Posted by
Greg England on Saturday, June 09, 2007 4:02:07 PM
This started out as a comment on a townhall column. However, I believe the subject is important enough for its own blog, so I have duplicated the comment here:
There are plenty of legitimate criticisms of religious faith that can be made, and should be made. And atheists, more than any other faith group, are in a unique position to make these criticisms.
However, materialism is an intellectually dishonest position for atheists to take. It fails the test of radical empiricism, that is to say it fails to capture the totality of human experience.
For example, it is reasonable to be skeptical about miracles. However, it is unreasonable to be skeptical about more prosaic experiences such as falling in love, or entering a room and sensing a "bad atmosphere".
These experiences are part of the human condition. To rely on a logical positivistic framework when you should be refering to your own personal experiences of life shows just how dehumanised and morally bankrupt the secular left has become.
How is it possible to form a genuine friendship with someone who genuinely believes that you are nothing more than a collection of atoms and molecules; bones and flesh?
Such a nihilistic position is abhorrent. There have been plenty of intellectuals from the secular left who have not stooped to such a level, and whilst they may have had a very anti-religious world view they have provided important insights into the human condition - Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus to name two.
I for one, would rather listen to a diatribe from Christopher Hitchens than any number of cold-fish analyses from Richard Dawkins, because I am more interested in understanding life than in listening to someone elucidate the narrowest of narrow world views.
Reality is more important than ideology.