The Meaning And Attitudes To Atheism
In our current civilization, we are constantly reading about new innovations and technological advancements being made in our multi-functional, ever useful, overpriced i-Pads. Technological advancements and major breakthroughs in science that were thought to be impossible by the brightest scientists ten years ago. The world as we know it continues to change and there is nothing in it that will stand unperturbed, not even religion. There is a long-standing debate on whether God is real. The Christians and the Catholics are two major religious groups who are openly unafraid to say that He is so, with Christianity taking up 33% of the world’s inhabitants. However, the world exists on balance and equilibrium, without it crumbles. On the other end of the spectrum proudly sits their counterparts, and no, these are not atheists. It is a common misconception that atheism is the opposite of Christianity or Catholicism and that atheists are, therefore, BAD. Atheism actually sits on the opposite side of theism - the belief in a divine being, or many of them, or even the very idea that a God exists. Atheism, simply put, is the absence of belief in the presence of a higher power or deity. Known to be Christianity’s biggest challenge and the biggest threat to modern-day society, atheists are widely misunderstood to be evil people who find pleasure in suffering and pain.
In reality, they are just people who have found enough physical evidence in science and human intelligence to justify that there is absolutely no possible way that God exists. A few arguments for atheism that I found interesting includes the problem of evil. It is the question of how evil can exist in the presence of an omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God. An argument from evil claims that because evil exists, therefore the existence of God is impossible or that God cannot have these three qualities. For how can a wholly good and divinely perfect God exist when evil does?
Below atheism lies agnosticism, the doctrine or tenet of agnostics that does not believe in God, yet does not claim to know whether or not God exists. Agnosticism is not a religion and is simply an essence of science, or for lack of a better word, a mutual understanding. Agnostics claim that 'human reason is incapable of providing sufficient rational grounds to justify either the belief that God exists or the belief that God does not exist. ' Agnosticism is divided into several different groups: gnostic theists, believers of Christ who are certain in His existence; gnostic atheists, unbelievers of Christ who are certain of his nonexistence; agnostic theists, believers of Christ who are uncertain of His existence; and finally the agnostic atheists, unbelievers of Christ who are still uncertain of His nonexistence. In theory, we are all agnostics and more similar than we are taught to be believe. Between theists and atheists lies a big, big, grey area that divides and subdivides into many other groups that have grown and flourished alongside humanity. What lies in the midst of this grey area are many other religious and non-religious groups, movements, ideas, theories and beliefs that make the concept of religion a lot of complex than one would assume. Secularism is one of the many things that resides in this big, big, grey area.
To make things short and sweet, secularism is a social framework that works towards the separation of religion and the state. Their foundation is based on the idea that the state should not meddle in religious affairs, and similarly, religion should not meddle in state affairs. It allows individuals the freedom to express their religious beliefs but is also balanced by the freedom for individuals to be free from religious beliefs, while pursuing the idea of fairness and equality in every aspect to all. As with all things characterized by the skepticism of the skeptical age, modern-day thinkers will never sleep peacefully knowing that there is so much beyond the truth that none can ever fathom. As a Catholic, I am taught to believe anything the Church tells me to believe. This is true, that is true, this is false, that is false, a never-ending lecture resulting in my ‘steadfastness on the path God has paved for me’. I walk out of the building thinking that I know more now than I knew before. However, to ‘believe’ and to ‘know’ are two very different words with very different meanings. How can we say with absolute certainty that God is a true being up there in the skies, sending His spirit down upon us like the dewfall? Exactly, we can’t. But, we can believe so.
Postmodernism is late 20th-century broad movement in the arts, culture, philosophy, and many other things. Postmodernism says that there is no real truth that people can know, only the truth that we choose to believe in. Everything that we know, our knowledge, is invented and created by humans and humans can’t know the truth with absolute certainty. Consequently so, every person can believe that their truth is true, despite them being completely different from each other. As far as we know, nobody can say that their truth is true and everyone else’s is wrong. Truth, therefore, is not a single place we can say with confidence we are steadily approaching.
Rather, truth is something that each individual constructs within the fabric of their communities and language games. This is in stark contrast to modernity, in which the belief is that we are constantly moving closer and closer to the one truth. With all this being said, we are again caught up in the complex game of ‘who’s side are you on?’ and the pressure of being included in a social group (and the judgment that comes with it) weighs heavily on our shoulders. In a world like ours, you can never find solace and freedom in being able to express yourself wholly without the penalty of glaring eyes and spiteful tongues. I can only hope and pray that one day, albeit not in the near future, we can all set aside our differences and strive for mutual understanding of all religions, beliefs, ideas and movements.
