And of this I agree. For I am an atheist now, in a time when atheism is dying. And there is a new God coming. We can see his stern face in the new radical religious extremisms now racing around the world. And this new God may well be a more virulent God than the last God. Christianity was based on the divinity of the body of Christ and God as love. A good person was one who used his earthly body like Jesus Christ. The new Twenty-first Century God, on the other hand, seems a god of vengeance, terror and exclusivity. And I fear this may well prove to be a time more dangerous than the day when God died, just prior to the century of genocide.
I do not however agree with Bertrand Russell that were God to exist he would be a differential equation. This too is a false hope. No, that God is dead. This is certain. The God of the Modern era is not to be replaced with more physics, equations and Jesuitical logic. Einstein was wrong; the great Crap Shooter above is no more. That God really, really, really is dead. And as Nietzsche rightly saw, it was we who killed him, by accident and truly without culpability certainly, but we did it. And I do miss God, though to be honest the God of love was dead before I was even born. And I dread the new God on the horizon.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Matthew T. Sussman
Then love is dead, because they're the same thing.
2 - JR
They who?
3 - Matthew T. Sussman
God and love. Same thing.
If one's dead, so is the other.
4 - Bob Rhubart
I know a guy who has been wearing the same pair of pants for 80,000 years.
5 - Steve S
God is not dead, he's smokin a j in the hills of Carmel Valley with the nature lovers. I remember the day he showed up...
not a word was spoken, the church bells all were broken and the three men I admire most, the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, they caught the last train for the coast, the day, the music, died, and they were singin...
6 - Tan The Man
I like your use of "smidgen". I like that word.
I call myself an Atheist when really I am Agnostic. I get sick of the annoying Christians who for some reason are always around me, so I can myself Atheist to spite them.
7 - Nancy
You wanna REALLY see 'em smoke? Call yourself an "apostate". That you once believed but deliberately pitched it all really drives them nuts.
8 - Tan The Man
Hah... but that only works if they know what an apostate is. But I'll definitely try it. Hmmm... maybe I'll go to a Campus Crusade and strike up a random conversation and declare myself an apostate. Nah, stratch that, they'll never let me leave.
9 - Nancy
You'd definitely end up being kidnapped & deprogrammed, better not - too many zealots for one person to fight off. But it's great fun when you're talking to a few in a larger, more neutral crowd. Their eyes bug out a bit, & they start to froth at the mouth, sometimes literally. One guy dropped his coffee, he got so upset.
10 - Tan The Man
Yeah, sometimes I randomly blurt out stuff like "God is dead" or "Church has lost all meaning and purpose". It's hilarious. I always have to turn my head to avoid laughing when I see their facial expressions. But I'll definitely give that "apostate" thing a go when it's just a few of them.
11 - Nancy
They set themselves up to be so pitifully 'easy', if you just know what buttons to push. Especially the really enthusiastic ones who just can NOT understand how anyone couldn't hear the word 'Jesus' mentioned and not roll over & play dead.
12 - Tan The Man
So true...
13 - Bennett
No one's said it yet, but Dr. James, this is a finely written piece. Thanks for the depth and the eloquence.
I look forward to your posts.
Bennett
14 - Tan The Man
Bennett is right. This is a fine post.
15 - Nancy
Agreed. Kudos. Good piece.
16 - Randy Kirk
I'm on board with the fact that you are a gifted writer and thinker. Some of your analysis is even pretty cool. The problem for this child of God is that it isn't very practical. I've read "all" the great
philosophers and spent hours arguing the meaning of "be." My favorite debate partner is a died-in-the-wood objectivist.
But after all of those intellectual flights, how does one live a purposeful, meaningful, joyous, life?
We start with two possibilities. There either is a God or not. If there is a God, he is either a constant or not. If there is no god of any kind nor any kind of intelligent agent overseeing our lives, then we can't be very sure about anything.
If there is a god or other intelligent agent who is constant, we should want to know this god, just as we would want to know whether the sun will rise tomorrow. So this would be an important practical endeavor for every man.
If there is a god and he is whimsical, then it won't help us much to know him.
So under three of these scenarios, I would be doing all I can to maximize my stuff at the expense of everyone else. I might even try to look generous in order to have others treat me well. However, my basic motive would be all about me.
If there is a constant god, then I would want to know him and please him, because like my human father when I was 10, he would have ultimate control over my destiny in every way.
And whatever the reality is of God, it doesn't change for a minute how those who don't know the God of Jesus might make up other gods to fit their agendas.
God alive. God dead. God active. God passive. God made up by man. God real and sought by man. Practically, the best solution is the God of the Bible. If it turns out he doesn't exist, it won't matter except I will have lived my life generously, with purpose, attempting to love my neighbor, and not hurt others.
17 - Bennett
How is the "God of the Bible" a more "practical" choice than the god of the Koran? Or the god of Buddha?
"And whatever the reality is of God, it doesn't change for a minute how those who don't know the God of Jesus might make up other gods to fit their agendas."
