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Apologia Report 17:6 (1,098)
February 15, 2012
Subject: First "new atheists," now new extremes in atheism
In this issue:
ATHEISM - from "nice nihilism" to filling the God-gap with Prozac
ISLAM - the tensions of applying the "moderate" label
+ what do prominent mosques in America *really* teach?
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ATHEISM
A joint review in the January 20th issue of the Financial Times (UK) considers three atheistic books which address the unexpected persistence of religious faith in today's secular society. As one might expect, in many ways the article reflects blind efforts to comprehend light in the quest for fulfillment while ignoring the requisite price of humility before one's Creator. Nevertheless, it offers some eye-opening statements.
"Now, after God's recent execution at the hands of the New Atheists (Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and co), a number of thinkers are again asking whether, even in His absence, we need religion regardless.
"Foremost among these is the [Swiss television commentator and] writer Alain de Botton. His smart and stimulating new book, Religion for Atheists [1], is a sensitive analysis of the deeply human needs that faith meets. ...
"But not everyone agrees that there is something in religion that needs to be preserved post-God. The American philosopher Alex Rosenberg, for example, argues in The Atheist's Guide to Reality [2] that the faiths are dangerous delusions that we can entirely do without. ...
"What the physical facts lead to, therefore, is nihilism - the belief that life is meaningless. But we need not worry that this will leave us paralysed in the face of an indifferent cosmos, Rosenberg argues, as evolution has provided us with powerful biological imperatives: 'The notion that we need something to make life meaningful in order to keep living is another one of those illusions ... Like other mammals, we are programmed to get out of bed in the morning.' Nor need we worry that the abolition of religion will lead to moral degeneracy: we have evolved as social animals to be mostly decent to one another, he claims. Hence he describes his philosophy as one of 'nice nihilism'.
"Though most of these claims are (terrifyingly) true, The Atheist's Guide to Reality will do little to console those who fear the emotional void left by religion's demise. But if nihilism - even the nice sort - starts to get you down, Rosenberg has a solution. In his jaunty, hurried prose, he suggests that you simply 'take two of whatever neuropharmacology prescribes'. We don't need religion: the God-sized gap in our lives, he believes, can be filled with Prozac.
...
"The Importance of Religion [3] therefore encapsulates all that Rosenberg rejects. ... [author Gavin Flood, Professor of Hindu Studies and Comparative Religion at Oxford] openly focuses on the subjective, emotional, first-person perspective of what it is like to be a human in the world. ...
"But Flood goes too far in focusing on the subjective view at the expense of the objective. It leads him to paste over the intellectual difficulties of belief....
"A balanced middle way between the extremes offered by Rosenberg and Flood would require negotiating between the hard truths of science and the lived reality of being. ... It is this middle way that de Botton takes in Religion for Atheists. ...
"His book is an elegant and witty inquiry into what we can learn from the glaring fact that religions continue to flourish even though most of their claims about the nature of things have long been shown to be, well, not really true. ...
"Take universities, for example. A liberal education is supposed to impart wisdom and self-knowledge, readying young people for life - but you wouldn't think it from a glance at the syllabus. Unconnected and abstract courses ... are taught in ways that reflect academic specialisms rather than students' needs. Instead lectures should be more like religious sermons, de Botton suggests, preparing us to meet life's challenges, such as how to overcome selfishness, connect with nature or face illness. The teaching too could learn from the faithful: lecturers should be 'sent to be trained by African-American Pentecostal preachers'. ...
"There are plenty more such ideas in Religion for Atheists, some serious, such as a secular equivalent of the Jewish Day of Atonement when we might seek forgiveness from those we have wronged; some more frivolous, like the annual orgiastic 'Feast of Fools' in which we could vent our need for debauchery."
Cave ends with an unorthodox statement of faith: "Secular society too should therefore be unembarrassed about adopting what is best from the believers." <www.tinyurl.com/7q7sqhd>
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ISLAM
"Ambiguous Islam" by John Ferrer <www.bit.ly/xbKVXl> -- begins by reviewing common misapplications of the "moderate" label in Muslim contexts. "To be credible to outsiders, Muslims who claim to be moderate need to resolve ... tensions within their belief system and message."
