Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Militant Atheism: Religious Fundamentalism of Non-Belief

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by Peter John

All belief depends on personal experience. From a strictly objective view, nobody can genuinely believe something in which they lack a basis in personal experience. This does not mean, as a firm empiricist would maintain, that this experience need be transferrable or subject to intentional duplication.

True belief arises as much from personal experiences which could not be forced, and often arrive without invitation, as from calculated efforts measurable among recognized human senses. Scientifically such beliefs get marginalized at best. At worst they fall subject to ridicule and derision.

Through most of the history of faith those who deny experiences supporting their belief in God, or who have found differing avenues for experiencing God, have been denigrated and even persecuted. The wars and oppression arising from such religious fundamentalism compose history's greatest shame. Atheism, on the other hand, has tolerated what it considers a non-objective practice of religion at worst, and appreciates as part of evolving culture at best.

This has changed in recent decades as schools of thought in atheism have emerged which challenge the intellectual integrity of those whose own experience -- rather than what they have simply been taught to believe -- demand acceptance of truths which defy measurement in the physical realm. Such militant atheists lean heavily on the scientific method as dogma, even as they deny having a dogma, and mock the beliefs of the scientists who developed the scientific method in the first place. They do this despite the fact that their position contradicts the very principles of evolution on which they base their views.

If, as evolution proposes, those traits most inclined toward adaptation and survival of the species are naturally selected for survival, then militant opposition to religious practice affirms that millions of years of evolution erred. What have been the consequences of marginalizing the role of religion in 20th Century culture and beyond? That is what this Blog intends to examine. In the process it seeks to establish that militant atheism is nothing more than another form of the same religious fundamentalism that has brought historic controversy to religion's role in society.
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(c) 2011 by Peter John Stone. All rights reserved. Contact Author for permissions.