Article: The twilight of atheism
JPG
The twilight of atheism
Silver anniversaries tend to evoke teary sentimentality: a built-in
opportunity to marvel at how quickly time flies. But when the Council
for Secular Humanism gathered in late October near Buffalo, N.Y., to
celebrate its 25th year, there wasn't a moist eye in the house. The
celebrants couldn't afford it. They were too focused on giving their
movement a makeover - ironically, one that distances itself from
atheism.
That's because atheism has been taking it on the chin lately.
Statistics show that while atheism has captured the hearts and minds of
many Europeans, the number of theists worldwide has grown even more
dramatically, especially in Africa, Asia and South America. Moreover,
while native Europeans are becoming more secular, their birthrates are
declining, some even below replacement level. And immigration of
devoutly religious population groups with high birth rates continues to
rise in Europe.
Worldwide, too, the prospects for atheism are hardly encouraging.
Harvard University psychologist and atheist Steven Pinker concedes that
while atheism has grown in the West, it "has made no inroads in
various backward parts of the world." Alister McGrath, a professor of
historical theology at Oxford, is more pointed: "Atheism, once seen
as Western culture's hot date with the future, is now seen as an
embarrassing link with a largely discredited past," he writes in his
2004 book, The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in
the Modern World. Not coincidentally, the October/November issue of
Free Inquiry, the influential secularist publication edited by
conference organizer Paul Kurtz, contributors from around the world
discussed whether unbelief can even survive. Rising religious
fundamentalism, post-modernism's challenges to scientific
objectivity, and growing concerns about the role of science in various
crises - from militarization to the environment - have put secular
humanists on the defensive. "The values of the Enlightenment are
being threatened worldwide," warns the council in its conference
literature. "The fundamentalist agenda in both the East and West
rejects those values outright. We are facing a new Dark Ages."
Is atheism dying, though? Among members of the prestigious American
National Academy of Sciences, 93 percent classify themselves as
unbelievers. Influential scientists, such as Richard Dawkins, Peter
Atkins and E.O. Wilson, have argued that more than a century of
discoveries in disciplines from biology to astronomy render belief in
God obsolete. Moreover, evidence is emerging that shows a solid link
between high rates of atheism and societal health. High levels of
atheism are strongly correlated with low rates of homicide, poverty,
infant mortality and illiteracy, according to Pitzer College
sociologist Phil Zuckerman, writing in the forthcoming Cambridge
Companion to Atheism. Zuckerman also indicates that high levels of
atheism are correlated with high levels of educational attainment, per
capita income and gender equality.
But while news of atheism's death might be exaggerated, it isn't by
much. That may be why secular humanists are going out of their way
these days to stress that atheism is only a subset of secular humanism,
a philosophy that also includes agnostics, deists, skeptics and other
self-described "freethinkers." That effort included the Council for
Secular Humanism's warm reception of Antony Flew, the well-regarded
University of Reading emeritus philosophy professor who recently traded
in his atheism for the non-interfering god of Aristotle.
"Secularism has a terrible P.R. problem," Sam Harris, author of
The End of Faith, told conference attendees. Part of that problem is
the erroneous general perception that secular humanism is equal to
atheism. And, put up against theism, with itsotherworldly comforts,
atheism has "got a hard sell," said John Novak, a professor of
education from Brock University in Catharines, Ontario, Canada. While
himself a secular humanist, Novak concedes, "It would be easier to go
back to power, esteem, certainty and reward" offered by traditional
religion.
That's not likely for Novak and other secular humanists. Instead,
they said they hope to usher in "new Enlightenment" that can
accommodate the views of virtually anyone not beholden to religious
fundamentalism - including progressive religious believers. "It's
not an us-versus-them," said Stanford University religion professor
Van Harvey. Rather, says Kurtz, it is a rallying cry against
"premodern theologies of despair," which he defines as Christian,
Jewish and Muslim fundamentalism. "The old Enlightenment was science
and reason and the democratic revolutions in human rights and human
values," said Kurtz, founder of Prometheus Books. "The new
Enlightenment is planetary in character and extends the concerns for
the progressive improvement of the entire human species on the human
Earth, and not [just] Europeans or the Americans." This modernist
belief in the social utility of science must continue to be preached,
particularly by persons who are not "European, white or male," he
says.
Kurtz, who says that unbelievers like himself are best described as
"post-post-moderns," remains confident that increasing numbers of
right-thinking people, embarrassed by intelligent design, angry at
political restrictions on medicine and terrified by suicide bombers,
will rally around the flag of science and reason, even if they can't
bring themselves to let go of God.
Such benefits are shortsighted and may be short-lived, responded
McGrath. "A new Enlightenment plays right into the hands of
atheism's many critics," he said. "Atheism is widely seen as
given credibility by the rise of modernity. That's why postmodernism
was such bad news for atheism." The "demand for a new, global
Enlightenment is little more than a demand that the world conform to a
Western secular outlook - one that is seen as culturally imperialist
by everyone else, and which Westerners are increasingly rejecting back
home," McGrath said. And, he added, given the negative perception of
all things Western that prevails in much of the developing world,
atheists cannot count on those nations to exchange dogma for dollars.
Matt Donnelly is Web editor at Science & Theology News.
Christopher A. Lee
<j_peasemold_...@hotmail.com> wrote:
Is this bigot really this stupid?
JPG
Christopher A. Lee wrote:
Did you read this bit though?
"Moreover, evidence is emerging that shows a solid link
between high rates of atheism and societal health. High levels of
atheism are strongly correlated with low rates of homicide, poverty,
infant mortality and illiteracy, according to Pitzer College
sociologist Phil Zuckerman, writing in the forthcoming Cambridge
Companion to Atheism. Zuckerman also indicates that high levels of
atheism are correlated with high levels of educational attainment, per
capita income and gender equality. "
Mind you it doesn't take much observation of certain nations to see the
correlation between poverty and religion. Which comes first is always
the difficult one, the poverty of the religion. Whatever, these
societies get stuck in a religion-poverty-religion endless cycle.
<Yournamehere>'s personal Cthulhu
dawning.
It was 6 Dec 2005 00:46:20 -0800.
Suddenly, JPG appeared and said "Look, about Article: The twilight of
atheism, you see, it's like this:"
>Matt Donnelly is Web editor at Science & Theology News.
Well sombody needs to tell Matt that atheism is not a creed, doctrine
or movement, and atheism is not a worldview, salvation or comforting
platitude. It's just plain common sense, and people who believe in any
supernatural being, beings or phenomenon need to justify it, and the
fact that every attempt to do so heretofore has entailed a strawman
attack on some (often nonexistent) rival doctrine or worldview means
that the debate on the existence of God has yet to begin.
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Look at the logo and tell me Christianity isn't a death cult.
D Silverman BAAWA and bar.
AA #2208