Atheism

Identities shape everyday life. They are not a fixed thing, but adapt according to situation and circumstance. Multiple factors contribute to the facets of an identity: religiosity, music, nature, sports, carnival, literature, etc. are parts of and shape this identity. In appealing to certain aspects, sub-identities are activated and items which could or should be considered rationally are emotionalized in appealing not to reason, but to that part of a subject’s identity, thus posing (in the worst case) a threat to that very identity; see for example the question of man-made climate change and the highly charged and emotionalized debate, as well as religious practices to which the subject feels a strong adherence. These identities are established by resonant self­–world relations, i.e. relations that shape and support the individual, that offer spaces or relations that can be relied upon to counteract alienation with the environment. The more resonant these spaces or relations, the more resilient they are to threats that may question their content or form. One person may find that resonance in long hikes through the mountains, in cooking parties with friends, in listening to Mozart and woodcraft; another finds it in painting, in attending Sunday mass, in spending their holidays in a certain place; a third in soccer games, in their work, in meditation practices – all these aspects shape the individual’s identity and create networks, as these resonant relations are not only related to the individual, but must, in that individual, be negotiated with one another.

What happens, however, if these sub-identities come into conflict with one another? If, for example, the practice of established rituals, of culturally determined and long-established religious practices come into conflict with acute political questions in a politically engaged person? Can second-order resonance, i.e. culturally determined relations or spaces, produce the same kind of resonance and possibility for resilience as resonance that is constituted by peak moments? How do power relations influence and contribute to resonant self–world relations and their resilience in a changing, accelerating or shifting environment?

Our papers address these questions from various disciplines and cultures, considering ancient and modern phenomena in a diachronic perspective.

Merold Westphal wrote the book Suspicion & Faith (1998) to explain that although modern atheists used the hermeneutics of suspicion to critique religious motives, their arguments can aid Christians in a devotional form of self-examination. Westphal claimed that the 'masters of suspicion' often utilized a deeply biblical logic that is reminiscent of the prophetic polemics against false religion. In this article, the author adds to these reflections by pointing to the Adversary from the Book of Job as one who embodies the hermeneutics of suspicion. The author contends that, like the critiques of modern atheists, the Adversary's question 'Does Job fear God for nothing?' (1:9b) can serve as a tool for self-examination and moral development. The Book of Job shows how he asks critical questions about Job's motives for religious piety by taking advantage of the logical groundwork of the prologue. This dialogue highlights the significance of Job's integrity and his commitment to virtue without the need for incentive, but at the same time, it also encourages readers to doubt his motives through a pattern of doubt that is integral to the narrative. The first section of this article examines Suspicion & Faith and discusses its approach to modern atheism. Then, in the second section, the author engages in an exegetical analysis of Job 1-2, with special attention to the prologue's logical groundwork and motif of doubt. The article concludes with a theological reflection on how the hermeneutics of suspicion can augment Christian practice.

Do we need God and religion to be moral? This paper supports the claim that we do need God and religion to be moral. The paper discusses Darwinian morality and rational ethical theories and criticizes them as not sufficient, rather lacking and even harmful, to become and remain moral. The paper also discusses why God and religion are needed to be moral and also addresses the issue of violence in the name of God and religion. The paper proposes a policy that God and religion must be taught to the society at various levels to adopt morality and develop individual and social morality. The research has been based on both analytical and statistical studies.

Atheists in general need share no particular political or metaphysical views, but atheists of the most modern, Western, militant sort, escaping from a merely nihilistic mind-set, are usually humanists of an especially triumphalist kind. In this paper I offer a critical analysis and partial history of their claims, suggesting that they are members of a distinctively Christian heretical sect, formed in reaction to equally heretical forms of monotheistic idolatry.

