Tuesday, August 01, 2006

AN ATHEIST MANIFESTO At a time when fundamentalist religion has an unparalleled influence in the highest government levels in the United States, and religion-based terror dominates the world stage, Sam Harris argues that progressive tolerance of faith-based unreason is as great a menace as religion itself.  Harris, a philosophy graduate of Stanford who has studied eastern and western religions, won the 2005 PEN Award for nonfiction for The End of Faith, which powerfully examines and explodes the absurdities of organized religion. Truthdig asked Harris to write a charter document for his thesis that belief in God, and appeasement of religious extremists of all faiths by moderates, has been and continues to be the greatest threat to world peace and a sustained assault on reason. Somewhere in the world a man has abducted a little girl. Soon he will rape, torture and kill her. If an atrocity of this kind is not occurring at precisely this moment, it will happen in a few hours, or days at most. Such is the confidence we can draw from the statistical laws that govern the lives of 6 billion human beings. The same statistics also suggest that this girl s parents believe at this very moment that an all-powerful and all-loving God is watching over them and their family. Are they right to believe this? Is it good that they believe this? No. The entirety of atheism is contained in this response. Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply a refusal to deny the obvious.  Unfortunately, we live in a world in which the obvious is overlooked as a matter of principle. The obvious must be observed and re-observed and argued for. This is a thankless job. It carries with it an aura of petulance and insensitivity. It is, moreover, a job that the atheist does not want. It is worth noting that no one ever needs to identify himself as a non-astrologer or a non-alchemist. Consequently, we do not have words for people who deny the validity of these pseudo-disciplines. Likewise, atheism is a term that should not even exist. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma. The atheist is merely a person who believes that the 260 million Americans (87% of the population) who claim to never doubt the existence of God should be obliged to present evidence for his existence and, indeed, for his benevolence, given the relentless destruction of innocent human beings we witness in the world each day. Only the atheist appreciates just how uncanny our situation is: Most of us believe in a God that is every bit as specious as the gods of Mount Olympus; no person, whatever his or her qualifications, can seek public office in the United States without pretending to be certain that such a God exists; and much of what passes for public policy in our country conforms to religious taboos and superstitions appropriate to a medieval theocracy. Our circumstance is abject, indefensible and terrifying. It would be hilarious if the stakes were not so high. READ IT ALL AT TRUTHDIG 8:09:18 PM    comment []

A Google collage cut and pasted from a search on “clarifying moment”   The war is a tragedy for its victims, but it could also be a clarifying moment if the world draws the proper lessons…   But if we are in a state of perpetual self-development, of endless becoming,   then perhaps there is never a clean moment of arrival, or a clarifying moment.   But in reality, a clarifying moment is unfolding.   The patriotic tensions generated by war and recession spawned a “rare clarifying moment”   or some other kind of turning point— to no longer "manage calm" but instead to become a revolutionary force   and to permit violence to become a clarifying moment and its aftermath as a clarifying moment taught a sharp lesson, to me, it was a clarifying moment   on the dishonesty of identity politics, on the identity of dishonesty politics. In a clarifying moment   of insight approaching epiphany, I now see that we can't realize a clarifying moment as a clarifying moment should be realized.   Dear Leader longs for a return of the clarifying moment. Political compounds can cause turbidity and reduce clarity in sparkling beverages.   When a Christian departs from a gospel of love and forgiveness to advocate murder,   his example provides a clarifying moment for anyone. You'd think. 1:09:32 PM    comment []