atheism, shmatheism
May 11, 2007I'm really pooped. I baked three different cupcake flavors today, with three different frostings. That's torture.
Torture that I happily undergo. *sigh* sometimes i suspect that I'm a masochist. Haha. Before you know it, I'm going begin reading the wealth of information about BDSM (bondage, domination, sumbission, masochism) available on the internet.
Kidding.
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I really wanted to write an entry despite my really urgent need for sleep because of this blog entry i stumbled upon today, after i created a wordpress account upon the recommendation of my raket boss. (I need it for my new work assignment, but that's another story altogether.)
In any case, I was really disturbed not so much by the blog entry, but by the comments that people made on it. I get the distinct (and very unflattering) impression that for many Americans–and since this is about Richard Dawkins, a Brit, let's throw the majority of Western people into the fray–there are only two choices in the battle of religion vs. atheism:
either you're a rational, modern, forward-thinking atheist, or
you're a somewhat-uneducated, bible-thumping Christian who firmly believes that the world was created in six days, and on the last day "God" decided to rest.
As a quietly Catholic, formerly agnostic/practical atheist, educated (or so I'd like to think) rational person from an archipelago in Southeast Asia, I'm completely stumped by this dichotomy. I really don't get the war versus religion, nor do I understand the tendency towards fundamentalism that so many American Christians have. What's more, I don't understand the active proselytizing that's being done by BOTH sides of the fence. Seriously. It's so strange!
Why do atheists of a certain kind think that it's their duty to "convert" the people who are still deluded enough to believe in a god? It eerily parallels some fundamentalist Christian sects' mandated requirement to actively preach the "good news" to "save sinners" (sometimes forcing themselves upon unsuspecting strangers). Although I'll have to admit that the atheists certainly have a better-argued, definitely more rational position…I just don't get it. Why fight over it in the first place? At this rate, the war against religion waged by atheists is becoming just another "war of religion:" just another war between two competing world-views that thinks its own position is the only valid one. (I've long been meaning to read Dawkins's The God Delusion to at least get some hold on this way of thinking. A big boo, though, because his book is darn expensive here.)
On the one hand, some atheists may have a point about how religion can be divisive. Why is it that people from different religions can live with each other peacefully and not erupt in any sort of warfare in one country, while burn each other's homes at the slightest provocation in another country?
On the other hand, just take a good look at largely secular, Western, First World nations like the US, where people find purpose and meaning in their lives through eating less calories than normal. Is that the kind of society I want to live in? No thanks.
I have a lot of beef against Western modernity, but there's one thing that I DO like about it–modernity granted the individual the freedom to exercise her reason to figure out what she believes in and to choose how she lives her life, be it for, against, or just completely different from another person's way of life. The ability to recognize, create, and maintain diversity, I'd like to think, have been the greatest gifts modernity has given us.
And in the midst of all this arguing about religion or whether or not there is really a God (which is a question that I am frankly tired of), people are dying in Iraq (war), in Darfur (war, too), in the Philippines (human rights violations galore), in Fiji (tsunami), for reasons that may or may not be related to religion. Whole continents like Africa continue to be poverty-stricken, due largely to past exploitation by the West. Are we doing anything about it? Is the West doing anything about it?
Is it because I 'm a pragmatic Asian, or because I'm from a Third World country, (or any number of convenient cultural stereotypes) that I feel the "god question" is not really that important on a global scale? Does the answer to that question matter to the millions of laborers in China or to the thousands of Khmer refugees in Thailand? Does it matter to the husbands, wives, and children left behind by disaparecidos and victims of political killings?
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Okay, I'm getting off my soapbox now. 
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Anyone interested in webwriting work that you can do from home, with a quota of just 1500 words per day?
Pay is pretty good, too.
Email me or leave a comment if you're interested.
Previous Comments
Gratuitous random thoughts:
Hmmm… i think that the “God question” does matter to all the aforementioned suffering in the world, when it’s asked not just as an intellectual exercise to pass the time or an excuse to destroy people who don’t agree with one’s answer. I agree that arguing about it without doing anything about all that’s wrong in the world is just empty nonsense. However, the answer “Does God exist?”, if honestly asked, has massive implications on what we do now and why we do it. (ie. “If there really is a God who actually has authority over me, what does that mean for my life and how i treat other people? etc. And what if the God of the Bible is real? there’s actually Someone insanely in love enough to die both for me AND all the people i love and hate?! If so, there actually such a thing as hope?”) If that kind of questioning isn’t there, i would doubt that the God question is being taken seriously.
