Sam Harris Hits It Out Of The Park
Oct. 7th, 2005 10:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nemorathwaldFrom yesterday's Huntington Post, Sam Harris hits it out of the park once again. Excerpt:
Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply a refusal to deny the obvious. Unfortunately, we live in a world in which the obvious is overlooked as a matter of principle. The obvious must be observed and re-observed and argued for. This is a thankless job. It carries with it an aura of petulance and insensitivity. It is, moreover, a job that the atheist does not want.
It is worth noting that no one ever need identify himself as a non-astrologer or a non-alchemist. Consequently, we do not have words for people who deny the validity of these pseudo-disciplines. Likewise, “atheism” is a term that should not even exist. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma. The atheist is merely a person who believes that the 260 million Americans (eighty-seven percent of the population) who claim to “never doubt the existence of God” should be obliged to present evidence for his existence -- and, indeed, for his benevolence, given the relentless destruction of innocent human beings we witness in the world each day. Only the atheist appreciates just how uncanny our situation is: most of us believe in a God that is every bit as specious as the gods of Mount Olympus; no person, whatever his or her qualifications, can seek public office in the United States without pretending to be certain that such a God exists; and much of what passes for public policy in our country conforms to religious taboos and superstitions appropriate to a medieval theocracy. Our circumstance is abject, indefensible, and terrifying. It would be hilarious if the stakes were not so high.
The rest of the article concerns itself with theodicy, the reconciliation (or irreconciliation) of the idea of infinite love and power with the out-of-control charnel house that is the world. But that's just one sub-set of a greater problem with Theism: not only is there no difference between the existence of a god and its non-existence in the world around us, the biblical devotional life-- the actual experience in practice of having a "personal savior"-- was equally identical between god's presence and absence.
Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply a refusal to deny the obvious. Unfortunately, we live in a world in which the obvious is overlooked as a matter of principle. The obvious must be observed and re-observed and argued for. This is a thankless job. It carries with it an aura of petulance and insensitivity. It is, moreover, a job that the atheist does not want.
It is worth noting that no one ever need identify himself as a non-astrologer or a non-alchemist. Consequently, we do not have words for people who deny the validity of these pseudo-disciplines. Likewise, “atheism” is a term that should not even exist. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma. The atheist is merely a person who believes that the 260 million Americans (eighty-seven percent of the population) who claim to “never doubt the existence of God” should be obliged to present evidence for his existence -- and, indeed, for his benevolence, given the relentless destruction of innocent human beings we witness in the world each day. Only the atheist appreciates just how uncanny our situation is: most of us believe in a God that is every bit as specious as the gods of Mount Olympus; no person, whatever his or her qualifications, can seek public office in the United States without pretending to be certain that such a God exists; and much of what passes for public policy in our country conforms to religious taboos and superstitions appropriate to a medieval theocracy. Our circumstance is abject, indefensible, and terrifying. It would be hilarious if the stakes were not so high.
The rest of the article concerns itself with theodicy, the reconciliation (or irreconciliation) of the idea of infinite love and power with the out-of-control charnel house that is the world. But that's just one sub-set of a greater problem with Theism: not only is there no difference between the existence of a god and its non-existence in the world around us, the biblical devotional life-- the actual experience in practice of having a "personal savior"-- was equally identical between god's presence and absence.
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Date: 2005-10-07 05:04 pm (UTC)What I hope you will understand, is that when god-believers take this whole package and narrow it down to a word meaning "non-god people," this is only because "god" happens to be the only part of it a believer in god probably cares about. To a believer in a god, it's the only issue.
But to most atheists, gods are only an issue at all because there are so many believers in gods. If there were enough alchemists living in my society, I would blog about my nonalchemism at least once a week. The importance of it is entirely determined by that.