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Current mood:  warm Category: Life
My boy, a Chemistry professor at the University of New Mexico, wrote an interesting email to Andrew Sullivan regarding a conversation that took place all day yesterday regarding Atheism and its dealing with people of religious backgrounds. Basically, as you can see here, this post got the ball rolling:"The new atheism has made its challenge, then. And here is my answer. I don't believe in God, in any meaningful way. I am not a Christian or a Muslim or a Hindu or a Buddhist or a Jew, or whatever else you will. In questions of public policy I feel religion has no place, and rational discourse has to rule. I don't want religious artifacts in the public square, I don't want creationism taught in public schools, and I don't want any religion privileged in any way by government. I am, in most every way that matters, a natural ally of atheism.
But atheism has expelled me. It has expelled me because it has in its heart contempt and loathing and fear of the other. So I reject it."I found a lot of problems with this post because it painted a picture of Atheists as much too condescending and glib in their interactions with people of religious faith. To be fair, Richard Dawkins, as well as others, can be a lil' too-sure-of-themselves and off-putting in their debates with the other side but that doesn't speak for the majority of us. To this point, Juan wrote an email and Andrew Sullivan, to his credit, posted it under the headline, "An Atheism of Love." Here it is:"I read your post entitled "Atheism Has Expelled Me" with great interest. But after reading the essay itself, I have to say it was painfully off the mark, in my view.
To me, atheism is a scientific argument with moral ramifications. Theism is a theory that cannot be reasonably defended within the paradigm our natural world. Just like no scientist would give any consideration to people claiming that the sun revolves around the earth. It's not matter of ridicule. It matter of understanding hypothesis, observation, and conclusion. While this angers many religious folk as somehow condescending, most atheists like Dawkins are simply saying that based on our knowledge of the scientific method, one cannot argue that the world was created in seven days, or that water turned to wine, etc., etc. There is no malice intended. There is only frustration at the number of people who can selectively relax their notion of scientific rigor to allow for these supernatural beliefs.
Personally, I can understand anti-theism, and in many ways support it. The reason has nothing to do with superiority or snobbishness. It pains me in my heart to see the death and destruction that religion has caused throughout history. It gives me anxiety to look at my one-year old son and think that he'll be brought up in a society that doesn't see any link between the erosion of critical thinking and the increase in religiosity. People seem to need figures like bin Laden, Koresh, Hubbard, etc., so they can point fingers and proclaim them to be religious fanatics or "wackos". It makes the average moderate Christian/Muslim/Jew/Hindu feel better about their faith. As if the suspension of scientific thought that they exercise has absolutely nothing to do the extremism that is built on the same principle. I am not trying to lump everyone into the same group here, I'm just attempting to explain how a scientist views this general line of thinking as major threat to society. The slippery-est of slopes.
I sincerely believe that most atheism is spawned not out of hate and elitism, but out of love. Atheists like me have simply lost all faith that religion can exist without being used as a tool for justifying war and subjugation. If it could, even scientists that cringe at the thought of accepting supernatural beliefs would probably learn to coexist peacefully with theism, given that many beliefs system also catalyze acts of great compassion. But in the end, I'm torn as to which notion is more naïve and idealistic: a world without theism or world in which theism does not lead to human suffering."As I have said, I think its time for Atheists to stand up and be proud and unapologetic of their beliefs. Its not that we hate religion or spirtitual beliefs... we just hate when these traditional belief systems are used as a wedge between people and as a crutch for outdated practices/beliefs.
But its love of life, not hate or a superiority complex, that drives many of us. 
5:24 PM
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