Atheists have to live with the knowledge that there is no salvation, no redemption, no second chances. Lives can go terribly wrong in ways that can never be put right. Can you really tell the parents who lost their child to a suicide after years of depression that they should stop worrying and enjoy life? Doesn't the appropriate response to 4,000 children dying everyday as a direct result of poor sanitation involve despair at the relentless misery of the world as well as some effort to improve things? Sometimes life is s**t and that’s all there is to it. Not much bright about that fact. Stressing the jolly side of atheism not only glosses over its harsher truths, it also disguises its unique selling point.
What a deal! Pity I can’t buy two shares!
A unique selling point?
ReplyDelete1. Isn't a common argument that people believe in God because of some evolutionary advantage?
a. If true, the non-theists don't have it.
b. If true, it's an evolutionary response to the harsh realities this article supposes us to deny.
2. Do Christians really believe life to be rosy? Or is the promise of Christ that of assuaging the difficulties in life? Actually, the promise is that we will suffer for our faith. It is those whose faith is weak who shy away from suffering and those whose faith is strong who hold the faith in the face of great trials and even death.
Therefore, I believe this article betrays a lack of understanding of the Christian faith.