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October 21, 2006
On Atheism
One of my closest new friends here at Columbia is a staunc atheist, one might even say militant. I love the guy to death, and we have a good time poking fun at one another. He's been immensely annoyed by religion since he was young, so he studied religion in undergrad so that he could criticize his opponents while knowing where they come from. However, I find the Christianity he thinks he's attacking me for practicing looks something like 13th century Roman Catholicism. I've never really gotten anywhere when trying to discuss contemporary theological claims and approaches, or postmodern philosphy, for that matter.
In light of this, I found this post quite relevant to my relationship with my dear friend. In it Lee links to a couple good posts elsewhere about contemporary atheists. Find them here and here.
Let me rip off those posts in light of my experiences. It seems those who get the most airtime and references, the likes of Dawkins, Dennett, and Harris, are even worse at building straw-man arguments than my atheist friend. "God equals tooth fairy" may represent the faith of some, but I'm convinced it misrepresents the faith of most, and modern atheists who use that flaccid argument do their projects a disservice by that lazy tack. I'm curious why Nietzsche isn't more of a hero these days. Indeed, I find his work fascinating and convicting. I find his work a remarkably adept critique of modernity, and I think he shifted things by basically showing we cannot believe in anything. While I think authentic faith is the only other alternative to his nihilism, I don't think a fundamentalist's apologetics isn't the reason one ought to practice the faith. Rather, when the modern project is dismantled, all we can hope for is to "out-narrate" other metanarratives. (I think I'm really tipping my Radical Orthodoxy cards here. :D )
What surprises me about the approaches of the Dennets, Dawkins, and Harrises is their utilization of outdated philosophy. Isn't strident logical positivism a bit philosophically immature? It strikes me as ironic that I seem to be a bigger fan of Nietzsche and Foucault's work than these thinkers are. Not that my buddy's arguments don't challenge me immensely, but I just don't see myself one day soon realizing I've been believing in a heavenly Santa Claus all along.
Posted by mattalexander at October 21, 2006 10:45 PM
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