Atheism is a hip new craze, according to a recent article in The New York Times, and has supplanted such prior fads as pogs and Pokemon trading cards ("More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops," April 26). But the nice thing about atheism is that it is easier than pogs and Pokemon, because you don't really have to do anything. You just have to maintain that you don't ever think something.
The Times accorded this new propulsion behind non-belief to increased atheist alliances on college campuses. They reported that "The Secular Student Alliance" currently has 146 chapters -- up from 43 in 2003. I'm not sure if we have any similar group at Dartmouth -- perhaps all of their events and picnics centered on having not thought a particular thought slipped under my radar -- but there is certainly a noticeable proliferation of atheism and nihilism. I feel that our culture has become so thoroughly unromantic, so disengaged from the religious stories (fictional or not) that have nurtured humanity since the immemorial past, that I can't conceive of a more irrelevant time to be writing and creating.
I don't really have a problem with atheism, except that it's dull and boring. I'd rather hang out with someone who believes a total lie, as long as it's a creative, coherent, sophisticated and interesting lie. If you need to lead your life by some narrative, there are a hundred more convincing and interesting narratives than "This all just happened to happen, so let's adjust ourselves to the joys of binge drinking, presidential elections, the gym and blocking out the utter hollowness of life by humming a merry tune." The aesthetics of the idea are loathsome.
I recall reading a debate between Bertrand Russell and a Roman Catholic bishop regarding God, morality, etc. At one point in the argument, Russell concedes that his morality is based on his feelings. As Peter Blair '12 noted in his last column ("Missing Morality," April 22), from the atheistic perspective, if you get your rocks off from rape and murder, that's cool. There is no imperative to follow any evolutionarily imprinted idea of morality -- especially if it makes you feel good not to. The Columbine killers found it gratifying to mow down their fellow students. They were just following their bliss.
Many people (myself included) have a problem with this idea. However, I do not blame the spread of nihilistic morality on atheists, but rather on religious people. We simply haven't furnished an updated story. The Bible and the Koran both need some heavy-handed revision. When the Japanese author Haruki Murakami studied the sarin gas attacks carried out on the Tokyo Subway by the Aum Shinrikyo cult, he came to the conclusion that most of the cult members were just normal people who hadn't found an interesting enough story in the sterile, secular world of modern-day Japan. They ended up turning to a fantasy story that quickly evolved into a doomsday scenario straight out of Stephen King's "The Stand." Murakami's conclusion was that we, as a society, owe it to other people -- and to ourselves -- to provide a fresh, adaptable story that can help us lead wholesome, decent lives.
I understand how someone can come to the conclusion that it is more romantic and fulfilling to be some wacky, religious oddball than to be beaten into acceptance of the secular world's daily grind of MTV crap. But such a conclusion is not inevitable -- there are dozens of interesting, rationally coherent ideas sounding out for interested parties (ideas that don't involve attacking a subway with sarin gas).
I hope and pray that a new romantic movement -- a search for higher and better states of human joy, fulfillment and ecstasy -- will soon be rekindled. But the forces of dictatorial materialism threaten to subdue this higher yearning. China has suppressed authentic Tibetan Buddhism because of its great narrative power. The authorities in Beijing are so thoroughly committed to an unconscious life that they couldn't bear to see their citizens' attention distracted by something aesthetically richer. Tales of great bodhisattvas are much more motivating than a philosophy that stresses our baser needs, like Marxism or Chinese authoritarian capitalism.
In the United States, I don't believe we need to fear that sort of repression. The true fear, I think, is that we may get to a point where we can't find any romantic spirituality and moral comradeship -- and all the atheist clubs and E! Channels only reflect the confusion of our plotless, plodding lives back at us.
