Does rationality lead to atheist? Not according to the late
German philosopher and atheist, Friedrich Nietzsche:
·
“I have no knowledge of atheism as an outcome of
reasoning, still less an event; with me it is obviously instinct.” (Os
Guinness, The Journey, 154)
The late British novelist and atheist, Aldous Huxley, concurred:
·
I had motives for not having the world to have a
meaning; consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any
difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption… The philosophy of
meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation… from a certain
political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality.
We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. (Ends and Means quoted by Guinness,
214-15)
Guinness adds that Huxley later turned to Eastern Mysticism “because
he admitted that these early choices of meaninglessness had led him to despair.”
(214)
When we reject God, we also reject any possible objective basis
for both morality and meaning, condemning us to a flat, sterile, and barren world,
bereft of depth, color, and contour. The Book
of Proverbs illustrates a sorry plight that starts with pleasure but
succumbs to pain:
·
“Because they hated knowledge and did not choose
the fear of the LORD, would have none of my counsel and despised all my
reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill
of their own devices. For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the
complacency of fools destroys them.” (Proverbs 1:29-32; ESV)
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