And that sentence, no matter how many times I read it, doesn't seem to say anything.
Other than you're inferring that all gods, except for your "God of Jesus", are "made up"?
Yeah, right. Randy, your God is as real as any other god, past or present, right back to Hera, Thor, and Zeus.
18 - JR
Randy Kirk: But after all of those intellectual flights, how does one live a purposeful, meaningful, joyous, life?
My problem with your question is that, for me, purpose and meaning take the joy out of life. If my life has purpose and meaning, it's not really mine.
So how am I supposed to answer the question?
So under three of these scenarios, I would be doing all I can to maximize my stuff at the expense of everyone else.
Why? God or no God, that proposition simply doesn't look attractive to me. Is one of us broken?
19 - Victor Plenty
If believers could be joyful in their faith that a loving Creator personally guides their every step through life, without attempting to shove their beliefs down other people's throats, perhaps the non-believers would also quiet down a bit with their gloomy conclusions about the terrifying meaninglessness of the vast cosmos.
The trouble starts when the two sides start pointing fingers at each other and flinging handfuls of accusations about destroying civilization as we know it.
Doc Carmine is just as guilty of that part as the fundamentalists he decries, leaving me not so impressed with his nihilistic maunderings.
20 - bhw
If it turns out he doesn't exist, it won't matter except I will have lived my life generously, with purpose, attempting to love my neighbor, and not hurt others.
Randy, have you met fellow Blogcritic David Flannagan? You sound just like him.
People don't need god to live an unselfish, loving life. I'm an atheist, and I don't go around hopelessly lost, hurting others, or being greedy. I set goals and go after them, treat my neighbors, acquaintences, strangers, and family with respect, give to charities my money and my time to help those less fortunate, etc., etc.
So please spare me the self-righteous nonsense that only people who believe in god -- and presumably YOUR god -- are decent human beings.
21 - Randy Kirk
bhw.
But of course. No one would claim differently. However, religion, like women, tend to be civilizing. Much of how you conduct yourself is undoubtedly due to be raised in a 85% Christian country whose political and jurisprudential underpinnings are primarily from the Bible.
Bennet
***Other than you're inferring that all gods, except for your "God of Jesus", are "made up"?
Of course I believe that. However, it dosn't matter what I believe. Practically, what matters is that so many do, and that some or much of what they do is directed by those beliefs. That means God is very much alive. But each "god" whether real or made up, has impact.
Victor,
I think some do try to shove their ideas down others throats. Right now that's how I feel about global warming and not driving as SUV (I don't.) It's how I feel about not being able to use DDT in Africa. Its how I feel about a school being allowed to send my child to a doctor for a major operation without my knowledge or agreement.
When I try to shove my opinion down your throat (in the general sense of shouting my opninion in a book or article), it is because I believe that you will live a better life if you are persuaded by my arguements. Isn't that your motivation?
22 - gonzo marx
on nihilism,we have
*God is dead* - Nietsche
countered by
*Nietsche is dead* - JuJu
so much for nihilism
in comment #16 above Randy sez..
*We start with two possibilities.*
this is the baseling Postulate for a very nicely written bit of sophistry...but i consider it fallacious
why only 2 possibilities?
blasphemy you say? consider this...
the first Commandment, said to have been written by "God's" own hand and given directly to Moses sez...
*thou shalt have no other God before me*
this implicitly states that you CAN have other god's, he just wants to be first
so, according to the Old Testament and in "God's" own words, there are more than the two choices
one could go line by line through much of that Comment, and find the same mistaken postulates
my suggestion to Randy is to find another debating partner...this one is letting you get away with far too much sloppy thinking
nuff said?
Excelsior!
23 - Randy Kirk
Very out of the box Gonzo, but I have never seen anyone seriously suggest that this was what God intended with those words. Three kinds of gods show up later in scripture. 1. The made up gods of the heathens. 2. The wooden idols that many worshipped. 3. Other idols such as money, cars, Billy, the American, and such.
So now that we've re-established the initial postulate . . .
24 - Bennett
Randy - I know that you believe that yours is the ONLY real god, and more power to ya, but I can't fathom the lack or respect that it takes to make that point, repeatedly, in a public forum where people of many faiths visit and participate.
Your condescending and chauvinistic attitude is insulting to me, and to many of my fellow blogcritics. You have every right to write your dogmatic comments, but it's really not acceptable in polite society.
25 - Randy Kirk
Bennet,
I can't even imagine that in this context. It doesn't insult me in the least if you believe in your god and think mine is hocus pocus. I understand that in certain contexts I would be more sensitive, but not someplace where the great issues of the day are being debated. Can't really have the debate unless honest opnion is allowed. Truly my best friends, and I mean those who I speak to the most, employ, travel with, etc., include several Jews, a Muslim, two atheists, an agnostic, several charismatic Christians and a few mainline Christians. I enjoy all of them, and understand that they think my born-again Baptist thing is wrong in whole or in part. Makes for spirited and fun debate.