Posted on 10/19/2006 7:39:10 AM PDT by presidio9
A fresh wave of atheistic books has hit the market this autumn, some climbing onto best-seller lists in what proponents see as a backlash against the way religion is entwined in politics.
"Religion is fragmenting the human community," said Sam Harris, author of "Letter to a Christian Nation," No. 11 on the New York Times nonfiction list on October 15.
There is a "huge visibility and political empowerment of religion. President George W. Bush uses his first veto to deny funding for stem cell research and scientists everywhere are horrified," he said in an interview.
Religious polarization is part of many world conflicts, he said, including those involving Israel and Iran, "but it's never discussed. I consider it the story of our time, what religion is doing to us. But there are very few people calling a spade a spade."
His "Letter," a blunt 96-page pocket-sized book condensing arguments against belief in quick-fire volleys, appeared on the Times list just ahead of "The God Delusion," by Richard Dawkins, a scientist at Oxford University and long-time atheist.
In addition, Harris' "The End of Faith," a 2004 work which prompted his "Letter" as a response to critics, is holding the No. 13 Times spot among nonfiction paperbacks.
Publishers Weekly said the business has seen "a striking number of impassioned critiques of religion -- any religion, but Christianity in particular," a probably inevitable development given "the super-soaking of American politics and culture with religion in recent years."
Paul Kurtz, founder of the Council for Secular Humanism and publisher of Free Inquiry magazine, said, "The American public is really disturbed about the role of religion in U.S. government policy, particularly with the Bush administration and the breakdown of church-state separation, and secondly with the conflict in the Mideast."
They are turning to free thought and secular humanism and publishers have recognized a taste for that, he added.
"I've published 45 books, many critical of religion," Kurtz said. "I think in America we have this notion of tolerance ... it was considered bad taste to criticize religion. But I think now there are profound questions about age-old hatreds."
The Rev. James Halstead, chairman of the Department of Religious Studies at Chicago's DePaul University, says the phenomenon is really "a ripple caused by the book publishing industry."
"These books cause no new thought or moral commitment. The arguments are centuries old," he told Reuters. Some believers, he added, "are no better. Their conception of God, the Divine-Human-World relationship are much too simplistic and materialistic."
Too often, he said, the concept "God" is misused "to legitimate the self and to beat up other people ... to rehash that same old theistic and atheistic arguments is a waste of time, energy and paper."
Dr. Timothy Larsen, professor of theology at Wheaton College in Illinois, says any growth in interest in atheism is a reflection of the strength of religion -- the former being a parasite that feeds off the latter.
That happened late in the 19th century America when an era of intense religious conviction gave rise to voices like famed agnostic Robert Ingersoll, he said.
For Christianity, he said, "It's very important for people of faith to realize how unsettling and threatening their posture and rhetoric and practice can feel to others. So it's an opportunity for the church to look at itself and say 'we have done things ... that make other people uncomfortable.' It is an opportunity for dialogue."
Larsen, author of the soon-to-be-published "Crisis of Doubt," added that in some sense atheism is "a disappointment with God and with the church. Some of these are people we wounded that we should be handling pastorally rather than with aggressive knockdown debate."
These are also probably some of the same people Harris says he's hearing from after his two books.
"Many, many readers feel utterly isolated in their communities," he said. "They are surrounded by cult members, from their point of view, and are unable to disclose their feelings."
"I get a lot of e-mail just expressing incredible relief that they are not alone ... relieved that I'm writing something that couldn't be said," Harris added.
I don't know what it is like to lose a spouse.
But losing my parents was about the roughest set of years I have been through, my friend. When life was going on as normal, I wanted to jump up on the roof and shout, "STOP! Don't you realize that the most awesome person on planet Earth just died!"
Eating and sleeping seemed.....hard. Too human or something.
When my mother got sick, I was about 22. I'm now 40 and my dad died about 4 years ago relatively suddenly. I feel like my kids are cheated of their grandparents and there are days I still reach for the phone to tell them something.
When I see a friend talking back to his/her mother or somehow disrespecting a parent, I feel like slapping them silly and saying, "Do you KNOW what I would GIVE for one more minute of advice from them? Appreciate what you HAVE!"
The pain is real and intense.
But.
If I wasn't a person of faith, the hole in my heart would never heal and the lump in my throat would never go away. The science of death is what it is. Cold, calculating, whatever.
But if I didn't believe in the ultimate promise of Christianity -- that there is a life away from this one -- that suffering is gone - that we will see our family of believers again.....well, frankly, I would hate to think that my parents are nothing but worm food.
Faith is a leap that I took WHEN my parents died. Probably for the first time. There is no explaining the comfort I feel that they are not suffering and that we will be united again someday.
Don't give up on Him. He hasn't given up on you, my friend.
Peace be with you in your grief.
PS He shows Himself to you everyday.
God doesn't cause those awful things. But He is pretty plain on the subject of suffering. He promises that we will suffer. But if we ask for the grace to handle it, He will provide it.
It is my first prayer in the morning -- to ask for grace....and my last prayer at night is a thank you to Him for the grace He gave me....
Life is hard. Ain't no doubt about it. But I cannot imagine how hard it would be without faith.
Need to put your fingers in the nail holes in the Hands, eh, Thomas? :)
I understand. I was there, too.
