Monday, 24 December 2007
'How should faith respond to the onslaught of atheism?' asks the Times today.
The Times condemns 'militant atheism' today in its main opinion piece. I don't understand why talking about a lack of belief constitutes some sort of 'militancy' but Christians who spread the word about Jesus aren't being militant, they are just sharing their faith.
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Yeah, now that you mention it, atheists have never come knocking on my door trying to convert me (or even worse "save" me), although I imagine it would be nice to have some like-minded company. :-)
AND I just want to point out (you might want to slap me now for being pedantic, but bear with me a moment) that atheism isn't so much a lack of belief (in god) but an actual, active belief in no god. And I think that makes it very much like theism, excepting, of course, the actual substance of the belief.
So in essence, that makes the Times article nothing more than a big whinge about the competition. :-)
Happy Belated Birthday, Jesus...
Lisa
Hi Lisa, glad you are back. how stressful to move at Christmas and hope you are OK and know where everything is now.
Hi E -
we are nowhere near knowing where everything is now! We do have the kettle, and found two boxes of wine and Tom gave me a fancy espresso machine for xmas! Other than that our house looks like a rummage sale for brown boxes. We make a bit of headway each day.
Of course it is nothing compared to what is going on at yours!
Hope you're all well!
L.
do you know, I was thinking about your earlier comment about having an active non-belief in God. I always think I just don't believe and that's about it. After all lots of Victorians believed fairies really existed so if I was a fairy atheist back then, would I have had a theist too?
I actually think not believing in god, and believing there is no god is the same thing. I am not sure that there is any way around that, even if you wanted to say, fe, that you don't believe in a *particular* god that a religion espouses, but that you believe in some other notion of some other god, which I think then just makes you a theist.
I made the distinction in my original comment to point out that religious people and atheists are structurally similar; they both believe in things (one that there is no god, the other that god(s) exist) and as such, it doesn't make sense to criticise one or the other on the basis of any similar structure, but rather any criticism needs to be on the basis of that belief or the thought process that leads to that belief. I was giving The Times some trouble for (as you said) somehow equating the (lack of) beliefs of atheists as militancy.
I'm thoroughly enjoying your blog, by the way!!
xxLisa
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