9.16.2007

David Cronenberg Explains How His Atheism Influences His Work

Director DAVID CRONENBERG of the film 'Spider'...
Director DAVID CRONENBERG of the film 'Spider' during the Toronto International Film Festival. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are lots of famous atheists. I don't mean people who are famous for being atheists; there are relatively few of those (fortunately). No, I mean celebrities who happen to be atheists and who have been willing to disclose it publicly.

I sometimes wonder how (or if) atheism might influence the work these celebrities do. In most cases, I'd guess that it probably doesn't have much of an influence. But there do appear to be cases where it might have more of an influence than we realize.

Celebrated director, David Cronenberg, openly identified himself as an atheist during an interview with Reuters (update: link no longer active). Notably, he also offered an intriguing example of how his atheism informs his work in cinema.

9.13.2007

"End Times" Theology Endangers Us All

end times

Christians are expected to swallow all sorts of nonsense about the existence of supernatural entities, beliefs about the natural world which have repeatedly been falsified, and assorted logical contradictions. The rest of us are expected to keep our criticism to ourselves in the interest of respect or tolerance (yes, to point out someone's religiously-motivated intolerance is regularly considered intolerant). And yet, withholding criticism of certain irrational beliefs imperils us all.

In a recent column for The State News, John Bice, author of A 21st Century Rationalist in Medieval America, points out that belief in a "second coming" and the accompanying end times theology is just such a dangerous belief.

In fairness to the many Christians who have managed to retain some shred of sanity, I will distinguish between those who passively believe that Jesus will someday return and those who think such a return is imminent and that they should do something to speed it up. The former is simply deluded and making it more difficult to challenge the latter without being accused of intolerance. This is a problem to which I will return, but the second group requires our immediate attention.

9.10.2007

Understanding Prayer: Not Supernatural But Self-Soothing

A Bolivian aymara woman praying
A Bolivian aymara woman praying (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

While reading a post at Secular Planet (update: link no longer working), I had an interesting thought about prayer, how it works, and how mistaken I may have been in my previous efforts to understand it. Now my head is swirling with the possible implications.

What if prayer has little to do with religious belief, faith, or even the litany of gods before which believers have groveled over the millennia? What if prayer is really just a primitive form of self-soothing? And what if religious believers are at least partially aware of this but have employed a variety of psychological defenses to repress full awareness?

The implications of such a possibility are intriguing. For starters, this would suggest that some of us have been wrong in our analysis and critique of prayer. For example, I've previously struggled to understand how Christians can simultaneously believe in an omnipotent and omniscience god and believe that this god is more likely to be swayed by prayers from multiple persons:

Does the believer think that more individuals praying will result in a better outcome than just an individual believer praying? Why? Is it to make sure their god hears them? I thought their omniscient god already knew what was going on without any prayers whatsoever. Of course, that would mean that intercessory prayer is always worthless because one isn't telling one's god anything he/she/it doesn't already know. Is it because their god must be persuaded to help? If their god is benevolent, added persuasion should not be necessary.

9.01.2007

Rest Stop Sex

rest area sign

If one of the signs of wisdom involves recognition of how little one actually knows, then I suppose I have considerable wisdom. In the time since news of Sen. Larry Craig's (R-Idaho) arrest broke, I have been reminded of just how little I know about gay culture. Virtually every news outlet has been running stories of an epidemic of gay rest stop sex. I had no idea that anything like this existed! How could I have lived in ignorance for this long?

I've had a love of learning for as long as I can remember. I thoroughly enjoyed my formal education, but even then, I recognized that I wanted to continue learning throughout my life. Learning was not to be something that stopped when school ended; it would be a life-long pursuit. I suppose this drive explains a great deal about my pursuit of a career in science and even my arrival at atheism. Given the beauty and complexity of the natural world, it seems absurd to posit supernatural explanations. There is too much within nature to understand.

I suppose I've never known much about gay culture. I knew a couple of gay kids in high school, but they were not able to be open about it without being physically assaulted by Christians. I had a few openly gay friends in college and graduate school, but I've lost touch with them in the years since. A couple of them had been thrown out of their childhood homes by Christian parents, and one had been homeless for a while as a result. There are few openly gay individuals in my current circle of acquaintances. I suspect this has a great deal to do with the rampant, religiously fueled anti-gay sentiment in this area. And where do you suppose that comes from? You If you guessed Christians, you are correct.