The Human Question

Are there reasons why some might wish that there is no God? Certainly, if there are if one sees belief in God as cramping one's lifestyle for one reason or another. The desire to live a more satisfactory lifestyle may (mistakenly) motivate one to presume that atheism is correct or to adopt atheism when the arguments for it are weak or to look only into arguments for atheism and neglect to look into arguments for theism. That said, the fact that some may adopt atheism simply because they find it more comforting to despair of God's existence does not prove that atheism is false--not any more than the fact that some adopt theism because of the comfort that its hope offers. But it's worth pointing out that wish fulfillment is a two-way street.

In his book on immortality, Dinesh makes a very savy response to the claim that the desire for life after death is mere wish fulfillment. He points out that belief in life after death is found in all cultures--even in societies that expect the next life to be quite dreary. So, carrying the ball where my reading of/listening to/ him left off (he might make this point later on), I would ask why even such societies posit life after death? What is it in human nature that makes it so natural to think this way? It cannot be merely desire if the next life is not depicted as all that desirable. Also, I would point out that those who believe the human brain is a computer talk about downloading a program for your brain and thereby enabling you to continue living after apparent bodily death... apparently this sort of wish fulfillment is okay, as long as you have made science your religion.

Amazing how Atkins talks dismissively to McGrath about the latter's belief in God as wish fulfillment, and then makes a colossal faith-like act in the ability of science to know all that is. Amazing too how Atkins denies that the universe has a meaning or purpose, and then displays at every point in the discussion, a craving for unbounded knowledge of what is. That atheist is so purpose driven . Then again, Atkins also distinguishes between cosmic purpose (which he denies) and individual desires (which I think he would not deny having), such as the desire to know. But acknowledging the desire to know...(thanking Giussani for help in phrasing this)... reality in all of its factors is not really different from admitting that one has a purpose in life. A purpose that one has not chosen, and in that sense, a natural purpose. Humans see human purposes from the inside. We can suppose that only humans have natural goals, in which case on is engaging in exceptionalism--an ironic...