Confessions of a Lonely Atheist nytimes.com
As promised, Rambi, the other article. This would in principle be a good one for the old time free-thinking feelies, but theological discussions are a little too closely supervised there these days. Somewhat in honor of the rather strange crisco saga, I post this excerpt.
What's more, in some quarters, atheism, far from being rare, is the norm
-- among scientists, for example, particularly high-level scientists who
populate academia. Recently, Edward J. Larson, a science historian at
the University of Georgia, and Larry Witham, a writer, polled scientists
listed in American Men and Women of Science on their religious beliefs.
Among this general group, a reasonably high proportion, 40 percent,
claimed to believe in a "personal God" who would listen to their prayers.
But when the researchers next targeted members of the National
Academy of Sciences, an elite coterie if ever there was one, belief in a
personal God was 7 percent, the flip of the American public at large. This
is not to say that intelligence and atheism are in any way linked, but to
suggest that immersion in the scientific method, and success in the
profession, tend to influence its practitioners.
"It's a consequence of the experience of science," says Steven Weinberg,
a Nobel laureate and professor of physics at the University of Texas. "As
you learn more and more about the universe, you find you can
understand more and more without any reference to supernatural
intervention, so you lose interest in that possibility. Most scientists I know
don't care enough about religion even to call themselves atheists. And
that, I think, is one of the great things about science -- that it has made it
possible for people not to be religious."
So long, that is, as the nonbelievers remain humble.
Among the more irritating consequences of our flagrantly
religious society is the special dispensation that mainstream
religions receive. We all may talk about religion as a
powerful social force, but unlike other similarly powerful
institutions, religion is not to be questioned, criticized or
mocked. When the singer-songwriter Sinéad
O'Connor ripped apart a photograph of John Paul II to protest what she saw as his overweening
power, even the most secular humanists were outraged by her idolatry,
and her career has never really recovered.
"Society bends over backward to be accommodating to religious
sensibilities but not to other kinds of sensibilities," says Richard Dawkins,
an evolutionary biologist and outspoken atheist. "If I say something
offensive to religious people, I'll be universally censured, including by
many atheists. But if I say something insulting about Democrats or
Republicans or the Green Party, one is allowed to get away with that.
Hiding behind the smoke screen of untouchability is something religions
have been allowed to get away with for too long."
Yes. There's something odd, in the political climate of the past 8 years, about the idea that Ashcroft's self-anointing is somehow beyond the realm of humor.
Cheers, Dan. |
