The trouble with atheism, though, is that it doesn't work. Unfortunately for the atheist, reality has an ugly habit of interfering with the godless utopia he tries to build.
I was one of many forwarded an e-mail this week, concerning the cruelly murdered "Baby P", which included these sentiments concerning those involved:
"May God grant them ALL they deserve.
...
Please pass this on to everyone to sign The Sun petition to get justice for that poor little boy. Rest in peace little man."
I read also in the press that the atheists have been taking out adverts on buses recently, urging us all to forget our thoughts of God and just get on with life. Trouble is, real life isn't actually the bed of roses that allows us all to just sit back on our sun-loungers and pretend that we are the ultimate reality. Evil really exists, and from time to time we get some shocking reminder that it's a moral universe and that we are moral beings whose inner-most parts cry out for justice, meaning and all kinds of other things - things hard-wired in us from our creation.
Or perhaps the atheists will be putting new adverts on the buses next week? To remind us that Baby P was just one insignificant little leaf on the tree of life - that one tree occupied alike by baboons, artichokes, bacteria, fleas, lettuces and all kinds of creatures whose deaths we count as utterly insignificant? I don't think so. That's the trouble with atheism - it doesn't deal with real life, and doesn't allow you to be consistent. It only works when everything sails along smoothly. Otherwise, it's totally useless.
2 comments:
David-
"Or perhaps the atheists will be putting new adverts on the buses next week? To remind us that Baby P was just one insignificant little leaf on the tree of life - that one tree occupied alike by baboons, artichokes, bacteria, fleas, lettuces and all kinds of creatures whose deaths we count as utterly insignificant? I don't think so. That's the trouble with atheism - it doesn't deal with real life, and doesn't allow you to be consistent. It only works when everything sails along smoothly. Otherwise, it's totally useless."
Are you being deliberately disingenuous here? Evolution means that we are simply one species among many, and that the world was not created with us in mind. But that doesn't mean that what happened to Baby P wasn't a tragedy. You seem to be implying that without moral absolutes things are meaningless, they are not. Humans create their own morality, as a product of our evolution, culture and society. The fact that there are no moral absolutes does not mean that we cannot be horrified at terrible acts.
And as for atheism not "dealing with real life": atheism is simply an absence of belief in Gods and the supernatural. It is not a religion or a philosophy. Just an absence of belief.
Hello Jonathan,
Sorry to be slow to reply... we count "slowly" different in Africa, but as it happens I changed my house, city, job and car in the last week...
I think your answer actually concedes all I'd argue for. Self-imposed values are no values at all in real terms. You choose to create your own morality, and describe the killing of a small baby as "innocent", but the killers also chose to create their own morality, and did what they did. You might choose to be horrified, but they choose otherwise. When you speak of "tragedy", you're talking of your personal preferences, but those have no more value than anyone else's - I prefer classical music to grunge, you prefer to label baby-killing as tragedy, and someone else prefers to rape, pillage and slaughter. Your horror has no connection to any objective reality in your own system of thinking and is therefore meaningless.
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