CTC is back! 1.5 years of faithlessness and still going strong.

It was with much surprise that when I checked this blog for the first time in many months, I found that it still receives a lot of traffic.  Who would have guessed.  A while back I had taken a job which restricted my abilities to take part in any online communities.   Recently, I’ve decided to make a return, if for no other reason than to have a reason for the swarm of often incoherent thoughts that crowd my mind.

It’s been more than a year and a half since I made public my departure from the Christian faith.  The difference in not only my relationship to Christianity, but also my perception of Christianity, has changed so much that it is hard to describe.  The fact that I spent seven years as a Christian is almost surreal to me.  My interaction with religion is now more of a moviegoer with a passing interest than a participant with a vested interest.

Sorry, Mr. Dawkins, atheism is not the answer.

One of the things that often frustrates me is that people, even incredibly intelligent people, often pose simple answers as solutions to very complex problems. Anyone who has read any bit about this blog knows that I am an unabashed agnostic-atheist. Over at d-C, Karen wrote an interesting article that I think adequately sums up where I stand as well. I recognize that I will never be in a position to be a prominent spokesman for atheism, nor would I really want to be. I am often frustrated, however, by those who are prominent spokespersons for atheism.

In 2007, Richard Dawkins gave a speech at TED in which he received a roar of laughter when he kiddingly announced he is suggesting “militant atheism.” Dawkins’ speech has a two-fold message: (1) Darwinism is corrosive to religion, (2) atheists should ‘come out’ and be confident about attacking religion as a whole. One of the fascinatingly naive underpinning philosophies of the major voices for atheism today (Dawkins, Hitchens, the fine folks at the “Rational Response Squad”) is that if humanity eliminates religion from the world, everything will simply ‘work itself out.’

Atheism ≠ Misanthropy

I discussed a while back several reasons why I was hesitant to abandon my Christian faith, but somehow I managed to leave out one of the key issues that hindered my eventual de-conversion.  Growing up I knew many non-religious people.  No one in my immediate family is a Christian and few of my friends were more than culturally Christian.  But although many of the people I was raised around where non-religious, I can’t think of a single adamant atheist—there is a very real distinction.  Naturally, since I entered college at a conservative evangelical university, I have known few atheists.

But there is a recurring theme in some of the few atheists I have known that is rather disheartening: a severe sense of misanthropy.  It seemed to me that there was some kind of natural progression from rejecting the existence of God to rejecting the value of humanity.  This is troubling at best, and frightening at worst.  My de-conversion from Christianity brought with it an entirely new and fresh perspective on the human race.  Thoughts of the original sin of the past were replaced by a focus on the progress of the future.  Distress at a seemingly inborn nature of aggressiveness and egoism are mediated by an appreciation for displays of restraint and altruism.

Pale Blue Dot

I first heard of Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot while taking a Systematic Theology course. distinctly remember his book being vilified for ‘demeaning’ humanity as so small and inconsequential. Though I never fully bought into that point of view as a student, upon my de-conversion, I found an enhanced sense of appreciation for Sagan’s words.