Why Not Atheism?
One cannot be religious in general, one can only believe in some god(s) to the detriment of others, and the failure of all the efforts to unite religions proves that the only way to be religious in general is under the banner of the ‘anonymous religion of atheism’. And effectively only an atheist regime can guarantee religious tolerance: the moment this neutral atheist frame disappears, factional struggle among different religions has to emerge. P. 114
Even Christ’s sympathy for us sinners, should not be sentimentalized – as for Christ forgiving us our sins, remember what Ford Mattox Ford wrote in Parade’s End: the true cruelty is to forgive someone without mercy. This is how Christ does it; just brutally forgiving us, with no sentimentality, no place for expressions of gratitude. P. 120
You might not believe in God yet nonetheless believe that God gave your people the land they claim as theirs. P. 120
After all the recent arguments proclaiming the ‘post-secular’ return of the religious, the limits of disenchantment and the need to rediscover the sacred, perhaps what we truly need is a dose of good old atheism. P. 123
One should rather stick to Steve Weinberg’s claim that, while, with or without religion, good people can do good things and bad people bad things, only religion can make good people do bad things. P. 123
— Excerpts,The Courage of Hopelessness, chapt. Religion and Its Contents by Slavoj Zizek
I am not an atheist. I wonder why I am not. On some days I want to run as far as possible from Christianity, and from some of my Christian friends who behave so uncharitably. No question that human beings are paradoxical creatures. I doubt than any other mammal lives with the psychological contradiction that is “normal” for us. Dogs and cats are great company because they are unified by instinct. It is unnecessary that they hold a storehouse of ideas in order to survive. I believe they do have ideas, but only those apt of a cat-way-of-life, etc.
There is no more universal, and no more irrational dimension of “culture” than religion, than our belief in god. A belief in a particular god or grouping of gods is the cornerstone of any given culture. Even our secular, technologized, culture-of-technique is founded upon a commonly held concept of the nature of reality. What is ultimately real? Is reality, impersonal, machine-like, predicable with the precision of mathematics, conveniently monitized?
I do not know what reality is like. I think that it is like many things. What you look for — is what you get. When I lived in Japan on new years eve while standing with a few thousand others at the front of the Meiji shrine in Tokyo, the texture of reality was quite Buddhist/Shinto. I prayed for good fortune in the coming year at the stroke of midnight with everyone else, because it just felt right. No other explanation needed.
Why am I not an atheist? I have a number of friends who confess atheism or agnosticism. I enjoy their company. Atheism is reasonable. Moreover the core tenant of Jesus’ message and manner is likewise reasonable: loving your fellow humans as much as yourself is the way forward. That makes sense to me without any complex reasoned argument. Also, I think that a aspiration to become a more decent human is not incompatible with the confession that I have not a scintilla of insight into the nature of ultimate reality. Don’t ask me what I know about god. If you ask, I’ll point to the stories in the four gospels, or to the Tao Te Ching, or to the Four Quartets poems by T. S. Eliot. You will have to read the text and do the work of interpretation for yourself. That’s all that I have to offer.
I am loathe to dismiss any opportunity to have fun, to experience enjoyment as circumstances permit. So, I offer this anthem of theological speculation by the great Aussie band INXS.
2 thoughts on “Why Not Atheism?”
I apologize up front knowing that my response to your blog posting is going to end up as quite lengthy. The reason being that the subject at hand is one that is both extraordinarily simple and phenomenally complex.
The basic premise of atheism is that humans are a small part in an evolutionary chain, a mammalian animal brought about by happenstance without the meddling of an omniscient deity or creator(s). That there has never been anything resembling a higher power and never will be, other than delusional people who believe they are above others of our species.
And yet those who refer to themselves as being of an atheistic bent are assumed, by many of the devoutly religious, to be amoral, unethical, out of control, devil worshiping heathens bent on destroying all good in the world. YIKES! Of course, on the other hand, we can always bring up the Crusades, the Inquisition, Jihads, ethnic cleansings in God’s name and so on, which would seem to undermine the claims of a moral high ground by religions in general.
An adherence to an atheist philosophy also does not negate the propensity to feel awe at the wonders of nature or to feel the joys of life course through our bodies. If anything the notion that “life eternal” is a fantasy only enhances our desire to live a full and productive life, since we are a group of WYSIWYGs (what you see is what you get) and by viewing life through that filter we are more likely to be kind for the sake of being kind, not based on a fear of damnation or any other such nonsense.
This is not to say that I find all aspects of religious belief repugnant. As Jerry has pointed out, there are many wonderful lessons to be learned from the teachings of Jesus, the Torah, the Koran, the Tao te Ching and so many other religious texts (including The Four Quartets). Many churches, mosques, synagogues and other places of worship have offered a place for the community to gather and communicate. They have offered sanctuary to those in need and fed the hungry. They have been a place of refuge for those in pain and have given wonderful advice to those who are lost.
