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God would be an atheist...
A rational look at religion, morality, politics and daily life |
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HOME / This Week About GWBAA WEEKLY COLUMNS Previous Print column Why subscribe? Schedule Terms & Rates Subscribe Online column Subscribe BASICS Definitions Atheism Faith God Religion etc Analysis The meaning of life Morality etc NEXT STEPS Buy Discuss Join Read REVIEWS CONTACT Link to this site All Rights Reserved World Copyright © Martin Foreman PREVIOUSLY... Chapter three tells us how Eve is tempted by the serpent to eat the forbidden fruit. She then persuades Adam to do the same. Suddenly they both realise they’re naked. Any other young couple would consider this a significant step forward in their relationship, but Adam and Eve aren’t that bright. The confused Christian creation myth Because I wasn’t ready for sexual abstinence, total vegetarianism and being nice to everyone 24-7, I kept postponing the moment when I would sit down and learn by heart the Four Noble Truths or the Eightfold Path. A would-be Augustine, I suggested to the God-who-didn’t-exist to make me Buddhist, just not yet. Make me Buddhist... "Surely no theist would choose to stay on this polluted, violent planet when offered eternity in paradise? Foolish me. It takes little effort to find articles on the web where believers tie themselves into tight intellectual knots in the vain effort to prove that delaying entry into God’s kingdom is something that God Himself would approve of." I want to live forever (not) "The fact you do not like something does not mean you can wish it away. I am afraid of violence and cancerous disease but they will not magically disappear if I do not believe in them. Reality exists irrespective of my personal desires. Similarly, the fact that Reich wants God to exist – to protect him from “emptiness, the disconnectedness…” and so on – does not mean that there must be a God." Helping stranded motorists "No further proof of an emotional response is needed than the banning of same sex marriage in the states where such an initiative was on the ballot. This was democracy in action, but it was the same democracy that formally deprived African-Americans of their civil rights for eighty years and informally continued to do so for another century. (Some would say that denial continues today.)" Who won? |
Column 94: Faith as fashion Following the crowd By © Martin Foreman Word Count: 800 words Publication date: January 28, 2007 Print publications wishing to syndicate the column should click here. Individual subscribers wishing to receive columns by e-mail should click here. In the 1960s British comedy The Rebel, antihero Tony Hancock is a city clerk in London who accidentally finds fame as an artist in Bohemian Paris. At a party, sporting regulation beret, cape and cigarette-holder, he holds forth on the soul-destroying life of the daily commuter. “Everyone dressed alike?” asks an impressionable young man. “How terrible,” he says, as the camera pulls back to reveal him and his friends all in black polo-necks and jeans. We all have a uniform. No matter how independent we consider ourselves we all dress to conform to some norm. Every day we become cheerleaders or goths, businessmen or artists, homemakers or lawyers, depending on how we see ourselves or want others to see us. Even those who claim to be unconventional aren’t. Hell’s Angels and street gangs wear their colors. Even the most outrageously dressed among us wear clothes that are recognizable as clothes, and we all adhere to basic concepts of decency. Only rarely – for a wedding, a fancy-dress party, a fetish club – do we don costumes that we would never wear in daily life. And we only do so because others do the same. We wear the clothes of the social group that we want to be part of, even if that group rejects society as a whole. The desire to be one of the crowd extends into every aspect of our lives. We approve of slavery when it is socially acceptable and condemn it when it is out of fashion. When sex with young teenagers – boys or girls – is the norm, we see it as the foundation of civilised society. When we turn against it, we do so with a vengeance. We all rush to practise the latest form of exercise. This or that diet sweeps the nation. MySpace is crowded. The stock market rises or falls according to sentiment not reason. Yet we seldom acknowledge that we are lemmings running with the pack. We are convinced that our opinions and behavior are based on solid reasoning. Human values change, we say; new evidence appears, the new whatever is not only cool but fun. True in some cases. But all too often the rationalization comes later, if at all. Often the primary impulse behind much of what we do is social pressure rather than reason. Religion is no exception. Whether believers sing God’s praises or condemn music as satanic, which day they devote to worship, whether men and women stand side by side or segregated, whether images are ubiquitous or absent, whether the cross is bare or carries a crucified Christ, whether the sacred language is living or dead – every aspect of the religious service can vary. It is not God who dictates whether the celebrant is a man or woman, whether heads are covered or bare, whether prayer is spoken or sung. The form worship takes is dictated by the community and handed down one man to the next. The community – or tradition, or fashion in its broadest sense – determine not only the method of worship, but faith itself. Christians and others may be convinced that they believe because God really does exist, the reality is that they do so because their peers do the same. We go to church because our neighbors do so. We profess faith for the same reason, and reassure ourselves that the message of God’s salvation must be true because so many others believe and we have heard the same mantra all the days of our lives. In other words, middle Americans attend the local Baptist church for exactly the same reasons that young fanatical Muslims swear death to the infidel. It reinforces their sense of community, identity and purpose. Our faith in God may run deep, but at the end of the day it is merely another tradition, and traditions eventually die. That process has already begun. The religious mania that has overtaken the nation in the last twenty to thirty years may be on the wane. The number of self-declared atheists is slowly rising. Last October evangelicals reported an “epidemic of young people leaving the evangelical church.” Research by church leaders confirms anecdotal reports that young people are much less likely to stick with their faith than their parents or grandparents. For thoughtful teenagers, the antics of religious leaders from Ted Haggard to George Bush can be a powerful disincentive. The sanctimonious and hysterical behavior of Christian classmates is another discouragement. I suspect that most teenagers spend little or no time in arguments for or against religion. They have simply lost interest in superstition. Never mind that their newfound atheism is no more than a fashion, as shallow as their forgotten faith. Whatever set them off on the path, they are heading in the right direction. Every day they are closer to reason. for a more detailed analysis, including comparison with other Western countries, see this Humanist Network News page
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If God existed, he would... If God existed, he would be an atheist. Check him out on You Tube. Mr Deity and Evil Mr Deity and Jesus Let there be light Thanks to www.skeptic.com for drawing attention to Mr D. |
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