On the value of atheism
My thoughts exactly:
Why should believers welcome this emergence of unbelief? Why not? We should be glad that there are people, even the devil’s disciples, who take religion seriously enough to attack it, especially in these days when God seems to appear only in quarrels over holiday displays, during political campaigns or on the self-help shelves of Barnes & Noble. Should the primary goal of religion really be to fund municipal crèches, allow politicians to end every speech with the tag “And God bless America,” or inspire works like “Tea With God: A Divinely Inspired Self-Help Book” and “The Christian Entrepreneur: How to Profit From Your God-Given Idea”?
…Perhaps if we are confronted with better questions about the meaning and value of religion, we will be forced to find better answers. (Maurice O’Sullivan in the WSJ)
Do you really agree that atheists are the “devil’s disciples”? I take offense to that notion. I agree with the thought that Christians shouldn’t be superficial with their religion, but I really object to the notion that we atheists have to be your devil’s disciples, when we no more believe in your devil than your god. Believers invented the devil, not atheists.
My eyes must have simply glided over the worlds “devil’s disciples” when I clipped the paragraph for this post. I don’t believe in a devil either, and I suspect the author meant it figuratively as well.
Anyway, I think the opinion piece made a more general point: that to the extent that atheism poses searching questions for religion, it will expand our horizon of thinking about what true religion is.
Respecting religion and religious belief doesn’t always mean ignorance of it.