FATHER FRANK’S RANTS - Gospel of Atheism

FATHER FRANK’S RANTS

Rant Number 234 23 October 2008

Gospel of Atheism

And so London bus adverts will soon spread a new gospel: there is probably no God.

Hurrah! The priest likes that. The good cause stands a chance, after all. When our atheists start getting bellicose about religion…that’s great. God isn’t dead yet.

You might ask who needs that kind of proclamation. Most advertising already does a pretty good job at plugging practical atheism: Eros, Mammon and Mindlessness – that unholy trinity of our time – hold sway across the board. But the priest is no fanatic – once upon a time he was himself an atheist (folies de jeunesse) - so he feels strongly that the ‘no God’ brigade should be heard. Even if they take people for a ride.

Atheism comes in umpteen shapes and sizes. First, there is political atheism. Of the State or party variety. One powered by violent ideologies. Exemplified by the Bolsheviks or the Spanish anarchists. That aggressive variety often burns or shuts down churches, murders priests and nuns, sends believers to concentration camps and sets up a bogus, collaborationist KGB-style church instead of the true one. In Russia that kind of atheism raged for more than 60 years but eventually ended up in the gutter. Al Hamdulillah!

Of course, less virulent forms of political atheism exist. The British government and Parliament to all intents and purposes pursue a thinly veiled legislative atheism. As the priest sees it, only a military coup can save England. Maybe our Army generals will take the hint…

Second, there is theoretical or logical atheism. It would put most bus passengers (and maybe you, o reader) to sleep yet it is intellectually important. Professor Anthony Flew, an academic philosopher, was a typical exponent. Basically, it consists in finding fault with the traditional proofs for God’s existence. For example, the argument from design looks at our world and sees evidence of design, of a plan in it. Like your watch naturally makes you infer the existence of the watchmaker. From design to designer: God. Flew and many others pointed out how the world at most exhibits evidence of order, not of design. Design implies a designer, yes, order does not. Hence the argument sucks.

Surprisingly, Professor Flew recently changed his mind. He now says he believes in God. (Maybe he is getting old.) As to the argument from design, Professor Richard Swinburne has patched it up. Interesting arguments die hard.

A subset is ‘science’ atheism. Of the type Professor Dawkins – a donor to the godless bus adverts - assiduously propounds. Actually, Dawkins’ approach is not really science but ‘scientism’. Still, his arguments must be met. Rowan Williams for example rejects creationism as the answer. Instead, he claims that science must take the existence of God as a necessary presupposition. Scientists assume the world is amenable to rational investigation. Only a Creator can guarantee that assumption, so to speak. Do you buy it? Hmmm…bit dodgy.

Third is ethical atheism. The world contains evil. A good God would never have engendered such a world, hence either the creator of the world is evil or there is no God. Bleak.

Some idiots, like Mrs Baker Eddy, the inventor of ‘Christian Science’, deny evil exists. Evidently, they never had toothache. But Leibniz, the German genius, logician and mathematician, one of my heroes, dealt seriously with the problem of evil. He even coined the word theodicy to counter it. I invite you to read him. There are good reasons why God allows evil to happen – that is the gist of Leibniz’s treatment. An admirable solution.

One tiny problem. You might feel theodicy logically satisfies you, yet it still leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. The sufferings of the innocent, for example, are too awful for mere logic to explain away. Leibniz’s way is perhaps a fraction too pat, or even smug.

In Brothers Karamazov Dostoyevsky has Ivan dramatically embody this objection. Ivan accepts, rationally, that there is a God. The torture of a single child, however, impels Ivan to want to have nothing to do with him. He returns God the ticket.

Sigh…me, a puny, marginal priest – can I disagree with a giant like Dostoyevsky? Nonetheless, I don’t like emotional blackmail. Ivan Karamazov is too sentimental. Innocence is all very well but since Dr Freud we are perhaps a less starry-eyed about child psychology. Besides, innocence has nothing to do with age, it is a moral quality. All may share in it, from the very young to the very old. By the way, the sufferings of the young did not particularly exercise ancient ethics. Plotinus in the Enneads laughs at some kids who have been beaten up –he advises them to take up physical training, so they can learn to defend themselves. Callous? Discuss.

The last type of atheism is not very profound. But it is lethal. It is the chilling unbelief of those vast multitudes in many sprawling Western cities which now live as if there were no God. They go from the cradle to the grave behaving as if God’s existence mattered to them less than what is on TV Channel 4 tonight. It is not that they don’t give a damn whether God exists or otherwise. In fact, they no longer even comprehend what the word ‘God’ means. That terrible old story – man walks into a jeweller’s, points out in the window to a crucifix he wants to buy it, so the shop-assistant asks: ‘Do you mean the one with the little man on?’ – is now all too plausible.

‘There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life’ the bus ads will run. That betrays our home atheists for what they are: a hopelessly out of date bunch of faddy-daddies. They are fighting yesterday’s battles. They assume people are still sufficiently concerned about God, judgment and the afterlife to feel liberated when told that there probably isn’t an old man with a beard up in the sky. But you cannot free someone from chains whose weight he does not feel. Telling hedonists to enjoy life is like advising Russian billionaires to make money. They are both redundant as reminders.

Yet, this latter kind empty atheism frightens me. Because I don’t see how we can beat it. Not that I lose heart. Because I know that, in the end, God.

Revd Frank Julian Gelli

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