Thursday, June 19, 2014

How atheistic are they really?

The reality is that any good atheist today is about sixty-five percent Christian. And if you listen to him, you will find that most of his arguments for his position had their origins in biblical revelation.— Lectures in Old Testament Theology, page 72

<idle musing>
I heard Kinlaw argue in class once or twice that atheism couldn't exist in its current form without a Christian foundation. Interesting thought, isn't it?
</idle musing>

1 comment:

Marilyn Lundberg said...

It certainly presupposes Christian (or Judeo-Christian) categories, including monotheism. I read an article a couple of years ago, by an atheist, who critiqued the "new atheists" for assuming that all religions exist in order to explain 1) the origins of the world, and 2) morality. He then went on to point out that "animism" in fact does neither of these, which was a good point. However, even he seemed to assume that the "purpose" of Christianity, e.g., was to explain origins and morality. In other words, God as a means to an end. It never occurred to him that God, and love of God, might just be the main point.