More than 100,000 Britons have recently downloaded "certificates of de-baptism" from the Internet to renounce their Christian faith.
The initiative launched by a group called the National Secular Society (NSS) follows atheist campaigns here and elsewhere, including a London bus poster which triggered protests by proclaiming "There's probably* (emphasis mine) no God."
. . .
The bus-side posters that hit London in January sported the message: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."
*I'm not sure how comforting I would find the assertion that there is probably no God, but whatever... I find it terribly ironic and hilarious when people say that religion, particularly Christianity, is the opiate of the masses.
As Dinesh D'Souza points out in What's So Great About Christianity, it is atheism and atheists that engage in wishful thinking and self-deception convincing themselves that no God exists. If Christianity, for example, were an opiate, why would the peddlers have included the doctrine of Hell? Or the most rigorous, demanding moral standard of any religion?
"The universe is nothing but a collection of atoms in motion, human beings are simply machines for propagating DNA, and the propagation of DNA is a self-sustaining process. It is every living object's sole reason for living." -Richard Dawkins
"The universe is nothing but a collection of atoms in motion, human beings are simply machines for propagating DNA, and the propagation of DNA is a self-sustaining process. It is every living object's sole reason for living." -Richard Dawkins
"The universe is nothing but a collection of atoms in motion, human beings are simply machines for propagating DNA, and the propagation of DNA is a self-sustaining process. It is every living object's sole reason for living." -Richard Dawkins
"The universe is nothing but a collection of atoms in motion, human beings are simply machines for propagating DNA, adn the propagation of DNA is a self-sustaining process. It is every living object's sole reason for living." -Richard Dawkins
In my opinion, and from what I have read of him, Jean Paul Sartre was as perverted a thinker as Nietzsche ever was--and far more damaging in that he was more subtle and appeared less insane. Sartre was a french philosopher/atheist existentialist (1905-1980) who to his credit attempted to answer life's biggest questions such as origin/meaning/condition/destiny, but was only able to deduce that life was "absurd."
Sartre's philosophy, which can be found his in his more popular books Nausea and Being and Nothingness, was really nothing more than nihilism which led to a belief that life and the universe were "absurd." A pessimistic hedonist, Sartre "philosophized" that there was no order to the universe, no meaning to experience, nothing to life or man, just one big smoldering heap of nothingness and absurdity. I find it hard to believe that such a line of thought can pass as philosophy and get pawned off on university students today.
Although Sartre believed that rationally the universe was "absurd," humans were still under an obligation to "authenticate" oneself. (I'm confused as to why a person is under obligation when life is nothingness...) And, you can "authenticate" yourself by an act of the will. That idea while a little nebulous in its own right is not completely bizarre and devoid of sense until you delve a bit further into what passes as "authenticating" oneself. Essentially, since the universe and EVERYTHING in it is absurd, and has no content or meaning, all attempts to authenticate oneself are completely equal. Therefore, followed to its logical conclusion, there was no right or wrong, good or bad, only "authenticating oneself by an act of the will." So, it wouldn't matter whether you spend every day of your life collecting roadside litter, dedicate yourself to removing landmines from the Earth, helping the elderly, or molesting children, beating the elderly, or engaging in general mayhem and serial murder: all acts are acts of the will and a successful completion of self-authentication.
Isn't it hard to wrap your mind around such thought? How can people of such towering genius come to believe such Godless, insane stuff?
The funniest thing about Sartre was that he was not able to even come close to putting his own philosophy into practice. Sartre dabbled in politics later in his life (which, if all is equal there can be no good or bad politics), and later signed the Algerian Manifesto making himself a moral declaration.
Jean Paul Sartre is further proof that the only philosophy or worldview that can answer life's four toughest questions--origin/meaning/condition/destiny--is Christianity. As Zacharias says, Christianity is the only worldview that can answer all four with coherency and stand up in its own right in doing so. Other philosophies and religion will be able to answer one or two, but will fall apart when attempting to answer all four. People like Sartre take the really really really hard way out when the answers and truth (which is what they are all after) is right there for them, and end up living a life of absurdity themself.
I'm reading What's So Great About Christianity right now, and Dinesh D'Souza presents some very amusing anecdotes about the fundamental dogmatism of scientists in their materialist and naturalist approach.
Biologist Franklin Harold in The Way of the Cell: Molecules, Organisms, and the Order of Lifeexplains that evolution presumes the existence of fully formed cells with the power to replicate themselves. And explains the origin of the cell with: "Life arose here on earth from inanimate matter, by some kind of evolutionary process."
Not exactly the explanation one expects after reading Dawkins. But the next is far better and much funnier.
Francis crick, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA posits an opposing, and rather unique theory: "Space aliens must have brought life to Earth from another planet." This theory can be found in Crick's book Life Itself.
Look at the lengths people will go to to avoid the concept of a creator God! It's rich, and provides great entertainment value; although, it may not be the best for their spiritual eternity. How would you like to explain to God that you doubled down on the "Space Alien-Human Germination" theory (that you invented no less)instead of giving the Bible a fair chance. Wow!
With respect to the understanding of the human conscience, Nicholas Humphrey without shame proclaims, "[o]ur starting assumption as scientists ought to be that on some level consciousness has to be an illusion."
Spectacular. The human consciousness is not real. Where does that leave unconsciousness? Really unreal?
More to come later, there is tons of fodder that D'Souza gives in this excellent chapter in his book.
