simple, the mundane, over the intellectual secular elite.

At this point, those of you of the atheist/secular persuasion are probably scoffing, and you’d be right to challenge me to produce evidence of such an evolution, or evidence of God more preferably, and of course I cannot provide either. I am, first, a man of faith, and though I believe that God is real and that He sent His only son Jesus to die for my sins, I will be the first to tell you that I cannot prove to you that any of that is true. I have personally experienced the touch of God, and in my own life my faith has made many positive changes and differences, and helped me to hold on to things long after anyone else would have been inclined to let go. But this is anecdotal, and nothing you would, or should, believe as empirical evidence.

But if, o reader, you think that my lack of evidence for God is proof that there is no God, think again. The scientific method dictates differently. A lack of evidence does not correspond to a disproof. It only means you haven’t yet found the evidence — you haven’t looked under the right rock. If you want to prove there is no God, you cannot point to a lack of proof on my part, but must instead produce proof of your own (cognizant, I would hope, of the fact that it is harder to prove a negation) to show that there is no God. Otherwise, any atheist/secularist statement you make falls on my ears as a statement not of fact, but as a statement of faith.

Atheists/secularists will tell you that they do not believe in God, but that in and of itself is not an atheistic statement. A Wiccan might easily make the same claim, but nobody would accuse a Wiccan of not believing in something supernatural. Likewise, a Hindu might make the claim, for Hindu is not a monotheistic religion…but nobody would accuse a Hindu of not believing in other gods.

No, an atheist instead believes there is no God. And it is a belief, because like me they can present no empirical evidence to support their claim. In many respects, it is more than just a belief or a faith — it is a religion. Ever visit an atheist website, or tripped over a militant atheist in a web-forum? There is not just a belief there — there is a vested interest in proselytization there. And a strong anti-Christian focus. If you asked me if I’d ever met an atheist who was openly critical of Allah, I would have to answer you “no”.

I realize that throughout its history, the Church has caused a number of problems, and been involved in some despicable practices. But if you think about it, that’s all in the Bible. We as humans are not perfect — we screw up from time to time. That’s what sin is. Usually it’s greed, or lust, or a desire for power and control, that has led Church officials and members into scandal and worse. Where I think many people make a great logical error is equating that with an evil underpinning of the religion itself. But ultimately, that’s not what it’s about. Yes, religious people make mistakes and commit sins. That means that (surprise!) religions are composed of people with the same human flaws and weaknesses that afflict the non-religious! It categorically does not mean that the religion itself is flawed, or evil, or sinful.

So if you’re an atheist, be consistent — denounce all religions with equal fervor. Or denounce none — just do as you ask Christians to do and keep your beliefs to yourself.

And to Meta Religions, I would just like to express my disappointment. Again, be consistent — if you’re going to publish denunciations of religion alongside the links to pro-Christian articles and transcriptions of our holy texts, please also publish those denunciations alongside the analysis of other religions. Or better still, put them in an Atheism section of the site.