In line with the new policies on blogging, i am announcing that i will increase my blog surfing to sue the buggers who post defamatory things about me. God save you all.
Anyway, in a bid to improve my GP (right..), i will be posting an essay a day on this blog and the topics will be in alphabetical order so for example, i'll write about Apples today, Blog-sueing tomorrow, and so on. Granted its not written in a normal GP style, but since when have i ever done that anyway. Oh and there might not be much balance as i try not to delve into themes i'll expand on in later alphabets. And so today's theme:
Atheism
The belief in unbelief is the religion of the new age. More and more, people of this generation are subscribing to the view that there is no God, either due to strong conviction, due to varied reasons, or basic indifference. For atheists, there is no God; there are no Gods. Our Gods exist in the realms of science, technology, modernism or logic.
Most of the world population professes faith in some version of a God. And many of these believe atheists to be psychotic, angry or obstinate people. I take offence at this. Catholic as I am, I believe myself logical and thus can understand the contrasting views of those friends of mine who do not share my beliefs. But more of this later. Religion is, was, and will always be, a most sensitive topic. Understandably, hostility has oft occurred between the religious and the not. Let us examine then, what atheism really entails.
I like the definition provided in www.infidels.org, interesting URL as it is. “Atheism is characterized by an absence of belief in the existence of gods. This absence of belief generally comes about either through deliberate choice, or from an inherent inability to believe religious teachings that seem literally incredible. It is not a lack of belief born out of simple ignorance of religious teachings. Some atheists go beyond a mere absence of belief in gods: they actively believe that particular gods, or all gods, do not exist. Just lacking belief in Gods is often referred to as the "weak atheist" position; whereas believing that gods do not (or cannot) exist is known as "strong atheism".”
I earlier stated that atheism promotes non-Godly elements. At the root of it all however is the argument of logic. Logically, there cannot be a God due to many factors. Firstly, if there indeed was a God, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, why is there no proof, ocular or otherwise, of His existence? Before religious hardliners start getting defensive, I urge you to adopt, initially at least, an open mind on this. Why, on earth (and only on earth, there is no heaven or hell to atheists), would such a Superior Being choose to remain hidden and tolerate unbelief? It confounds human logic. Supposing you were God, your purpose in creation might perhaps be having your creation worship you. Now that the trend appears to be swinging towards science, why not make your presence known? This line of thought appears reasonable to say the least. It is further strengthened by most religions teaching that their God has at some point or another had direct contact with mankind. Moses received the Law directly from God on Mount Sinai (Judaism), Jesus Christ came to earth (Christianity), and Muhammad is the last Prophet receiving direct revelation from God (Islam). So what happened in the last 1500 years? Why the sudden silence?
Secondly, if there truly was a personal God who loves His creation, there would be no suffering in this world. People would live lives in peace without hardship or calamity. Why kind of masochistic God would subject His people to such torment and torture, deriving delight, perhaps, from their pain? The existence of pain leads to either one of two conclusions. One, quite simply, there is no God. Two, if there was a God, He would be unjust and impersonal, hence unworthy of worship. The situation appears quite the more drastic if you consider that the most religious of people die young, contract terrible diseases and suffer the most in general. Summed up, a God must be just. Suffering is fundamentally unjust and so disproves the existence of God.
The third reason for atheism is largely a result of the technological advancements our world has made in the last two centuries. We are closer than ever to fully understanding our human nature, genetically speaking. We have successfully cloned sheep and dogs and cannot be very far away from being able to spawn a new human being. Life is no longer an obscurity; we now have the means to become creators. In other words, we have no need for a God. We have proven ourselves masters of our own universe, hip, hip, hurray. Darwinism has also been a major influence contributing to atheism. Creation itself is no longer something that must have been divine. It could have been a mere series of chance happenings.
By no means, however, is atheism a new concept. It has been argued since the time of St Thomas Aquinas and before. What is a relatively new concept is that of agnosticism. Coined by T.H. Huxley, those who adopt this view believe plainly that it is impossible to prove or disprove God. We may never know if there indeed is a divine Being. Many today adopt this view. It is convenient, practical and non-committal. Our living standards and quality of life is today far better, materially, than at any other time in human history. There is no need for God. My life is good, I seem to be happy, there is no leap of faith required for a better life if indeed my life is already good as it can be. The two concepts of atheism and agnosticism are linked in that they survive on logic and demand proof to be countered.
Much has also been made of trying to prove God. So many people have, over the course of time, attempted to show how God can be proven. I will show some of them but I will also add a disclaimer; I believe that trying to do so is an abject waste of time. Compare it to proving the existence of dinosaurs. If you believe there were no dinosaurs, no matter how many fossils I show you will make a great difference of nothing. Only through personal experience or knowledge, or in the case of religion, personal encounters will make believers out of the doubting Thomases.
