When the New Atheists talk about “religion” they seem to have the idea that there is something that's easily identified as such, and lots of people out there who believe it’s a good thing. I think this calls for some reflection. Though most of us know what we mean by “religion” and could name a number of things we would call “religions”, when we examine the matter carefully we see that the boundaries are pretty fuzzy. Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, are clearly religions, and there are many others we could name without fear of contradiction. But what of Humanism, Consumerism, Nationalism, Marxism, Capitalism? Might these also be considered religions, at least as they are held and practiced by some people? And what of Racism, with its sub-cults White Supremacy or Black Power? And, just to be difficult, could we even include Rationalism with its sub-cults Atheism, Scientism and Secularism. What is it that makes “religion” religion?
People like Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens and Dennett are rationalists. They believe that the only true path to true truth is through rational inquiry. It’s an interesting point of view, and most people in twenty-first century, western culture understand it and even lean this way. But many can’t quite shake the feeling that there are things they “know” in a pre-rational way. That life is meaningful, for example, or that there is something personal going on “out there” or "in there" or "behind it all". Indeed, I suspect it’s this “religious” tendency that lies behind the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, the SETI project.
When I hear a rationalistic scientist proclaiming, in a voice filled with emotion, that the day we find intelligent life “out there” will be the greatest day in all of human history, I don’t object because understand what he or she is saying. But it’s not just the desire to know, it’s the desire to be known. We want to believe there is someone up there we can talk to. And then this little voice in me, this little pre-rational, smiling voice, whispers “Gotcha!”.
If believers struggle with doubt, non-believers struggle with the temptation to believe. Of course the scientist might counter that this is just poetry, a compelling way of stating the importance of the human quest for knowledge. Well, maybe so, but it’s a slippery slope.
2 comments:
Black power is not about racism. It is about having pride in being black. It is about finding power is a society that too often still leaves black people powerless. I am shocked and dismayed that you would compare it to white supremacy.
Sorry ‘bout that. I didn’t mean to shock or dismay anyone, or even to compare Black Power to White Supremacy, at least in the sense of suggesting any moral equivalence. But now that you mention it, I am quite sympathetic to the former, though in the end not a fan, and have no sympathy whatever for the latter. I am opposed to racial pride of any kind because I think race and pride are among the worst ideas human beings have ever come up with. But I’m also humbled by a suspicion that, had I been a black child raised in an abusive white society, I might think differently. Thanks for the push-back. We need to be sensitive in these things.
Post a Comment