[quote]Sloth wrote:
It was a good discussion, but I simply do not agree. Atheism is narrowly defined. If an atheist adopts a despotic economic/political philosophy he doesn’t stop being an atheist. To me it is just odd that anyone would claim atheists must conduct themselves in a certain way–besides the godless definition–or they’re kicked out of the club. The word you’re looking for isn’t ‘religious.’ It’s militancy. And that’s a perfectly neutral term.
Or that atheists stop being atheists when they commit idolatry. Atheists believe in, much less must refrain from ‘idolatry?’ As if it’s one of their commandments? They makes no more sense to me than kicking atheists out for blasphemy. Again, I appreciate hearing from you. You’re a thinker, and I for one welcome the conversation. But I don’t see how these additional commandments and tenets are being attached to atheism. [/quote]
And that’s fine, Sloth. I respect “I don’t agree” far more than I respect “you are obviously wrong”.
My only response to this is that I view an atheist as simply a person who conducts his or her life without perceiving a need for gods. Pure atheism makes no commandments, appoints no bishops, has no dogma or tenets or ex cathedra probouncements, and claims no authority to excommunicate. It also doesn’t conduct witch hunts and inquisitions, which is why the League of Militant Atheism is as much of a misnomer as “Moral Majority”. Calling something by a certain name does not make it that thing.
Atheism is as rare (well nigh impossible, in my estimation) as pure anarchism, for the same reason: humans, as social animals with a long, long history of hierarchical societal organization, seem to have an intrinsic need to govern and be governed. We have a highly developed sense of causality and reciprocity, which gives rise to codified morality and systems of justice. Most people need gods, just as most people need government. But you can’t have govenment unless a preponderance of the governed have faith that the government is working for the common good, just as you can’t have religion unless the majority of the believers have faith that God is just and good. When this faith (defined as belief without the need for evidence) fails, government fails, and so does religion. But our very nature as social, hierarchical animals prevents us from lapsing into anarchy and atheism. When our government fails us, we get a new government. When our gods fail us, we get new gods.
Every government that has ever existed has failed, except for the ones that exist right now. Every religion that has ever existed has ever failed except for the ones we have right now. And the governments and religions we have right now exist because they have managed to adapt to the ever-changing fashion of moral and political reality. Judaism, Catholicism, Islam and Protestant Christianity bear little resemblance to what they looked like three thousand, two thousand, one thousand or five hundred years ago respectively, any more than The United States, Russia, and China look anything like the countries they were one hundred, seventy-five, or fifty years ago respectively. A thousand or a hundred years in the future, if our species still inhabits this planet, these states and these religions will either have evolved yet again, or they will have become extinct, and replaced with others.
And atheism and anarchism will still be as rare to find and nebulous to define as always.