Atheism is assumption
that only what is somehow measurable
and perceivable by senses or
expressed in a mathematical equation really exists. There is nothing of
any different nature. The universe
contains only material changes in movement and development . All reality
therefore must be explained by some sort of material process even if it is very
small and belongs to the level of the
subatomic particles of matter . Atheism
does not acknowledge any mental or
spiritual reality. This attitude leads directly to the reduction of all reality to the level of
matter. This is an assumption something dogmatically accepted without any attempt
to prove the assumption . Atheism does not explain the human
personality: the human self,
self-awareness , the human mind
and the whole phenomenon of man
as a conscious, free , evaluating , and searching for truth human being.
The
central question here of course is,who
or what is man ? Are human beings things or persons. This is a very crucial
difference and any valid answer to this question makes
enormous difference in the whole
existential situation of the human
being facing the universe and it’s mysteries.
In the modern technological society of Europe
or North America human life is pervaded completely by the products of technological gadgets . In giant centers of production, in giant cities and giant country
, man are administered and manipulated as if they were things and the administrators themselves are transformed into things governed by the
laws of things. Man is manipulated to
the degree that he/she is schooled what to do every day , what to
desire, and what to think. Individual man
has no personal independent vision of his/her own. Conformity similar to
the behavior of an inanimate thing is a
condition of survival itself . Man remains
a manipulated thing imprisoned in space-time thrown into an existence for a
short time , living his intrinsic drive
towards empty survival and carried by time towards final extinction, because death is an
inevitable end of this absurd thing defined by Heidegger as “ being unto death.” Such an existence on the level of thing-hood must
in moments of serious reflection appear as tragic absurdity. The
language of absurdity is used by known
existential thinkers like Sartre, Camus
, Nietzsche and many of the same bend of mind. Atheism of course is an
assumption as mentioned above and
therefore not true.
Why so?.
Because
atheism has no valid claim that
it’s central assumption , that is the
non-existence of God must be true. The only
claim atheists have and
repeat often is that God’s existence cannot be proven beyond any doubt. This
is so according to atheists because it is assumed again without any valid reason
that only the scientific method is the
valid way of knowing . Here lies the
contradiction of atheism : It claims
without proving something that is by itself beyond the scientific method. When it comes to personal reasons why some individuals become atheists and
sometimes very belligerent atheists
like Richard Dawkins and his circle, their
reasons” are too many to enumerate here.
Atheism
undermines the moral values of man .
Human beings unlike other animals
have the awareness of good and evil in the area of human choices and actions. The
sensitivity to those values is conscience. Of course conscience can exist only in beings endowed with mind , freedom of choice and ability to
evaluate what is for development of life
in all it’s aspects and what is destructive of life. Man is in this area a kind of contradiction in
himself . On one hand he/she is an animal immersed in his/her instinctual and
complicated animality with
his/her instincts for feeding, surviving and procreation. The
animal is essentially a selfish beast
and when it comes to his essential
needs he will attack , kill and destroy
in order to satisfy them. This animalistic heritage is fully present in man. It
is obvious to any observer of human
behavior that selfishness ,
self-adoration and constant attempts to subjugate and dominate
others under any pretext is the content
of history of man on this globe. All exploitation, enslavement , racism or even mass extermination of thousands of
people in the name of some fictitious idol repeats itself over and over with deadly regularity. The picture of our society deserves
the name : “A culture of death .”
The basis of moral values and their supreme importance comes
from the religious conviction
that there has been a revelation of God’s will and His Holly and
fundamental directions given to
humans how they should live morally in
order to stay on the road to freely
given eternal life with God.
An
atheist is radically deprived of
hope for any kind of survival after physical death . If man is nothing more but a bunch of perceptions, and an accidental
byproduct of the forces of matter then
atheism abolishes human beings. There
are no more persons , thinking and
choosing subjects, responsible moral agents
and searchers for truth. To some
materialistically minded biologists
like Richard Dawkins and others
of the new atheism group, man
is a small degree higher ape. The difference is purely accidental and therefore it does not matter.