“Puruśa (the Supreme Cognitive Principle) is akartá [a non-doer]. It does not cause the spatial change of the object. Then what causes the change of place? That which causes this change is called Paramá Prakrti or creative faculty.” “Prakrti is that whose nature is to cause an action or bring about an action. But Puruśa is a non-doer. How so? Like a catalytic agent, its very existence is necessary. Its presence is indispensable,” explains Shrii Shrii Anandamurti. “Human beings each have their own characteristic nature. This is how people are capable of independent thinking. This is the characteristic of the human species. A person’s movement is according to the nature of their actions, because they are capable of independent thought. However, an animal does not move according to its actions. Gradually it moves to a higher level by possessing a body with greater consciousness. A cat becomes a dog, a dog becomes a monkey and a monkey becomes a human being. Human beings possess greater consciousness. They are the most conscious of all beings. So, what is the means to escape from this karmic cycle?” “One should take the name of the Lord every day and sing kiirtana. What happens then? That person lives in the awareness of being existentially and intricately bound to Parama Puruśa (God).” Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti (1921-1990) was a Tantric guru in the tradition of Shiva and Krishna. He introduced the empowered universal spiritual mantra “Baba Nam Kevalam”, composed a collection of 5018 spiritual songs called Prabháta Saḿgiita, and founded the socio-spiritual movement Ananda Marga (“the Path of Bliss”).  –  Richard Gauthier, Department of Chemistry and Physics, Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, California, USA, July 30, 2021.

“God is the Generator, He is the Operator, and He is the benevolent Destructor: G-O-D. What is God? As Operator He is the controller also. The operator of a machine must have control over that machine. He must be a controller. And this controller is not only an ordinary mechanic, He is a great Magician, because He creates everything in His mind.” “And for those created beings, the mental world of this Magician appears to be a physical one,” explains Shrii Shrii Anandamurti.  “Implicit faith blended with spiritual zeal is called devotion.” “So, knowledge and action are to help you in developing devotion, but your unification with the Supreme Self will be established with the help of devotion only,” Concerning sinners: “Sinners must attain salvation, must be freed from all sins, all bondages of sin, by the Supreme Father. So, for the virtuous and also for sinners, the Supreme Father is the only shelter. The Supreme Father is the only object of ideation. What are sinners to do? They are to forget their past, and they are to move ahead on the path of spirituality to attain that supreme stance. To come in direct contact with the Supreme Father, you are to serve the universe as the ideal daughters and sons of the Supreme Father. You needn’t be anxious. You must not have any worries and anxieties about your personal problems. Your problems are to be solved by the Supreme Father. You serve the children of the Supreme Father as the ideal daughters and ideal sons of that Father.” Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti (1921-1990) was a Tantric guru in the tradition of Shiva and Krishna. He introduced the empowered universal spiritual mantra “Baba Nam Kevalam”, composed a collection of 5018 spiritual songs called Prabháta Saḿgiita, and founded the socio-spiritual movement Ananda Marga (“the Path of Bliss”).  –  Richard Gauthier, Department of Chemistry and Physics, Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, California, USA, July 30, 2021.

“He appears to you as per your feelings towards Him. If you are subtle, He is nearest to you; if you are crude, He is farthest from you. Do you feel that Parama Puruśa (God) is in Ranchi or is in America? He is so near as to be in your “I” feeling, and so far as a distant country. When you think He is here, He is nearer than here. He is so near that it is difficult to measure the distance. You search Him in the caves of the Himalayas and wander here and there and He is nowhere. But when you attain awareness of Him, you know that He was along with you in your search and that He was seated in your heart,” explains Shrii Shrii Anandamurti. “Never think that your life has become useless. It is in your hands to make your life useful or to waste it. If you are aware that Parama Puruśa is always with you, in you, and that He is the greatest of the entities and there is no other entity who loves you so dearly, you will have no cause to feel that your life has become useless.” Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti (1921-1990) was a Tantric guru in the tradition of Shiva and Krishna. He introduced the empowered universal spiritual mantra “Baba Nam Kevalam”, composed a collection of 5018 spiritual songs called Prabháta Saḿgiita, and founded the socio-spiritual movement Ananda Marga (“the Path of Bliss”).  –  Richard Gauthier, Department of Chemistry and Physics, Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, California, USA, July 29, 2021.

