Varieties of atheism
• Skeptics & Atheists
I missed this Dylan Evans essay when it appeared a couple of weeks ago.
When I say that I value religion, I don't mean that I see any truth in the stories about gods, devils, souls and saviours. But I do think there is one respect in which religion is more truthful than science - in its depiction of the long ing for transcendent meaning that lies in man's heart. No scientific theory has ever done justice to this longing, and in this respect religions paint more faithful pictures of the human mind. My kind of atheism sees religions as presenting potent metaphors and images to represent human aspirations for transcendence. It is only when these metaphors are understood as such, and not mistaken for literal statements, that the true value of religion is revealed.
I can empathize with that a bit. Certainly when I read the fine prose of lord dead believers. But living in a much less secular country it is impossible for me to not see harmful social pressures as the peculiarly American species of fundamentalism becomes increasing interlocked with those in power.
And I can't imagine how I'd feel if I were an atheist living in a fundamentalist Muslim nation.
Nor have I ever seen atheism as monolithic. Collectively nonbelievers often match in nothing more than their lack of faith. Some are liberal others conservative. Some speak with the hard clarity of Richard Dawkins or the gentleness of Dylan Evans. If we were more uniform we'd have more political clout.
Comments
Posted by: LiteraryTech | May 26, 2005 10:20 AM