Saturday, February 09, 2008

The New Atheism: Less Religion, Less Violence?

Unlike traditional atheism, the “new” atheists believe that had humanity possessed the scientific data we have now religion would’ve never gotten off the ground. Furthermore, they advocate that religion is detrimental to society, retarding humanity’s progress, and that simply put: the world would be a better place without religion. To oversimplify things, the thesis of “The God Delusion” is religion causes bombings. There’s no doubt that in some cases religion has wielded its power and influence in ways which are contrary to the teachings of Jesus (e.g. Spanish Inquisition, N. Ireland, etc.) Perhaps this is what John Lennon was suggesting in “Imagine” when he asks us to imagine a world without religion implying; get rid of religion and the world will be a better, safer, and more harmonious place.
However, atheism has proved to be an equal if not worse oppressor. Case and point would be the Soviet Union. The atrocities and human rights violations that occurred in the atheistic Soviet Union have been well documented. In 1922 Lenin, who was frustrated by the tardiness of Russia’s people to adopt atheism said that the “protracted use of brutality” would be a necessary means to achieve the goal. It’s a very unfashionable and politically incorrect topic but the fact is that some of the greatest human rights atrocities of the 20th century were committed by governments that espoused atheism (Soviet Russia, the People's Republic of China, Vietnam). The thesis that a society which doesn’t believe in God would be a kinder, gentler, and morally superior society is a myth. The truth is that because of sin, both the atheist and the religious possess the capability of doing appalling things for what they think is right.
It was Karl Marx who said. “religion is the opium of the people.” The idea here is that some how religion dulls our senses to the troubles of the world and that the idea of God helps us deal with it better. Later, a poet would say, “A true opium of the people is a belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace of thinking that for our betrayals, greed, cowardice, murders, we are not going to be judged…The true opium of modernity is the belief that there is no God, so that humans are free to do precisely as they please” – Czeslaw Milosz who lived under the oppression of both Nazism and then Stalinism

6 Comments:

Blogger greg & amy said...

Wow- that quote by Milosz is very powerful and thought provoking!

5:06 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Bobby, as always great insight. -Star

9:23 PM

 
Blogger House of Injun said...

When I think about reason per Atheism Point of View.. I think about Communism and Hitler's genocide of people in their country. Less Religion they think by eliminating the religion only cause more violence.. I don't understand their logical and even reading I have to think more and more that it is sad that people think that this is right.. which is wrong

12:11 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is great stuff Dr. B! Did it come from a book you wrote? Beautifully written, deeply thoughtful!
Jenn

7:11 AM

 
Blogger Unknown said...

I think the Pope's visit was timely. The Pope's message stood for integrity and showed some passion. The effect of Italy's new president, Berlesconi, and the laws supporting abortion, will hopefully energize our country to not go down Europe's directional opposition to Christianity and toward secularism.

6:01 PM

 
Blogger J.R.Hicks said...

There is an interesting blog about this topic found here: http://www.topix.net/forum/topstories/T7FI8BPIBPCE4HSUD

5:21 PM

 

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