Several years ago I wrote a piece on religion and my own sense of how it all fits together, which I now offer here:
A View of the Pulpit
No doubt religions of all kinds have played a vitally important and at times massively destructive role in forming human cultural. Over millennia, religion has run the gamut by offering a social gathering place for the community, inspiring torture and mass murder based on twisted dogma, offering a contextual explanation for our existence and doling out kindness in the form of caring for the poor along with myriad other impacts on humanity.
Yet within the realm of organized religion there does not appear to be any consistent adherence to overall details of religious belief. Even in the confines of the priesthood or inner sanctity of mosques, there is no detailed agreement over the precise tenets expressed in the Bible or the Koran. Each person looks to find what they want by interpreting holy words through their own subjective filters. This comment is not critical as much as it is a statement regarding human nature. Every event we know is filtered through our genetic makeup and our environmental experience and so everything that happens is witnessed and interpreted by a unique set of senses.
As we grow and age, this interpretation and understanding of religious ideology changes. Our views are malleable and so we massage our beliefs to fit our ever-changing selves. Even those of us who profess a non-religious view continually alter how we interpret the world based on new experiences. Again, this is human nature.
Given the statement above, I believe there are two ways of viewing religion. The first is to accept that there are currently around seven billion forms of human religious or spiritual belief, some clumped together in loose formations such as Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, etc., while others are as individual as the shape of our fingerprints. The second view is to reject a belief in the supernatural origins of mankind, with an understanding we have reached a point in time where science now offers us alternative explanations rooted in empirical evidence. This interpretation gives us the freedom to view life at face value and not as something constantly altered by divine providence.
For some, there is a third option where the emotional portion of our brain creates a sense of awe and majesty when presented with the wonders of nature, the love of others, and the beauty of life. This effervescence of joy is occasionally referred to as a religious experience, for it emanates from the same source in our brain as does a religious sensation.
For me, the choice to live without religion was an easy one. My brother, sister and I were not raised in a religious environment and we have developed a strong sense of the scientific nature of evolution and of the world around us. I view us as fortunate. We did not have to extract ourselves from family history to be able to see life in a clearer, more objective manner. Yes, these words can be read as pejorative and arrogant, but I’m not sure how else to state what seems self-evident, though I also know the outright rejection of religion is not an easy choice for a variety of reasons.
In my view the rationale for remaining religious can be found within four distinct sources. The first is tradition. Our species has a deeply rooted notion of connectivity. By discarding the beliefs of our parents, grandparents and ancestors we would be cutting off a significant link to our past. There are certainly other aspects of tradition we can keep outside of religious doctrines such as music, family artifacts, artwork, language, shared experience and so much more, but the continuity of religion has been a central focus of what is passed from one generation to the next.
The second is narcissism. Homo sapiens are inherently self-centered, seeking a sense of fulfillment and ingratiation regardless of social conscience. In other words the corporate CEO with seven homes and an enormous bank account is just as fixated on finding pleasure as the ascetic who spends his or her life helping the sick. Both are seeking a sense of themselves and both see themselves as correct within their own nature. In religion this propensity towards narcissism manifests itself in the form of a personal relationship with a deity, as if the supernatural being supposedly responsible for creating the entire universe is communicating directly with the individual. In many cultures, we can add the personal benefit of eternal life for the true believer, a reward granted to the inner sanctum members of the tribe who faithfully ascribe to the religion.
Third, religious affiliation offers a sense of belonging. Humans are tribal in nature and churches, synagogues, mosques or community centers offer a gathering place, a place where like-minded tribal members may congregate. Here people discuss the activities of the day, make plans for future socializing, pray for any number of yearnings to be fulfilled, or just spend time talking with each other. All of which are vital to our mental health.
Lastly, we are hardwired to believe in supernatural explanations of the world around us, including our origins, our mortality, war, natural disasters, love and loss. When mankind’s first spark of consciousness occurred around 80,000 years ago (or earlier), the scientific method of discovery was a long way off. Our ancestors had no way of understanding their environment, or where they came from or why deceased cousin Urrg visits Blug in his dreams. So mythology developed over centuries to explain these phenomena. Magical thinking became the norm for grasping the unexplainable and in time expanded into an innate part of our brain’s limbic system.
The basis for the hardwired concept can be found in the disciplines of evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology and in books such as E. O. Wilson’s The Social Conquest of Earth and in Dean Hammer’s The God Gene plus many others. In conclusion, religion appears to be an evolutionary process itself, which, if nothing else, is immensely ironic.
And so my observation is we chose to believe (or not). Those who are devout and may read this essay will most likely be defensive. This is only natural for I am poking and prodding at the sanctity of faith. What I do ask is that you consider the sacred nature of life within an almost infinite cosmos. A possibility that life itself is precious and we no longer need rely on magic. We have come so far and it would be so utterly disappointing if we were stymied by, to use Edward Wilson’s phrase, “the bottleneck of ignorance” that surrounds and permeates the all too brief time we have on earth.
“…we massage our beliefs to fit our ever-changing selves.” Thanks for drilling down to the bedrock layers of belief, of religious sensibility. We’d be improved in our sense of self and in our relations to others if we put in the time and effort to think about these dimensions of our life.