Hi all,
I want to discuss a subject now that I didn't even know, before two nights ago, existed - militant atheism. Two nights ago I attended one of the most disturbing and for me, spiritually afflicting meetings of my life. A meeting in which there was a debate between agnostics ,(people who are uncertain as to whether there is a God or not), and atheists, (people who do not believe. or claim they have found no proof, that there is a God). I myself am a committed Theist, ( a person who believes that there is a God however they may conceptualise that idea i.e. God/Goddess/Divine Spirit/The I Am/ The All That Is/Spirit etc).
In this meeting the speaker was explaining why he was an agnostic and not an atheist. His main point was that while he could not prove that there was a God he also could not prove that there was not a God and that there was a certain wonder, ( I would say Wonder), to the u(U)iverse that science could not explain and probably never would. That is, while he could not be specific as to what it was, he sensed that there was something beyond matter. There was, what some philosophers have called, Mind. That is. that there is an existence of b(Being) that is different from the purely physical material world. (I would call this Spirit).
However it was at this point that the room exploded into what I can only describe as the heckles of the baying crowd. It was as if he had declared murder to be OK!
The people who were offended were I found out self-described "militant atheists". They were committed materialists, that is that they believed that only the material world existed. There was no existence separate from it possible. So for example. consciousness itself is merely the product of brain chemistry and that once the brain is dead so is the consciousness of the person that housed that brain. In other words physical death it the end. After that, nothing, nada.
They expressed to me that they were committed to the eradication of "superstitious spiritual beliefs", (read any belief systems other that materialism), and to ridding society of "the cultural baggage of religion", (read wiping out or re-writing most of human history). and to "the institution of a of a society based on rationalism and proof", (read Science is King) and so on. In short their vision of this new society left me feeling spiritually bereft.
However their true colours came to bear in a conversation I had about faith based schools. I believe that provided a child is educated other wise to acceptable standard in all the usual subject and is not abused or cruelly treated that a parent has the right to bring up their children as they wish. People do not bring their children into the world as thought experiments for the State.
One militant atheist told me that if he came to power he would close down all faith based schools even if they were private institutions . He told me that he knew better how to educate children that their "deluded superstitious" parents. I told him that if he tried to do that to my children he would have to send me to prison first and that he indeed did follow a faith; that of authoritarian totalitarianism and that he was as fanatical as the fundamentalists of all religions that he had been railing against all evening. (Fundamentalism also being something that I oppose by the way including that of atheists).
I left the meeting feel rather depressed but also compassionate toward these people. Who would want to live in a world dispossessed of all the Love, Beauty and Charity that most moderate religions and all truly enlightened spiritual to people bring to it? In a world where human beings are reductable to programmable robots and Consciousness Itself, that Hallmark of Enlightened Humanity is considered merely the outcome of brain chemistry? Not me for sure.
I will leave with a quote from Albert Camus, (as in the picture above):-
"I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is."
Until next time,
As always,
Blessed be,
KK
I want to discuss a subject now that I didn't even know, before two nights ago, existed - militant atheism. Two nights ago I attended one of the most disturbing and for me, spiritually afflicting meetings of my life. A meeting in which there was a debate between agnostics ,(people who are uncertain as to whether there is a God or not), and atheists, (people who do not believe. or claim they have found no proof, that there is a God). I myself am a committed Theist, ( a person who believes that there is a God however they may conceptualise that idea i.e. God/Goddess/Divine Spirit/The I Am/ The All That Is/Spirit etc).
In this meeting the speaker was explaining why he was an agnostic and not an atheist. His main point was that while he could not prove that there was a God he also could not prove that there was not a God and that there was a certain wonder, ( I would say Wonder), to the u(U)iverse that science could not explain and probably never would. That is, while he could not be specific as to what it was, he sensed that there was something beyond matter. There was, what some philosophers have called, Mind. That is. that there is an existence of b(Being) that is different from the purely physical material world. (I would call this Spirit).
However it was at this point that the room exploded into what I can only describe as the heckles of the baying crowd. It was as if he had declared murder to be OK!
The people who were offended were I found out self-described "militant atheists". They were committed materialists, that is that they believed that only the material world existed. There was no existence separate from it possible. So for example. consciousness itself is merely the product of brain chemistry and that once the brain is dead so is the consciousness of the person that housed that brain. In other words physical death it the end. After that, nothing, nada.
They expressed to me that they were committed to the eradication of "superstitious spiritual beliefs", (read any belief systems other that materialism), and to ridding society of "the cultural baggage of religion", (read wiping out or re-writing most of human history). and to "the institution of a of a society based on rationalism and proof", (read Science is King) and so on. In short their vision of this new society left me feeling spiritually bereft.
However their true colours came to bear in a conversation I had about faith based schools. I believe that provided a child is educated other wise to acceptable standard in all the usual subject and is not abused or cruelly treated that a parent has the right to bring up their children as they wish. People do not bring their children into the world as thought experiments for the State.
One militant atheist told me that if he came to power he would close down all faith based schools even if they were private institutions . He told me that he knew better how to educate children that their "deluded superstitious" parents. I told him that if he tried to do that to my children he would have to send me to prison first and that he indeed did follow a faith; that of authoritarian totalitarianism and that he was as fanatical as the fundamentalists of all religions that he had been railing against all evening. (Fundamentalism also being something that I oppose by the way including that of atheists).
I left the meeting feel rather depressed but also compassionate toward these people. Who would want to live in a world dispossessed of all the Love, Beauty and Charity that most moderate religions and all truly enlightened spiritual to people bring to it? In a world where human beings are reductable to programmable robots and Consciousness Itself, that Hallmark of Enlightened Humanity is considered merely the outcome of brain chemistry? Not me for sure.
I will leave with a quote from Albert Camus, (as in the picture above):-
"I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is."
Until next time,
As always,
Blessed be,
KK