The Muslim American Society (MAS) <www.bit.ly/wD6NXL>, "the largest official Muslim advocacy group in America," is identified as a "public front to the political-Islam group the Muslim Brotherhood." And the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) <www.cair.com> "has yet to call Hamas or the Lebanon-based Hezbollah 'terrorist organizations.'"
Other claims of "moderate" fail because "they just reject violence while supporting most everything else of radical Islam" such as "forcing nations into sharia law ... attacking Judeo-Christian influence in the western world [or supporting] Sharia law, anti-Semitism, or suppression of women. ...
"'Moderate' is relative to whatever it divides. It need not divide committed Muslims from noncommitted Muslims. A Muslim may be committed and willing to die for the faith but would never kill for the faith. One may be extreme about learning Arabic but moderate about sharia or jihad. The elephant in the room is not 'extremely faithful' or 'extremely peaceful.' The elephant is terrorism; that's the extreme."
Ferrer ultimately asks: "Is 'Moderate Islam' a Muslim category or is it more diplomacy obscuring danger with thin veneers of misinformation?" The reader is not encouraged to assume the former. Christian Research Journal, 34:6 - 2011, p36-39.
"Muslim Children in America Are Being Taught to Hate" by Dave Gaubatz -- "In the last five years I have personally visited over 250 Islamic Centers, Mosques, and Islamic Schools throughout America. The goal of my research has been to determine what Islamic leaders are teaching the young and innocent Muslim children. ... In this article I will identify three significant mosques in America that are leading the way in teaching Muslim children to hate and to influence them to commit violent acts inside our country." The mosques are:
1. Dar al Hijrah, Falls Church, VA <www.hijrah.org/ns/>
2. Al Farooq, Nashville, TN
3. At Taqwa, Brooklyn, NY <www.taqwany.org>
"Children as young as 7 years old are being taught that to assimilate with America is to disrespect and dishonor Islam. They are being taught our military personnel are the enemies of Islam and it is justifiable to kill anyone who dishonors or oppresses the Islamic ideology. ...
"One young 7 year old Muslim girl at Al Farooq talked to our researcher about being beaten ... by her Islamic leaders and being married ... to a Muslim man. ... Islamic law (Sharia) is alive and very active inside our country, to include child marriages. ...
"At Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn, NY is led by an Islamic scholar who is not only a major fundraiser for CAIR (terrorist supporter) but travels throughout the U.S. teaching his violent ideology of Islam. He is Imam Siraj Wahhaj" <www.imamsiraj.org>.
Gaubatz reports that Wahhaj "tells his followers that around the world Muslims will wake up and say 'I don't want to follow the way of the colonial masters any more. I want the Sharia. I want Islam. We want to be ruled by Islam. And all we have to do is go back to that golden generation.'
"He routinely called America an evil country and is a strong leader in developing Sharia law inside our country. His violent lectures are available to the adult and child Muslims throughout America.
Wahhaj is quoted as ranting: "Those who struggle for Allah, it doesn't matter what kind of weapons, I'm telling you it doesn'tmatter! You don't need nuclear weapons or even guns! If you have faith in Allah and a knife! If Allah wants you to win, you will win! Because Allah is the only one who fights. And when his hand is over your hand. whoever is at war against my friends, I declare war on them.
"If we go to war, brothers and sisters - and one day we will, believe me - that's why you're commanded [to fight in] jihad. When Allah demands us to fight, we're not stopping and nobody's stopping us." Family Security Matters, Jan 23 '12, <www.bit.ly/A8Eezl>
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion, by Alain de Botton (Pantheon, March 2012, hardcover, 320 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/7obyata>
2 - The Atheist's Guide to Reality: Enjoying Life Without Illusions, by Alex Rosenberg (Norton, 2011, hardcover, 368 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/73v4rb9>
3 - The Importance of Religion: Meaning and Action in Our Strange World, by Gavin Flood (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, paperback, 272 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/74n7pyp>
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