There is a movement growing in
the West, not exactly sweeping Europe and North America like a prairie fire but
certainly spreading it’s roots and steadily growing. It is atheism. By no means
new but once the belief that dare not speak its name in most polite company. They
are those who claim no religious affiliation or more specifically a belief that
there is no God, no eternal life. That all religious texts are fictional
figments of their writer’s imagination, at best the work of fanciful or deluded
individuals struggling to understand their place in the universe; at worst
created to control and manipulate their adherents.
The rise in popular culture of
well known atheists, such as scientist Richard Dawkins and the late writer
Christopher Hitchens has spurred the growth of atheism by giving it public and
by and large respected advocates with access to the mass media. Where once lack
of belief was considered a private matter, now the perceived folly of the
belief in a deity or an afterlife has gained a wide audience through
television, newspaper columns and even in Britain bus ads! Atheism had changed
it has become well, evangelical.
Non believers now had public
acceptance, public advocates and began to go on the offensive, dare I say a
crusade against all religion and religious beliefs. The familiar criticisms
were trotted out; that religion was the source of more wars and bloodshed than
any other cause (ignoring the mass oppression and bloodletting of such
twentieth century practitioners of official state atheism such as the Soviet
Union, Communist China, Cambodia in the time of the Killing Fields, Vietnam and
of course that non believing workers paradise North Korea). The fact that many
conflicts which had a veneer of ecclesiology to them such as the Balkans or
Northern Ireland were really about nationalism with religion used as another
tool to separate ‘us’ from ‘them’ seems not to matter. Religious faith, no
matter how superficial had to be at fault.
Religion was believed to be the
source of all oppression of women, a way to keep the masses wallowing in ignorance,
and was just counter to everything that scientific belief stood for. That there
have been scientists, brilliant thinkers, people who have worked and sacrificed
to improve the human condition of both believers and non believers, and that
much of western art and literature has some biblical influence to it is not
considered. The work of Christian or other faith based charities, not relevant.
What was important rather was to discredit those who still believe and campaign
for issues such as the removal of tax exempt status for churches.
What was once the maxim of
medieval and later times of “believe what I believe, or I’ll kill you” (or often
still is in those ‘scientific
atheist’ states – or to be fair in modern theocracies as well), has become in
the west, “believe what I don’t believe in, or your foolish, deluded and
ignorant”. The new Evangelical brand of Atheism now resorts to typecasting and
stereotyping individuals for their personal beliefs on one hand, and on the
other requesting tolerance and acceptance of their views, science meets
hypocrisy.
Granted often religion and those
who claim to be it’s strongest adherents have been their own worst advocates.
From mass murder and plunder in the name of God which has gone on since – dare
I say it – biblical times, to the more modern day phenomena’s of sleazy television preachers swindling the
naive and elderly to the scourge of what we politely call ‘suicide bombing’.
People of faith have often done little to advance their cause in a worthwhile
manner. The common adage used by many is that the world would be a better place
if Christians were a little more Christ like. That is of course you believe
that there actually was a Christ.
The modern version of atheism
seems to have proudly taken on many of the worst aspects of religion, yet strives
for none of its redeeming virtues. Where are the great works of art dedicated
to the belief in nothing, or at least scientific method as practiced by Richard
Dawkins? Where are the great pieces of music that will move a listener to
tears, the grand architecture that takes the breath away of those that cast
their eyes on it. Can belief in nothing inspire something?
A friend of mine who describes
himself as “on my best days a liberal protestant”, recently posted an article
about an individual – an atheist – imprisoned for his views in an African
state. He was bemoaning why the atheist or secular community was not organizing
and advocating on his behalf.
The answer to me was easy, could
it be that in Western Europe, in North America atheists gained acceptance too
easily, without a grand struggle, without a fight for their rights like the
suffragettes or the civil rights movement in the United States. It was often the
faith of those marching for justice that was a motivator and sustainer of many of
those marching. There is no history of individuals or masses of people
voluntarily going to jail for their lack of faith to prove their point. No
atheist in North America, sustained by their belief in the evolution of a godless
universe marched toward club wielding police in Mississippi. Nor were they
climbing on buses to ride for freedom with the occupants singing how no god
watches over them.
There is no history of group
sacrifice in the new evangelical atheist movement, no ability to say “we
improved the human condition”. What beauty, what progress can a belief in
nothing offer? Smugness maybe, arrogance, perhaps – as many of the new atheist
refuse to even acknowledge any redeeming aspects or positive influences of faith
in history. What else, what more can a belief in nothing provide us? What has
it atheism done to move mankind forward, to make the world a more better or
peaceful place? Maybe the answer is in their belief – or lack of belief –
system itself, nothing.
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