Did any of that make sense?
Camillo: mas madali pag-usapan sa totoong buhay.
Angela: What you’re saying makes perfect sense! I think that’s what I wanted to say (albeit in an indirect way) except my tired brain couldn’t process it.
Seriously, though, that’s why i find things like eating disorders and the rat race so disturbing is because for many people their image of themselves becomes their sole purpose for existence–a purpose that in the end is so empty.
I guess I’m also trying to take an Aquinas-esque stance to this: to try to meet others on their on turf and understand their own discourse so that in turn I can effectively explain mine.
It upsets me why people on both “sides” of the question have to be so antagonistic about it, to act and speak as though any dissenting opinion is already “the enemy” and must be eliminated at all costs. The radical polarity that defines “the God question” is itself the main problem: how can we effectively, truly dialogue with each other if we don’t listen to what the other was saying? In such an antagonistic environment, the question *does* become something of an empty debate, something subject to fancy rhetoric and one-upmanship. The real nature of “the God question” gets lost under all the hate. *sigh*
camillo: text me or email me! sige na, please 
it’s a webwriting job, i can call you or email you about it so it’s clearer. email me rin a resume and a writing sample (i’ll forward you the format) and i’ll forward it to my employer.
okie dokie…uhm…uhm…ano email add mo? :I
Posted by ca.mil.lo at May 13, 2007, 6:36 amPJ. Trina ito. Nahanap kita dahil kay Kapi. ;p Tungkol saan yung isusulat?
Posted by Trina at May 14, 2007, 3:03 pmHi Peej! I haven’t finished “The God Delusion” yet, which I started on a month ago (sigh)… I can say though that his examples do make sense, but we have to take his writings with a grain of salt and understand that (from what I’ve read so far anyway):
(1) I don’t think Dawkins is against believers in general but rather fundamentalists, most especially Intelligent Design proponents (I personally think ID is a lot of BS myself) and religious coockoos, which happen to be really numerous in the US from what I understand. He does write about religious people whom he respects, and he thinks are educated and reasonable. Others, he comments, don’t even know what their religion is about and follow doctrine for the wrong reasons.
(2) That said though, Dawkins will not be successful in spreading the “good word” of atheism, or successfully convert anyone who wasn’t atheist to begin with, simply because I think people are set in their beliefs prior to logical reasoning anyway. Why do you prefer pork or beef? Why do you believe in Yaweh rather than Allah? People believe what they do for reasons that are not thought of most of the time, but all try to “rationalize” their pre-rational beliefs somehow. (if that makes sense…)
(3) I also don’t think the atheist conversion mission makes sense due to number 2 above… In this case, I agree with you about that the atheist conversion mission is a bit like religiosity. Why bother to write about atheism rather than just live it by yourself, quietly?
Anyway… guess I better finish that book before the summer.
This is an inquiry regarding the webwriting job. This is just a part-time job, right? If it can’t consume a chunk of my time for research other than the writing exercise itself since I have a full-time job, I’m interested.
Can I have the details please? I have an experience as editor/journalist in Dubai. I worked there for a publishing firm especializing in Business/Insurance Market in the Middle East.
Well, I have my blog, but it’s an informal writing but I have my portfolio with me from the magazine I used to work with. Email me through larrybored@yahoo.com.
Cheers!
Posted by larrybored at June 5, 2007, 3:01 pmHi,
You can review Dawkins’ book by clicking:
http://myfreefilehosting.com/f/fc86a8cc1e_7.67MB
Buy it if you like it. You’re right, he’s a bit too fanatic. But he has a point when he’s saying that religion is strongly correlated with death and destruction. I’d rather recommend The Selfish Gene by the same author.
By the way, “People in Western nations” (you make it sound as if it’s a homogenous group! Guess what, it’s not!) don’t restrict their caloric intake to “give their life meaning”. They do it (or at least they try to do so) to enhance their quality and duration of life. Eating a little less and moving a bit more is healthy & fun. If you don’t believe me, ask a gangrene-stricken type 2 diabetes patient. I’d wish that the owner of Jollibee would realize what he’s doing to all those Filipinos.
Enjoy reading!
AJ
next time…
I’m interested.
Posted by camillo at May 12, 2007, 9:27 am