Should Atheists Explore Common Ground with Theists?
It’s difficult for me to describe atheists as “we”. I’ve always struggled with feeling that I don’t quite fit in somehow, and the atheosphere is no exception. But sometimes, it’s best to confront your demons and go headlong in.
Should we atheists really be putting ourselves against the religious?
Lacking a belief in God isn’t my defining characteristic, and whilst I have met some delightful atheists on line, in the offline world, I don’t know more than one. I do, however, know plenty of thoughtful and committed theists, who aren’t fundie inclined, who want to make the world a better place.
I guess the argument against is that religion is dangerous or bad, or maybe it’s that we want people to stop thinking that atheism is a type of religion, or maybe some of us feel that any belief in the irrational makes a person “tainted”.
In general, I think that liberal religious groups would have a lot to gain from looking at the common ground between themselves and atheists or secular humanists. Likewise, I think that we have a lot to gain by doing the same.
At the end of the day, it’s more important to me that people think and are compassionate, have values that they live by and seek to live in reason, freedom and truth, than it is that they agree with me about the non-existance of god or gods.
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Megalomaniac, Liar or Other?
The Australian Atheist picked up this comment in a post (from Australia, unsurprisingly) about Jesus:
There is no room in this story for regarding this Jesus as merely a good spiritual teacher. He was either a dangerous megalomaniac, a liar or what he said he was.
And on the basis that Jesus probably/certainly (who knows, it was a long time ago) believed that the end of the world was nigh, concludes that the most likely answer is either dangerous megalomaniac, or a liar.
I don’t dispute that of the three, those are the two more likely statements. The chances of anyone being resurrected within a few years of their death and returning on “clouds of glory” is, let’s just say remote, to be polite.
As you may know, these choices were famously posed by C.S.Lewis in Mere Christianity
I read Mere Christianity a few months ago, on the recommendation of some friends (one atheist, one Christian) and strongly disagreed with lots (but not all) of the book. And this question was one of the things that I disagreed with. There are, after all, plenty of other choices. My favourite is that Jesus was just wrong.
Yes, he thought the world was going to come to an end and that God would come to rule, but plenty of people genuinely think that all the time without suffering from uncontrollable mental illness. And there are certifiably competent people who go round thinking much weirder things, like the world is ruled by an elite cabal of lizards posing as humans.
Me, I think Jesus was an ordinary dude living in interesting times who had some good ideas, got carried away, and ended up being executed. And living on in the collective memories of his friends, and their minions. And now he’s really famous. But still dead.
Image of the Sea of Galilee by ChrisYunkerÂ
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