Do you want a thoughtful, purposeful life?
Welcome.
Today I’d like to look at a very commonly held idea regarding religious belief. It is often expressed somewhat like this, “It is arrogant to say that Christianity is true and that all other religions are false.”
We need to thoughtfully consider this statement, because if is true, it means that being a Christian is, to some degree, an inherently bad thing.
My goal is to clarify the logical connections between atheism, determinism, and negative social outcomes. (Please notice how I define atheism). It is very important to note that I am not saying that atheists (the people) are responsible for more negative social outcomes compared to people with other belief systems. There are a wide range of variables that affect what choices we make.
Another great quality of many atheists, which is too often unappreciated by Christians and other religious people, is an openness to doubt, a flexibility to look at the world from different angles, and an interest in the rational critique of established positions.
Of course there are atheists, who as much as some Christians, seem to display a boastful overconfidence about the evident certainty and obvious conclusions of their positions. But in general, my experience has been that there are very many atheists who are self-critical, open-minded, and interested in the rigorous examination of worldview claims.
In a desire to foster a great respect and appreciation between atheists and Christians, and for other religious people, I want to celebrate the high esteem that we often share for science: for the scientific method, for scientific experiments, for scientists, for scientific results, and so on.
To begin, many atheists have made outstanding contributions to our scientific knowledge, and we should celebrate their work. To mention just a few people:
One of the important qualities that religious dialogue often lacks is respect. We need to be deliberate in considering the strengths of the positions with which we disagree. I have noticed that looking for the good points of different worldviews is often correlated with the ability to respect the people who believe differently than myself. After all, it is hard to respect someone who seems, to you, to believe utter nonsense. I want to look at some of the virtues of atheists and some of the strengths of atheism.
The standard disclaimer: I am not speaking about or attacking atheists. Instead, my goal is to rationally work through the logical implications of the atheistic worldview. (Please notice how I define atheism).
My conclusion is that, if atheism is true, then we need to re-imagine how we understand human beings.
On his blog earlier this week, Sam Harris argues for “Morality Without ‘Free Will.’” Sam Harris has become an influential public intellectual through his three New York Times bestsellers, his articles in many leading journals and magazines, and in his capacity as the CEO of Project Reason.
In this response, I will summarize his position and then point out a few problems with his position. My goal is not to attack Sam Harris personally; I have respect for Sam Harris as a thinker, writer and speaker, which is why I am responding to him. Instead, my goal is to offer a rational response to his ideas and arguments.
As I have argued earlier, atheism leads to determinism. (Please notice how I define atheism). The most important reason that atheism leads to determinism is that atheism requires that everything be subject to naturalistic, scientific explanation. From an atheistic perspective, there can be no thing, event, or action which cannot be given a total explanation by reference to physical objects and natural laws. As Charles Darwin put it: “Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws.” Humans and human actions are part of nature; therefore, we and our choices are the result of fixed laws.
I want to clarify the problems with determinism under atheism. (Please notice how I define atheism).
Thankfully, Sam Harris has already identified one of the problems for us:
Many atheists, dedicated to doing what is good, are offended by arguments that the atheistic worldview has problems with morality. It is frustrating for an atheist who genuinely loves doing kind actions to be told that, philosophically speaking, their lifestyle doesn’t fit with their worldview. After all, for that person, it does fit together. On the one hand, they don’t believe in an invisible fairy god who magically grants wishes, on the other hand, they love science, reason and the people in their lives. (Please notice how I define atheism).