I want to add my personal view and in advance I ask sorry for the wacko Greko words.
I am an atheist since my childhood. From my point of view there is a relation between religious people and acceptance of the current authority. People critic to religion is a way to critic their actual authority and so to be able to think, imagine and act in a contrary way.
I can remember myself to say: "After the revolution everyone can believe to whatever he thinks of, but for now forgot your gods and just use your mind so to make a better world and bla bla…)
Materialism is a way to avoid get drown by nonsence. Of cource the freedom of the universe and the infinity can't fit in a material theory, but materialism never claimed anything like that. Atheism also is a way to see life. It doesn't accepts the duality (spirit-matter). Mainly it looks at things as a whole where the contradictions between the (total) powers actually set the world. The global underlay concept is called "material" and it includes common sence's "spirit" (hyper-simplified) and surely doesn't like to think of some unknown hyper-flying spirit-forms of existance… But it's easy to understand that the concept "material" is a metaphysical one.
Religion isn't simple what the people believe about the supernatural or whatever. In history, religion is a way (between it's other operations) for the community to set the prohibitions, to control the people's think and act in a certain way. (the good-bad thing). Most of the time "God" is an abstract symbol of the community will, and an allegory for the masses so to follow the rule of their master class.
The God as a being (who is somewhere) with some (or all) abilities is mainly a grandmothers story and every educated people should leave it. As the universe is infinite there is no first cause or any need for that. Of course "God" as a symbol of infinite (time) or as the Absolum suits fine. Remember that when you say "God is that" then you actually making God concept smaller (injuring it's truth) cause god concept can't have a finite accusal. The contradiction between finite and infinite is well studied through the years and atheism is really aware of all these things.
I see a lot of anorthologism these days. The critic of the modern philosophy on reason, that viewed reason as an authority tool that slaves than liberates the human, took with it the emancipate role of reason. Reason SURELY unviels the essence (oysia) of objects, it's really strange that that simple thing doesn't get the attention it deserves. For an example that thing inside me -the red one- is crucial for the kind of life like me and if a lot of it get's out, I will definatelly die. Plato's, a long time ago, had given scepticism an answer and eventually the universe can't hide from the eternal trial and error
If we say that Logos doesn’t exist then we are left with empiricism, mystical knowledge, faith, anorthologism.
Please answer me on that:
How can "we" have factories that create bread and at the same time thousands (millions) of people are starving to death? Only reason make us think of these things, only reason makes us able to fight against the jungle law and neccesity. Only reason enables us to live in "gignesthai" – in the contradiction between freedom and neccesity, Chaos and Order…
Of cource in the paranoia world of free-market (in where the only free thing is the market) there is certainly no need for reason. How to explain in a reasonably way that all the sensitivity of life including, people, nature and culture are on the hands of a chaotic process? The common god (or dog if you have read Harlan Elisson's "I have no mouth and I must scream") suits fine for those that are well-favored in these circumstances. Eventually: He Had Taken Care of them! Don't ask more! Thank him.com (that personal relation with him is the least religious way. A personal psycho-interlocutor! God downgrated to a service self-reference for guilt manipulation!)
The most dissapointing thing is that the people's critic to the "speculator" (the authority's man wooden language) ended with people who don't believe in reason, and never tried to create a mind. The critic to the spectacle world (the world where humans are treated like a machine accesory and all crucial things are manipulated by others for him, plus the psychological control that works through language (constant self-control that destroys instict AND reason) - so for his eyes the world turns like a spectacle) is turned to a Ratio critic! Astonishing! Which leads to the exact opposite of the free people and the citizens of a democracy (so to be able to control authority. Without mind –and critical thinking authority surely rules).
Everyone who had read Periklis funeral for the first Atheneans dead of the pelloponisian war (the old story from Thoukididis) laughs with the stuff the modern "democracies" and their "philosophical" think-tanks claims.
cheers,
John