The prophets of atheism like
Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus , all assume that
God is dead and as Nietzsche
mentioned we smell the putrefaction of God. This is a more and more pervasive smell in most of
the Western nations including the United States. The degree of the change can be noticed also in the very language of every day life. Such words
which were for centuries the accepted language of philosophers are no more
used in everyday experience . For
example words like perfection , forgiveness, soul, substance, love, innocence sin, wisdom , authority, novelty,
imagination, dignity , friendship , power , spirit , judgment, charity,
adultery, obedience, immortality all belong to a language which is dead in our
post modernistic existence . The language
is a mirror of how people think, what is
important for them, and what is
accepted in the society. So the language is denuded of all those values which represent
the mental , spiritual , moral religious and ultimately rooted in the
God orientation, of the whole human existence. But if God is dead then death is also all that in any way pointed to Him. The direct result of this situation is complete relativity of all values and the reduction
of human persons to the level of a thing. In this life transformed by technology and all
kinds of gadgetry man himself/herself becomes an automatic robot. He/she is
told by the media what to think, what is
true and what is not true . He/she is
used by a great center of production as a tool for
bringing through his/her work more
profit for the large companies. He/she does not dare to criticize the policies of the institution which
employs him/her because the slightest
criticism will cost his/her job and perhaps even his/her freedom. The
result of such situation is an intimidated , unthinking and robot-like
society.
The search for meaning of life is of course not even mentioned in such technological way of living. That is why
we had the development of the theater of the absurd pointing out on the stage the
all-pervasive presence of absurdity. For example Thomas Becket in his play “Waiting for Godot” depicts two
people waiting for someone who never appears. Nevertheless they keep waiting and meantime do literally nothing because they don’t see any reason why do this
or that. They are completely passive.
Albert Camus in his
play “The Myth of Sisyphus” shows the
repetitious senseless everyday effort leading completely nowhere and
therefore absurd. Sisyphus is condemned by the gods for some
transgression to push a heavy boulder
to the top of a mountain . When the
boulder is already up there it
tumbles down and Sisyphus has to push it again to the top. And this effort
repeated again and again is the
picture of the absurdity of everyday life of the average person . Get up in the
morning, run to work , eight or more
hours of work, back home , dinner, bed
and this tomorrow and tomorrow without
end until one gets old, weak, sick and dies.
In Ionesco’s play “The Chairs,” an old married couple is waiting for a crowd of invited people because the old
man at the end of his life, will
deliver his wisdom of his life to the public. Many chairs are ready for the
guests , the old couple waits. The chairs remain empty, no one of the invited people appears. They have no
time for such unusual and unknown word like wisdom . It is a dead word and it does not belong to the language of the
modern people.
Atheism is unproved assumption based
on the claim that the existence of God
cannot be proved. Why? It is not because there are no valid and cogent
arguments for God’s existence but because God
does not belong to the world of
finite material entities which can be somehow
measured, manipulated and
expressed in mathematical formula. God
of course is a Spirit , Infinite
and the Cause of all finite reality. His existence provides intelligibility to
the universe, and it’s very existence including man. In any
valid religion like Islam,
Judaism or Christianity God reveals His absolute will and His plan for
humans, but man remains free to relate to God
positively or in a negative way
and deny the authority of God’s word. Belief in God or atheism is therefore a choice . The crucial
question however is that a choice may be
irrational arbitrary and deadly to all
values and sense of living because it does not have the courage to think toward
the absolute Truth.
Suggested Readings:
Flew, Anthony. There is A God, How the World’s
most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind,
Harper One, New
York: 2007
Polkinghorne, John. Science and Creation, The Search for Understanding,
New Science Library,
Shambhala, Boston: (1989)
Strobel,
Lee. The Case for A Creator, A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That
Points Toward
God.,Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan ( 1952)
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