makeshiftmind

My friend Jon has posted his thoughts on the recent YouTube video I linked to regarding Atheism. His comment is worth reading; below is my reply.

I thought the video was interesting and thought provoking, not gospel truth. I myself am not an atheist, but the recent resurgence in atheist literature, blogs, talk shows, videos, etc. has churned up some curious cultural artifacts that I think are worth noting. That having been said, Jon points out (correctly, elsewhere on his blog as well) that the broad strokes often applied against Christianity as a religion can also be applied to Atheism as an ideology; i.e., just because some Atheists are benevolent or intelligent doesn’t make Atheism right, and just because some are evil and disgusting doesn’t make it wrong.

The point of the video, in my opinion, is a reaction against the growing extremist Christian “right” (and in case you doubt that such a thing exists, I refer you to the interesting documentary Jesus Camp, which is a telling look at mainstream Protestant Christianity in America). The video was merely pointing out three obviously true things: 1) there are atheists who are intelligent, 2) there are atheists who are benevolent, and 3) there are atheists who have benefited mankind directly or indirectly with their lives. If these things are true, it makes little sense to say “The fool has said in his heart… his throat is an open grave… BUT he is intelligent, benevolent, and has benefited mankind”. This, I think, is the point of the video.

I do agree with Jon that the video’s examples of “moral” atheists are somewhat lacking. Certainly the author could have fished from a better pool than Hollywood to find examples.

In terms of religious adherents, it is very true that Atheists are in the minority (population-wise). Study links from the U.S. Census Bureau place the Christian population (I assume all denominations) around 80%, and the Atheist population around 1%. That having been said, it is no surprise to find a majority of prison inmates would claim to be some flavor of Christian, assuming the prison population is even a moderate representation of the population as a whole. The real question is this: if Christianity sanctifies, and 80% of the U.S. population is Christian, then why does immorality continue to rise (according to Christians)? If Christianity is true, the only real answer is that the great majority of professing Christians are either deluded liars, or that sanctification really isn’t that much about improving behavior. My own opinion is that people are people, and if you convince them that they are not ultimately responsible for their behavior (whether by natural or supernatural determinism) and that they cannot affect their circumstances, or that there is no reason to make investments in their own lives, then you are asking for trouble. If atheists teach that you are goo and meaningless, and exist only to serve the state, and if Christians teach that you are god’s puppet and your life is supposed to be miserable so get used to it, is it any wonder that people become irresponsible and apathetic?

Finally, I have to disagree with Jon when he indicates that Atheists only exist because “…we [Christians] have driven them to despair by our own wickedness and hypocrisy…”. While I know that this certainly has happened in some circumstances, it is not the sole reason that people leave Christianity. For a much more comprehensive view of the subject, I recommend Ruth Tucker’s book “Walking Away from Faith”. I think that people leave the faith for a variety of reasons, some intellectual, some experiential, some moral and some arbitrary. But the fact remains that if the Christian church does not have the bite to back up its bark, then people will reject it on the simple basis that it cannot make good on what it promises.