reflections on contemporary atheism

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    NEW ATHEISM, RELIGION, AND THE

    CONTEMPORARY WORLD

    By Artchil C. Daug

    The world changed when two passengerplanes crashed towards the famous World

    Trade Center Towers in New York. The smokeand the impact announced something to the

    world, and the message still lingers todayespecially when one talks aout Americanforeign policy. ! rememer watching it li"e ontele"ision#watched in awe as the accidentwas actually a delierate attack against the$nited %tates on their own soil. !t feltmomentous ack then& to see the "erysymols of gloal industrial capitalismrought down. 'or us who tasted a it of theideological attles of the Cold War, aleit in a"ery late fashion#the !ron Curtain wasalready lifted y ()*)#the fall of the twotowers signi+ed that the struggle li"ed to

    +ght another day. r at least that was theimpression it ga"e me. -ooking ack now, themeaning of that e"ent was shaped y thecircumstances of my life. ! was then in my+rst year as a formal student of history, and

    ust like any aspiring /ar0ist of anygeneration, the task was to understand themeaning of history and connect theunderlying causes that they may contriuteto engineer a communist future. /y disgusttowards the hegemony of western capitalism,towards the consolidation of capitalist powersin an organi1ation that ensured western

    dominance, and towards the continuouse0ploitation of the 'irst World o"er the Thirdmade me celerate that day#a slice of cakeand some cheap red wine. !t was only tenyears later that ! e"entually recogni1ed thereal threat that )2(( represented& religiousfundamentalism#the cold war of politicalideologies was indeed o"er, the war on terrortook shape in an almost religious fashion.

    !n 34(4, ! got myself ac5uainted with agrowing 'ilipino atheist community and wasin"ited to oin their informal social networkgroup. Atheism was on the rise and many

    'ilipinos apparently were coming out of theirclosets. ! e"entually recogni1e the generationgap. ! elong to the tradition of atheismsimilar to that of /ar0, Niet1sche, 'reud and6eidegger#all suggested alternati"es toreligion and ne"er really found it necessary todeate the ine0istence or e0istence of a god.

    These new atheists idoli1e people ! ne"erheard efore& 7ichard Dawkins andChristopher 6itchens were famous to them,and perhaps a name that ! do recogni1e#

    Bertrand 7ussell. !t was surprising thatatheists like me ha"e een randed ldAtheists and the new ones /ilitant Atheists.

    The T8D lecture of 7ichard Dawkins was aninspiration for them.

    The middle of the +rst decade of thetwenty9+rst century saw the emergence ofse"eral writings from these militant atheists.

    Dawkins: own The God Delusionmade him aninstant hero for the new atheists. Theneurologist %am 6arris also produced his nowfamous Letter to a Christian Nation, whichargued that oth Christianity and !slam areinherently "iolent in their scriptures and theirhistory. /ost of the literature of these newatheists attacked the fundamentals of themaor religions and 5uestion their role in thecontemporary world. ;erhaps the title of theook y Christopher 6itchens summari1edtheir position neatly#although 6itchenshimself admitted that this title was pro"ided

    y his pulisher& God is Not Great: HowReligion Poisons Everything. Together withDaniel Dennett, whose ooks ! honestly ha"enot encountered yet, these four formed theoriginal four horsemen of atheist apocalypse.Ayaan 6irsi Ali, an e09/uslim atheist, laterreplaced 6itchens when the man died ofcancer last 34(3.

    !n all their deates and inter"iews, theprolem of their opponents was their inailityto meet them head on. Christian apologetics,pastors, priests, rais, and the nowhumiliating Cardinal ;ell of Australia can only

    play within the le"el of theology andmetaphysics. These atheists argue thatreligion already lost the capacity to e0plainthe world, and can only pro"ide senselessmeanings to presumaly ig 5uestions. Whenphysicist like %tephen 6awking and -awrenceor at least admit it? and the needfor religion "anishes.

    The mo"ement is heading towards asecular society that do not rely on themysterium as the source of the sacred. Thefour horsemen, whose infamous con"ersationin two parts is free to watch in the internet,argued that the sanctity of human life is itse0istence per se ecause it came upon afterillions of years of e"olution. @od is notneeded to pro"ide meaning for it. 'aith forthem is incompatile with reason, and theyare looking forward for the end of faith. ust

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    like old ideas that came out of our ignorance,faith too must gi"e way to more rationale0planations. Their e"idences for theirrational Christian fanaticism of theAmerican go"ernment is "ery alarming, andtheir criticism was that the separation ofstate and church in the $nited %tates is thehumdrum of hypocrites who talk aout

    morality while ensla"ing their own populationto ignorance. %arah ;alin ecame theirfa"orite caricature, and ;at 7oertson wasranded a professional idiot. 80cept for6itchens, the other three were on the side oferadicating religion. 6itchens: argumentcentered on a dialectics. A /ar0ist to the "eryend, he argued that religion is re5uired toproduce its own antithesis and that the realenemy is fundamentalism#when a religionproclaims a monopoly for e0plaininge"erything and translates it into politicalaction. 6itchens hated !slamic

    fundamentalist. An understatement perhaps,ut his career turned to the atheistmo"ement ecause of )2((. Actually, all theooks y these new atheists appear to ereactions against the growing religiousfanaticism of not ust !slamic fundamentalists,ut also Christian fundamentalists in theAmerican Congress as well.

    n the 5uestion of reproducti"e health,they lame most religious leaders forespousing the spread9and9multiply principle.Any religious leader who consider condomsmore dangerous that A!D% >pertaining to a

    case in Africa? was not only randed asstupid, ut also inhuman. ;eople must eeducated to e responsile enough toconsider a more responsile consciousnesswhen taking into consideration populationand access of resources. 6owe"er, many stillcling to the religious principle of, to orrowfrom the current pope, reeding like raits.As long as population growth is acked y areligious e0planation, these new atheists areafraid that they can ne"er e made to reali1ethe prolem.

    n the argument that if only religion is not

    mi0ed with politics, they consider thetendency that separating politics and religionis dicult to accomplish. This is why religionneeds to end. !ts time is up, and thecontemporary world no longer need itsser"ice. Dawkins suggest to study it simply aspart of human de"elopment#as relic of thepast. /any wanted to replace religion withscience. 6itchens wanted the people toreali1e for themsel"es the error of looking atthe world in a paradigm ased on mystery

    and the une0plainale. The works of 6arrisand Dennett in the +eld of neuroiologyattempts to replace religious e0planationaout human will, freedom, andconsciousness.

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    reason why many elie"ers considernonelie"ers as arrogant was ecause theyproect themsel"es to others when they feltthat their sensiti"ities are under attack.%cience knows how to admit what it possilyknows and what it certainly do not know.7eligion appears to claim authority for truth.

    ;ersonally, ! do not really care deating

    aout things that one is ignorant of. ! do notknow how the uni"erse egan e0actly, thoughthrough science ! can imagine something. !howe"er cannot use my imagination ase"idence. ! ha"e no idea how consciousnessworks and its relationship with matter, if

    there is any at all. ! ha"e no idea how naturalselection works, ut ! know acteria and"iruses are e"ol"ing to adapt through ourde"eloped medicines. ! do not know if there issomething more after death, and ! cannot usemy hope as the source of my principles. ! actwith what little ! know of myself, and withmany that ! do not know. 7eligion no longer

    ha"e the monopoly for e0planation and itmust admit that. !t is howe"er curious ifreligion can still remain inEuential in thisworld if it withdraws from a position ofauthority. r, will it fall like the towersF