Very interesting article(s). I have always thought that if I were an atheist, the only kind of atheist i could honestly be would be a nihilist, or as this article calls it, a "catastrophic atheist". I just can't see how one can be intellectually honest and NOT be.
To me that is one of the most puzzling things about the new brand of not-quite-modern-but-not-really-postmodern-either atheistic/"agnostic" belief system that is so rampant in our generation. I don't get how people, who are honest, open-minded thinkers can not believe in some sort of deity and yet still believe in absolute morality, purpose, meaning, etc.
I don't get how people, who are honest, open-minded thinkers can not believe in some sort of deity and yet still believe in absolute morality, purpose, meaning, etc.
The simple answer is that they have to. Living like a nihilist is pretty much impossible, whatever you believe. If there was no meaning, man would see fit to create it for himself, I suppose.
I'm a little late commenting here, but this is a very interesting article.
I've wondered before about what drives a person who doesn't have something 'greater' to live for. I suppose Trey already said this, but I kind of feel the same way he does.
I suppose 'they have to' is the best answer. I can see how being a nihilist would get pretty suicidal pretty quick. (or at least that's how I'd see me being a nihilist going...)
Anyway, I enjoy reading your blog.
I read an interview with Shelby Foote talking about Walker Percy sometime after his death. Percy was a devout Catholic for all of his adult life, and though he and Foote were best friends from childhood on, Foote never came to believe. At one point during the interview, Foote said something to the effect of, "Walker believed in it all, and held to it to his last breath. I never did believe while Walker was alive, and I still don't. It may sound shallow, but I worship Art. Any meaning I derive from life, I've derived from the pages of Keats, Proust and Faulkner."
Everybody worships something. Whether it's God, art, a woman, or something else, there has to be a constant. Everything else is chaos.
The Woody Allen part and Fr. Lauder's response was really interesting.