Why I am an atheist

That’s right. I’m an atheist. You might remember that Christians were called that by their more cultured contemporaries in antiquity. I’m an atheist in that sense. I believe in the God of Abraham and Matthew, of Deborah and Mary, and therefore I do not believe in the gods of this age.

The god most everyone worships today is Progress. It is the firm and unquestioning belief that our age is more enlightened than previous ones. It is the conviction that in the last hundred years, thank heaven, the industrialized nations have made forward strides in the realms of law and human rights. That at least an educated elite has freed itself from superstition, mythmaking, baseless fears and paranoia, and a proclivity for violence. Things like racism, sexism, and clinging to religion no longer exist, on this understanding, except among the benighted masses.

I do not share these convictions. I see a rising tide of evil, and hope against hope in God’s superabounding grace. I see baseless fears everywhere: they just have new names. I see an abundance of racism, and especially classism, wherever I look. It is simply put to more ‘refined’ uses. I see no more wisdom in the current arrangement of roles and time management as it is distributed along gender lines, than was true in the past. I see excellent things, like science and politics, made into a surrogate religion, and denatured in the process.

Where others see progress in green awareness, I see intense hypocrisy. Where others see progress in the tendency of the latte crowd to be pacifist, I see a ‘live and let die’ philosophy. Among those who have thrown religion aside as if it were an ill-fitting jacket, or simply no longer in fashion, I note a continued hunger for transcendentals that might give life meaning. Therein, indeed, I find cause for hope.

I believe in ancient wisdom, the wisdom of Job and Qohelet. I believe in ancient prophecy, the courage to predict the future on the basis of a given understanding of the moral underpinnings of the universe, the oracles of Amos and Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. I believe in ancient Torah, the Ten Words, the Golden Rule, the New Commandment. I believe in ancient song, the “unfalsified spirituality” of the Psalms (Lévinas), not afraid to hate in the name of God, and therefore, not afraid to love in that name, to ask forgiveness, and receive it.

I believe. Oh yes I believe. But I do not believe in the gods of this age.

 

NOTE: In antiquity, Christians were persecuted and sometimes put to death for refusing to pray to the Roman deities. Their lack of devotion to the reputed foundations of Roman life was considered treasonous. For this they were referred to as atheists. They did not believe in the gods of their age. See, for example, The Martyrdom of Polycarp, 9.1-3.

Comments

[econ grad stud]

The theme of modern man's historical snobbery is all over C.S. Lewis's writings.

[JohnFH]

Thanks for dropping by, Mr. Starving. Looks like you have an excellent blog.

[ben]

This would make a great essay for NPR's 'This I Believe.'

[JohnFH]

I do indeed listen a lot to NPR, and I love that series.

[Greg]

Well put. And re:popularity of "going green," one of my professors says what the environment really needs is evangelism. Of course, he didn't say this as contra-environmentalism at all, but that evangelism will bring a higher form of environmentalism.

[David Ker]

"you might remember"

I don't have any recollection of what this is referring to. Might be interesting to develop that more for the sake of clarity.

There are a lot of good ideas in this post. I kept flipping back and forth on how to respond so I think I'll just give it a few more days to brew and then post something in response.

Have a great weekend, you old atheist you!

[JohnFH]

Thanks for the heads up about that, David. I'll look for an appropriate link.

[Simon Holloway]

"The wisdom of Job and Qohelet". How ironic that you should choose the two books most symptomatic of the decay of the wisdom movement.

I also don't believe in any of the gods of our age - or of any age for that matter. There is hypocrisy in every aspect of our striving towards an enlightened future, but that shouldn't encourage people not to stride. And as for the fact that there are still people who search for transcendental 'truths': just because they've finally shed the ill-fitting jacket of religion does not mean that they've suddenly become any smarter. Let's hope that people pick a belief this time that doesn't involve killing other people for theirs.

[JohnFH]

I agree with you, Simon, about the need to strive. I also respect your position, more atheist than mine.

I realize how paradoxical it may seem to strive by returning ad fontes, and then picking, among the sources, those that throw others I choose into question. But I need that kind of tension to maintain a capacity for self-critique.

[Alan Lenzi]

O Humpty Dumpty, a very clever anachronistic semantic game.

[JohnFH]

And a very clever use of metalepsis on your part, Alan. An anthropologist who argued along the same lines I do here was Mary Douglas. She caught a lot of heat for demonstrating that what passes for green awareness bears a startling resemblance to fear-based propitiation schemes of more traditional societies.

The more you try to be an atheist, the less you succeed. For every demon you cast out, seven more come and takes its place. I saw that growing up. I attended an experimental public school in which 60% of the student body came from Unitarian households (i.e., they were sons and daughters of university professors). That's where you deny the power of God or the gods but retain some of the moralism and elements of the rites for aesthetic purposes.

The story of the life of a number of my peers came to resemble that of the plot of Equus by Peter Shaffer. To the dismay of their well-adjusted Unitarian parents, some of their progeny became Moonies, others became disciples of Ayn Rand (an atheist religion if there ever was one), others became Trotskyites, and still others became, horror of horrors, evangelical Christians or observant Jews.

People just keep trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. I wonder why.

Students of culture call it "re-enchanting" the world.

[eclexia]

I can never figure out how to get trackbacks to work, and I see that when I link to a post outside of the Wordpress realm it doesn't show up on the original post. Someone somewhere along the way told me it is blog etiquette to leave a comment on the original post saying that I've linked back here on my blog. So, this is a handmade trackback, which probably won't come across too great either as I also don't know how to make it a link. I'm lucky I figure out how to write and submit a post :)

http://eclexia.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/why-im-not-anti-intellectual/

[JohnFH]

I enjoyed reading your post, Eclexia. Your blog is a joy to read.