“Your relation with God is personal. No one can sever this relationship. It is part of your being, your birthright,” explains Shrii Shrii Anandamurti. “If you are proud of your meritorious actions, this pride will remain in the end and not the grace of God. For Him, all are equal. For society, the differences matter, but not for God. His grace is raining on all, but if you are carrying an umbrella of ego on your head, how will you get drenched by His Grace?” “He is kind to all, every moment of one’s life. One has only to receive this kindness by removing the ego. However great a sinner one may be, the moment one surrenders to the Lord, one becomes a devotee – his or her salvation is guaranteed.” “Your meeting with God is not a unilateral affair, it is a mutual thing. You walk one step towards Him and He will come twenty towards you.” Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti (1921-1990) was a Tantric guru in the tradition of Shiva and Krishna. He introduced the empowered universal spiritual mantra “Baba Nam Kevalam”, composed a collection of 5018 spiritual songs called Prabháta Saḿgiita, and founded the socio-spiritual movement Ananda Marga (“the Path of Bliss”).  –  Richard Gauthier, Department of Chemistry and Physics, Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, California, USA, July 29, 2021.

In this article, I explore the question of faith and doubt in Marilynne Robinson’s acclaimed Gilead tetralogy: Gilead (2004), Home (2008), Lila (2014), and Jack (2020). While the central characters serve as literary symbols for faith and doubt, at a deeper level they subvert their surface symbolic import, problematizing the well-worn dichotomy between “faith versus doubt.” I argue that Robinson’s theological fiction disrupts spiritual dichotomies, which creates space for open, collegial, and constructive engagement between religious and non-religious persons.

Are religious beliefs psychologically different from matter-of-fact beliefs? Many scholars say no: that religious people, in a matter-of-fact way, simply think their deities exist. Others say yes: that religious beliefs are more compartmentalized, less certain, and less responsive to evidence. Little research to date has explored whether lay people themselves recognize such a difference. We addressed this question in a series of sentence completion tasks, conducted in five settings that differed both in religious traditions and in language: the US, Ghana, Thailand, China, and Vanuatu. Participants everywhere routinely used different verbs to describe religious versus matter-of-fact beliefs, and they did so even when the ascribed belief contents were held constant and only the surrounding context varied. These findings support the view that people from diverse cultures and language communities recognize a difference in attitude type between religious belief and everyday matter-of-fact belief. [Note: Supplemental Material has not yet been posted but will be upon publication.]

I reject God’s existence because (1) the concept of God is logically incoherent, (2) the idea that God exists was fabricated, (3) the arguments for God’s existence fail, and (4) the arguments against God’s existence succeed.  In what follows, I will briefly elucidate each point. Afterward, in reply to possible objections, I will explain (5) why belief in God cannot be rational without evidence, and (6) why one should not choose to believe in God despite the fact that it is irrational.

The figure of Moses recurs within Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise within the discussions of all the key themes of the work: prophecy, election, law narratives, miracles, and so on. Yet Spinoza's uses of this figure are not always consistent, and readings of it offered by interpreters can be deeply discordant. Reviewing the places in which Spinoza appeals to Moses as a prophet and as a lawgiver, the present article aims to highlight the tensions that run through this variety of uses both on the epistemological and on the ethical-political level, and to show how these tensions force us to abandon, in reading Spinoza's work, a rigid assumption of coherence.

“It is a fact that there is an Atman (soul), and also that Brahma (Supreme Consciousness) exists. Only the people who have never tried to understand anything beyond the sensually-perceivable world may say, ‘If God exists, why can’t we see Him?’ A material-minded person may ask, ‘Can you show me God?’ Such a question from a common person may make a learned person laugh, but this does not answer the question,” explains Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti. “So it is necessary to make people understand that the answer to the question must be in the code and language consonant with the nature of matter.” “What we call Consciousness is not something strange that appears from nowhere and is distinct from everything else. It exists in unmanifested form in every atom of every object.” “Only He is unlimited, so it is only by attaining Him that unlimited happiness can be attained.” “So, you will have to go to a capable ácárya and learn Brahmavidyá (intuitional science) and strictly follow what the experienced ácárya teaches you.” Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti (1921-1990) was a Tantric guru in the tradition of Shiva and Krishna. He introduced the empowered universal spiritual mantra “Baba Nam Kevalam”, composed a collection of 5018 spiritual songs called Prabháta Saḿgiita, and founded the socio-spiritual movement Ananda Marga (“the Path of Bliss”).  –  Richard Gauthier, Department of Chemistry and Physics, Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, California, USA, July 18, 2021.