Reflecting on Atheism.

[The Reality Salesman01]

Here is an interesting quote from philosopher John Gray from his book Straw Dogs:

"To Deny the existence of God is to accept the categories [framework] of monotheism. As these categories fall into disuse, unbelief becomes uninteresting. Atheists say they want a secular world, but a world defined by the absence of the Christian God is still a Christian world. Secularism is like chastity, a condition defined by what it denies. If atheism has a future, it can only be in a Christian world.

Atheism is a late bloom of a Christian passion for truth. No Pagan is ready to sacrifice the pleasure of life for the sake of mere truth. The long delayed consequence of Christian faith was an idolatry of truth that found its most complete expression in Atheism."

Hi guys. I just joined this forum. I thought this quote was fascinating and would be interesting to reflect upon and discuss about.

To me, this is much like saying there would be no reason to apply good reason to promoting the equality of women, once women become equal.

or, there would be no reason to fight discrimination if slavery is abolished.

Of course there are no terms such as A-oppressionist, or A-slavest. I imagine that if there was still an overwhelming support for ideas of this sort, the reasonable people that reflect on them may have needed to coin such terms.

Unfortunately, not all bad ideas take only a number of decades to revise...

Religion is a genuinely bad idea that has existed and evolved since man first began to ponder his existence. And it has infected the minds and agendas of governments, and other institutions which use it as a reason to do evil in its defense. Atheism represents a glimmer of reason in a world that insists on promoting bad ideas.

Hopefully, one day we will be able to look back on Christianity and all other superstitions in much the same way that we look back on the Greek gods and other myths. Then the term Atheism will dissolve away as an unnecessary word in the absence of Theism.

The only way this will come into fruition is through critical thinking and reason. Atheism is the byproduct of these tools being aimed at religion, and the honest reflection of the results it produces.

Religion is not the only thing these tools are useful for. Nor are genuinely bad ideas exclusive to religion. As long as people are promoting bad ideas, the pillars of what leads one to Atheism-reason and logic-will always have a useful role in society.

That's my opinion anyway.