ATHEISM, FREETHINKERS, RELIGION, AND DISSONANCE

Is atheism a religion? The late atheist, Christopher Hitchens, had insisted that it isn’t:

·       The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more.

While Hitchens had insisted that atheism isn’t a “creed” or religion, everything he wrote following this denial proves that atheism does have a creed that:

·       Death puts an end to the hope of Paradise and the dread of hell”

·       This enables life to be lived with “far more intensity”

·       “There is nothing more” than our passing feelings.

To these unsubstantiated atheistic creeds, can be added many other beliefs: naturalism, materialism, secular humanism, evolution, and moral relativism… In fact, there was a time that atheists gladly accepted the designation of a “religion”:

•       BERTRAND RUSSELL: “The greatest danger in our day comes from new religions, communism and Nazism. To call these religions may perhaps be objectionable both to their friends and enemies, but in fact they have all the characteristics of religions…”

•       THE FIRST HUMANIST MANIFESTO (Paul Kurtz, 1933): “Humanism is a philosophical, religious, and moral point of view.”

•       JOHN DEWEY, WHO SIGNED THE MANIFESTO: “Here are all the elements for a religious faith that shall not be confined to sect, class or race…It remains to make it explicit and militant.”

•       THE US SUPREME COURT (Torasco v. Watkins – 1961): “Among religions in this country which do not teach what would generally be considered a belief in the existence of God are Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism and others.”

Does atheism remove the “cognitive dissonance” as Hitchens had claimed? Certainly not! There are many things that atheism cannot explain – consciousness, freewill, fine-tuning of the universe, and origin of our elegant, immutable, universal laws of nature, life, DNA, and the countless examples of design.

As a result, I hear atheists speak in a way that shows they are locked in the jaws of dissonance. For example, while they have no basis to believe in freewill as materialists, they admit that they have to live as if they do have freewill – the height of dissonance. Besides, if we lack freewill, then none are truly guilty, and we should release our prisoners. However, I am not aware of any atheists who champion this cause.

On top of this, atheists arrogantly call themselves “freethinkers” as opposed to the rest of us. However, it seems to me that someone who believes that all of his thoughts are biochemically determined can hardly consider himself a “freethinker.” Perhaps my narrowness results from my not being a freethinker.

Richard Dawkins, Freethinkers, and Ridicule

The famous atheist, Richard Dawkins has often called on atheists and agnostics to "ridicule and show contempt” for the religious and their doctrines, whatever it takes to bring religion down.

Inspired by Dawkins, one thoughtful blogger weighs this advice:

• There is wide disagreement over whether religion should be mocked and ridiculed among atheists. On the one hand, it's argued that mocking religion demystifies it. This takes away its allure and prestige and removes it from the pedestal, which makes it easier to see religion for what it really is. And that all too often is not really all that pleasant. On the other hand, it's argued that mocking religion can make atheists seem insensitive, angry, and hostile, appear unwilling or unable to engage with religion intellectually, and it can have the unintended consequence of the backfire effect.

Notice that this atheist has only one hesitation about this strategy of ridicule. It “can make atheists seem insensitive, angry, and hostile, appear unwilling or unable to engage with religion intellectually.” It certainly can! However, he mentions nothing about:

1. Whether ridicule is morally reprehensible, or

2. Whether it might backfire for another reason – that atheists might be more worthy of ridicule than theists.

Atheists live in glass houses, they don’t know it, and they are throwing stones – big ones. Let’s examine their glass houses:

Atheism is morally bankrupt. By denying God in favor of moral relativism, the atheist believes that all morality is merely something we create. If we create it, we can also change it at will. Therefore, instead of moral law checking our immoral impulses, moral relativism serves and justifies our impulses as we see above. Consequently, atheists have little respect for the rest of humanity.

While atheism accuses theism of believing in myths, atheists have their own myths. Without any evidential support, they believe that life came out of non-life, that consciousness is just a property of matter, that the fine-tuning of the universe is just the product of chance and almost an infinite number of failed universes – the multiverse, that the universe sprang into existence uncaused out of nothing, that the laws of science and their elegant formulas just happened, and that there is a natural explanation for everything, even though they lack a comprehensive natural explanation for any one thing.

Atheists term themselves “brights” and “freethinkers,” while they also believe that their thinking is entirely controlled by deterministic bio-chemical laws/forces. Meanwhile, they accuse theists of not thinking freely, as they crow about their mental prowess.

I don’t mean to just pick on atheists. Muslims also believe that they are the best possible of all people and so do the Jews and other groups. Such arrogance is all too human.

In contrast, the Apostle Paul warns us against what we love to do best – boast:

• God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." (1 Corinthians 1:27-31)

Moses also warned the Israelites against arrogance:

• After the LORD your God has driven [the Canaanites] out before you, do not say to yourself, "The LORD has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness." No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people. (Deuteronomy 9:4-6)

Sadly, we do not welcome such counsel. We do not find it affirming and reject it. Instead, it is just too pleasant to believe that we are part of a select and superior group of elite freethinkers.

Freethinkers, Materialism and Worldview Confusion

When we reject God, we reject ourselves and our dignity. When we harden our heart and mind against the knowledge and awareness of God, we blind ourselves to life itself! Paul explained it like this:

·        They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts... Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. (Romans 1:25-28)

When we reject God, we have to replace Him with something else as supreme. Some may call their God-substitute the “human spirit,” “the will to power,” or merely “captains of our own ship.” In any event, we have done the very thing that the Bible warned us against - We have “worshiped and served created things [namely ourselves] rather than the Creator.”

As a result, God has given us over to the very thing we wanted - a “depraved mind!”

Let me just offer one example of how we have mentally degraded ourselves and have reaped confusion. Atheists consider themselves “freethinkers.” Meanwhile, by rejecting God and any spiritual reality, they have condemned themselves and have adopted materialism – the belief that everything is merely energy and matter, the stuff of science. Consequently, their thinking is also just a matter of chemical-electrical reactions.

However, if thought is no more than chemical reactions, there is no room left for freewill, let alone, free thought! While they want to believe that they can think freely, they have denied this possibility when they rejected God. They have deprived themselves of any meaning, purpose and dignity when they rejected their Source!