{"id":4292,"date":"2014-07-16T20:39:39","date_gmt":"2014-07-17T01:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=4292"},"modified":"2014-07-17T20:13:33","modified_gmt":"2014-07-18T01:13:33","slug":"those-dreadful-atheists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=4292","title":{"rendered":"Those Dreadful Atheists"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a recent article on the Science20<\/a> web site about atheists. The basic premise of the article is that pure atheists may not exist — because deep down in the subconscious, there exists a pre-programmed bias towards the notion that something in the universe is looking over us, something more than what we know thru our normal senses and our logical minds. The author summarized the article quite well up front, saying that “Cognitive scientists are becoming increasingly aware that a metaphysical outlook may be so deeply ingrained in human thought processes that it cannot be expunged.” <\/p>\n

Atheism is generally a product of the thinking, rational part of the mind. Yes, the part that gave us science and the Enlightenment, mathematics and the French Revolution, antibiotics and the atom bomb, etc. This is strong stuff, and many people really go head over heels for the atheistic \/ positivist-rationalist point of view. Still, this point of view may never completely overcome something deep inside the mind and brain. According to the article, an atheist scientist, Graham Lawton, was quoted in New Scientist as saying “atheism is psychologically impossible because of the way humans think . . . even people who claim to be committed atheists tacitly hold religious beliefs, such as the existence of an immortal soul.<\/p>\n

So, given that scientists themselves have found atheism to ultimately be psychologically impossible, are they about to give up on it? Probably not. This knowledge now gives them the awareness and power to deal with whatever is causing this “irrational tendency”. Of course, the prime suspect is the usual suspect — evolution. In a nutshell:<\/p>\n

If a tendency to believe in the reality of an intangible network is so deeply wired into humanity, the implication is that it must have an evolutionary purpose. Social scientists have long believed that the emotional depth and complexity of the human mind means that mindful, self-aware people necessarily suffer from deep existential dread. Spiritual beliefs evolved over thousands of years as nature\u2019s way to help us balance this out and go on functioning.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ah, so this unspoken bias towards teleology in the universe is all just an ancient and uninformed response to dread. And now with our knowledge of that, we can live fully in the light of rationality, free from the atavistic tendencies that plagued our ancestors as they neurotically sought out “Fathers in Heaven” or Great Spirits or karma or Virgin Marys. We can build our own Utopia.<\/p>\n

Except . . . one problem . . . what about that “dread” factor? Where did it come from? If rationality prevails, then we are ultimately a group of highly sophisticated and complex machines. Are machines capable of “dread”? They certainly can be programmed to recognize danger and threats and respond to them. But as to “dread”, as to a deep down feeling inside that questions what am I (i.e., the alleged machine entity), what is my purpose, why am I here, and why am I going to die? Do machines get into that stuff? <\/p>\n

And even if we teach them to think deeply, would they really feel anything? If we are ultimately machines, then the modern, enlightened, rationalistic world, with its great knowledge of neuroscience and psychotherapy, should be able to eliminate any problems regarding dread. Is that happening in our world? Do you think that it ever really will? <\/p>\n

Personally, I have my doubts (without saying that I am sure it to be impossible). Dread might be the more important matter in the question of whether a supernatural God-like reality might be thinkable or not in our universe; as opposed to how hard it is or isn’t to be a pure atheist. As the aphorism goes, there are no atheists in foxholes<\/a>. As to whether humankind can ever leave behind the foxhole of existential dread, the jury is still out. And I wonder if it ever will come in with a final verdict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a recent article on the Science20 web site about atheists. The basic premise of the article is that pure atheists may not exist — because deep down in the subconscious, there exists a pre-programmed bias towards the notion that something in the universe is looking over us, something more than what we know thru […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,23,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4292"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4292"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4299,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4292\/revisions\/4299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}