Monday, April 23, 2007
Where is atheism when bad things happen?. Puh-leaze!. For such a short piece it has any number of misconceptions and just plain wrong arguments. For one thing, it's nihilism rather than atheism that argues that there is no meaning to the universe, though not strictly an atheist myself I would venture a guess that the atheist viewpoint is that life brings it's own meaning to the universe it inhabits rather than assuming that the meaning comes from outside, dumped in by what it considers an illusory God. But really, it's so off-base I hardly think it worth going through and explaining how almost every sentence is untrue.
But where is atheism when bad things happen? I suppose, in the context of the largely Christian or Christian-influenced western world, it comes down to whether one finds it more comforting to believe that there is a God up there who sits back and allows mankind to mess things up on his own, or whether one finds it more comforting to believe there is no larger power and that it's our responsibility to try and make the world a better place for everyone. I get quite angry when anyone tries to write off disaster as 'part of God's greater plan' or tells me that the dead 'are in a happier place', I can't see a point to living if there's actually a book-sanctioned Big Fella upstairs who decided to make a young man of Korean descent unable to handle rejection. That's what seems truly evil, nihilistic and life-denying to me.
But where is atheism when bad things happen? I suppose, in the context of the largely Christian or Christian-influenced western world, it comes down to whether one finds it more comforting to believe that there is a God up there who sits back and allows mankind to mess things up on his own, or whether one finds it more comforting to believe there is no larger power and that it's our responsibility to try and make the world a better place for everyone. I get quite angry when anyone tries to write off disaster as 'part of God's greater plan' or tells me that the dead 'are in a happier place', I can't see a point to living if there's actually a book-sanctioned Big Fella upstairs who decided to make a young man of Korean descent unable to handle rejection. That's what seems truly evil, nihilistic and life-denying to me.
Labels: atheism, atheists, Christianity, death, philosophy, religion, Richard Dawkins, United States
