The War On Atheism

Here is a biased survey on Atheism and Morality conducted by Reginald Bibby of the University of Lethbridge.

A new Canadian survey has found that believers are more likely than atheists to place a higher value on love, patience and friendship, in findings the researcher says could be a warning that Canadians need a religious basis to retain civility in society.

About the only claim that holds any 'value' is this one;

In the survey findings, there was only a five percentage-point difference between how theists and atheists valued honesty. But of all the categories, honesty is the value that is least connected to broad emotions such as love and compassion. In other words, someone can be honest and brutal.

I stand by that, being a Saggitarian and an ENTJ, I am often brutally honest.

The assertion made by the article that 'atheists' are less compassionate and moral than Christians misses the point. Those Canadians he interviewed are not necessarily atheists, per se, rather they are Canadians who do not profess a belief in God or organized religion. That is an unbelief, while atheism, and its derivatives; Marxism and Anarchism are counter beliefs, and in all cases rely upon classical liberalism as the basis of morality.

But in the realm of forgiveness, which is a core value of many major religions, particularly Christianity, the difference - 32 percentage points - is stark.

"That's a pretty explicit value within a large number of religious communities," said Prof. Bibby.

"Look at the culture as a whole and ask yourself: to what extent do we value forgiveness against themes like zero-tolerance? We don't talk very much about what we're going to do for people who fall through the cracks. So I think forgiveness is pretty foreign to a lot of people if they're not involved in religious groups."

Heck even Satanism has a moral code. Though it is not one of forgiveness. It is modeled on Ayn Rands morality.

In a consumer capitalist culture based on the values of ; I'm Ok Your Ok, the Me Generation and I Got Mine Jack 'unbelief' in God reflects a consumer choice. And the morality of the individual is then shaped by the society they exist in. In the era of Enron, Chainsaw Jack Welch, and other criminal capitalist enterprises, where Business Schools are having to 'teach' morality to budding business types, it is no surprise to find that Bibby's findings are what they are. Which is actually what Bibby is saying , despite the National Posts spin on the survey, that 'godless' capitalism has no values.

After all seeing that the culture is one of consumer capitalism, then this is more a condemnation of that then atheism or its political and philosophical offshoots.

But there is a war on Atheism currently in vogue amongst the Christian Right, and this just gives ammunition to the side which has conducted wars, pogroms and mass genocide, and continues with oppression, exploitation and mindless discrimination to excuse themselves as being 'good' people, with 'values'.

He said people who are believers are encouraged ­- whether by a desire to please God, or because of a fear of God - to adopt these values

To please or to fear the ultimate cosmic boss, to accept 'his' values, is not as humanistic as it appears. It is the morality of the slave. And thus is reflected in the social schizophrenia that creates the need for God, Priests, Bosses, Cops, Social Workers, etc, the whole kit and caboodle of authority ( a hold over of aristocracy within capitalism).

While Christians on the right claim that we need less human rights and more folks taking responsibility for their actions, they always seem to lovingly accept them folks who break the social or moral code, if they accept Jesus into their hearts.

The enlightened individual sees morality as a social construction; one of mutual agreement and sees no difference between human rights and responsibilities. Thus with the rise of Freemasonry and its child The Rights Of Man a new 'godless' revolutionary morality evolved and created secular society; Liberty, Equality,Fraternity.

Immoral Capitalism has truncated Liberty from Equality and Fraternity. That is the ultimate truth in Bibby's survey.

Only one word more concerning the desire to teach the world what it ought to be. For such a purpose philosophy at least always comes too late. Philosophy, as the thought of the world, does not appear until reality has completed its formative process, and made itself ready.

History thus corroborates the teaching of the conception that only in the maturity of reality does the ideal appear as counterpart to the real, apprehends the real world in its substance, and shapes it into an intellectual kingdom.

When philosophy paints its grey in grey, one form of life has become old, and by means of grey it cannot be rejuvenated, but only known. The owl of Minerva, takes its flight only when the shades of night are gathering.

Hegel, Philosophy of Right (1820), "Preface"

SEE:

Islamicists and Evangelical Christians

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