There are more than 2 billion Christians in the world, halved between Roman Catholics and Protestants. The Holy book of the Christian faith is of course the Bible and Christians use this to support the claim for a God. According to many evangelical Christians, the Bible is rock solid proof because it is among other things, inerrant, self-fulfilling in all its prophecies, corresponds with the laws of nature undiscovered in biblical times, and factual. This is hopeful at best, untrue at worst. In any event, only the most foolish would use their own religious book to convince one who holds no belief at all in it. This is not a Catholic apologetic so I shall refrain from discussing Catholic teaching. What I will add is how the Bible alone cannot be central to the Christian faith. As much as anything, the personal experience of God is vital. Only with that can true conversion come.
Of course, we can even counter atheism through scientific methods. I am no scientist but to put it simply, to apply a cause and effect method in tracing creation would lead you to the very first cause, which must be God or some Creator. Through the existence of miraculous happenings too can we see proof, ocular proof, of God. The healing streams in Lourdes, the incorrupt bodies of holy men and women of various faiths and so on. I shall spare you the case studies. Some claim that the world runs on a basic moral faculty. Such a moral standard is not worldly and thus must have come from divine sources. There are the arguments of Thomas Aquinas and Pascal’s Wager. And so on and so forth.
As you can see, I am none too interested in proving the existence of God. That is secondary. Of primary importance is ensuring that our world does not slip into a state of Godlessness. In such a state, our lives, empty as they already are, would further degenerate in its spiritual bankruptcy. Religion, whether you believe it or not, gives a supernatural peace. That is why I believe religion has never lost its following. If we were to become Godless, we could possess all the money in the world, but we would not have ourselves. We must not however, confuse godlessness with atheism. Atheism is not godlessness. Do atheist lack the ability to know God? Surely not. Just because a child has never seen his father before and believes him dead does not make him incapable of loving his father or stop his father loving him. An atheist is capable of loving God because he is capable and often does, love the qualities of God. Buddhism is an atheistic religion if you may classify it as so. Are Buddhists incapable of loving God? Hardly.
In fact, if we look at the reasons for atheism, we find that they correspond with the queries and ponderings of those believers who genuinely search for meaning and are willing to have a deeper understanding of God. What then is the difference except for classifications of religion? We must avoid the pitfalls, regardless of creed. We must not judge those who do not believe in a God, they might know more of God than we do, through their questions, they gradually understand who God is. Besides, unbelief is not a sin. At the same time, atheists must not fall into the hole of anti-religion for this would indicate pride and pride is the root of all evil.
There are many reasons why someone may be atheist. Myself, I have many friends who claim to be atheist. This does not make them any less human, or damned even. The most important thing after all, is not whether one outwardly professes a faith, but whether deep in his heart, there is goodness.
mark nicodemus at 12:00 am
September holidays. When you expect every wee J2 to be studying their heads off. To give myself a little credit, i'm better prepared for this than for the mid-years. On the downside, if you knew how i did for that common test, that doesn't say much. Been living well during this week, sleeping at 3, arising at noon, leaving home at 5. Sure like the good old 1st 3 months.
So last Sunday was momentous to say the least. Had the performance at ACM in the afternoon, neither sang nor hosted well i'm afraid. But well, we all have off days. The exhibition is quite captivating though. Was really soaking in everything and practically crawling from one exhibit to the other. You Jun was there rather surprisingly but he was great company. I know mikey and all love nothing more than John XXIII's papal tiara but i found more interest in the art. Absolutely amazing, rich in symbolism and all.
Because of that we kinda left for Novena way too late. ZZ, Cheryl and I. And so as all Novena latecomers know, there's no place to stand once you're there.We were left out at the bus stop BUT i didn't mind at all as the night progressed. Very many bizarre characters. Tonight's match: Rude wardens v unruly Catholics. But on the whole, very pleasant, talked to a few people out there, especially this man with an indecipherable (is there such a word?) Chinese accent. Heavy accent plus half-decent mastery of my mother tongue (come to think of it, my mom's Chinese ain't any better) is a recipe for miscommunication. Anyhow, something very intense occured after this and to write it down would belittle it.
And of course, all this inspired us to attend the next two days at Novena. Were joking about becoming CssRs, Redemptorists. Oh and Fr Gino has a splendid voice, and an incredibly spiritual gift. During the healing session he called out so many people with ailments and it wasn't general in any way. Eg, there is one of you here with a hearing problem in your left ear. Put your finger in your right ear and you will begin to hear. And joy, while looking for some caffeine (nothing ever changes) at United Square, found this wonderful brand of chocolate ice-cream that brought incredible bodily pleasure. Ooh, sinful.
Argh, prelims in less than 48 hours. Frightening. Shiver. Which means i'll be deprived of basketball in all likelihood for another 2 weeks. *Pulls hair and moans* Me being me, with my excellent visionary ability, stop disagreeing with me for a secong will you, decided that i needed to keep my tan. As in skin tone and not my surname. After all, days and weeks of basketball in the glorious afternoon sun had set me on my way to becoming tall, dark and handsome. Hey, 1 out of 3 is a good start. As a result, i decided to study Geoffrey Chaucer at Pasir Ris Beach alone on Friday. In, say it with me, the glorious afternoon sun. Gosh it was like a mini-retreat. Fantastic. Looks like i know where i'll be going come study-break. Sure beats Macs at bishan. Maybe i should recommend it to all the courting couples there.
I need caffeine. Now.
mark nicodemus at 12:09 am