Found I was looking in all the wrong places. Sight can be a very limited sense.
Well, all I can say that I have tried.
I know. I didn't believe it either.
I was the ultimate skeptic.
It isn't something one can explain, Stone. I wish I could.
I can tell you this -- God isn't some kind of magician. He doesn't do card tricks. He doesn't talk to you through your major appliances.
But there are all kinds of ways God touches your life. Call it "luck" or call it "coincidence" or call it even a "blessing"....whatever those things are in your life, chances are really good that it was sent into motion by God.
Don't want to be rude, but I have to go pick up my son at Kindergarten.
I'll pray you find what you are looking for and that God truly reveals Himself to you in an unmistakable, profound way!
Your spouse is as bright as the morning sun.
As dark and forbidden as the moon rising in the eve.
The first face you see in the morning.
The last face that comforts you before you sleep.
I miss her. I will always miss her.
We are together forever, and I miss her.
And yes, I am angry.
My point is it is bullshit. If he showed up for just 30 seconds he would give us more than has ever been known or will be known.
He would give us hope.
And yet we wait.
I will hold the ones I love close, I do every day. That's good, simple advice we should all take.
By the way, I lost my mom at age 6. My father and the rest of us have mourned her passing every day for the past 29 years. Dad remarried a wonderful woman years later, truly the 2nd love of his life, yet he may lose her sooner than later due to failing health. Loss of a parent, loss of a spouse, something you never, ever get over.
But He has shown up. As has been mentioned on this thread already, He was here on this earth for over 30 years. And His Word has been given to us.
Maybe you're right: that God doesn't cause those awful things, but I promise you many millions have suffered horribly throughout history, even after asking for the grace to handle it. The Jews who were starved, tortured, and murdered at the hands of the Nazis were no doubt devout, yet they suffered horribly. Small children and babies, the sick and infirmed, who have no say in the matter of suffering, can't ask for the grace to handle it. It just makes no sense to me.
Believe it or not, I appreciate your reply. It's inspiring.
Perhaps if you extend your sight to beyond what we can literally see, suffering might make more sense. Death is only the beginning of eternal life. Paul said that our sufferings make up for what is lacking in the Body (the community). Thus, vicarious suffering DOES have meaning for others - this gives hope to those who think suffering has no meaning... Our merciful God, setting the example, shows that suffering can be beneficial for others.
St. Paul said that our sufferings count as NOTHING once we will come to experience the Risen Lord. That is our hope in this world. That in the next, we will totally forget about our sufferings here.
How many people remember their birth pangs as they were born into THIS world? How many people remember the suffering they endured as they were forcibly removed from that "world" of our mother's womb?
God Bless
I'm back!
Phew. Heaven knows there are tons of awful things that happen in the world. They happen in big things like the Holocaust and 9/11 and the Sudan and they happen in small moments like an innocent child stricken with terminal cancer. They all shake one's faith to the roots, don't they?
Coop, I don't even pretend to the have the answers why bad things happen.
But you know what I have seen? I have seen the most amazing grace and strength in the faces of children with the most horrible terminal cases imaginable. In fact, their grace gives their parents strength and hope. I'd like to think that...no...I know that God gives them that grace.
There is nothing that is a true coincidence, nothing that doesn't happen for a reason -- we just can't always fathom why at the time. But I'd be willing to wager that we'll find out the answers to that and more someday.
And frankly, that is the reason why we are called and duty bound to talk about our faith openly, so that all those who don't have faith maybe can grab onto a piece. There is plenty to go around!
I look at the Amish who were so amazingly kind on so many counts to the family of their children's murderer....I look at the young girl at Columbine who, even in the face of a tormented teenager's angry weapon, refused to deny God....I look at the amazing stories that constantly come out of the horrors that this Earth offers, and I see grace where you might see nothing but destruction.
Most folks don't have a say in suffering....and they sure don't have a say in the time or date or circumstance of their death. But there is one thing folks do have control of...and that is the only question that matters -- are you ready to face God....today?
When my mother first was diagnosed with Alzheimers, I was more than mad. I was enraged with everything and everyone, including God. She was my best friend, my confidante, my world. So many things I felt cheated on. I tried on my wedding dress alone and planned it all by myself. I had my children without her awesome, amazing and spot on advice.
Sometimes I look at her grandchildren and see her shining through, though, and rather than hurting now, I see it as a blessing.
Totally rearranged my priorities. I realized that my tombstone was going to say, "Wife and Mother" not "She wrote really great press releases...." and that my children were my legacy. Everything else was totally temporary.
The line you hear from Christians about "total peace" is actually true. It isn't that the pain goes away. It does, slowly, but there will always be an ache. It is more like...you aren't alone anymore. Anxiety, worries, that lump in your throat.....mean you aren't giving your fears and concerns to God. I have never known a time in which relying upon God has left me emptyhanded.
As someone who relied on (and still does rely on)logic rather than passion to see things, faith was a tough leap to make. But after making lots of decisions I regret, I can say with absolute confidence it is the one decision I have never, ever regretted.
I totally understand your feelings, though, I really, really do!
Atheism?? yawn. I wonder what the flat earth society thinks about current events.
Beautiful and inspiring, Gadfly. Thank you. I'm genuinely humbled and moved by your response and I plan to save it for future reference.
Thank you.
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