The Happy Atheist
Last night since Matt was working, I went to the bookstore for entertainment. I have banned myself from the bookstore for the majority of this semester for the following reason: I spend money in bookstores, and I'm not supposed to spend money, since I am a poor grad student. Last night I browsed the sociology, philosophy, and general science sections for several hours and enjoyed myself immensely.
Among other things, I came upon the following quote from the famous atheist (agnostic?)Bertram Russell, which I shall post after a few comments. If you recall, I posted a while back on an issue that had been bothering me - according to the church, without Christ, there is no peace, purpose, or hope in life. I didn't believe that this was true.
I have also, in various conversations with different people, repeatedly heard them voice the belief that without belief in God, life would be consumed in materialism or hedonistic pursuits. I also didn't believe that this was true. I can think of lots of better things to collect than material possessions if this life is all there is (and even if this life is all there is, it's pretty fantastic, and I have nothing but gratitude for having the experience of living it); I would rather spend my time collecting knowledge or experience or collecting and nurturing a select few relationships.
In short, if I believed there was a God, I would live almost exactly the way I would live if I believed there was no God. With that thought, here's Russell on the subject of life:
WHAT I HAVE LIVED FOR.
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy -- ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness -- that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what -- at last -- I have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me. ---- Bertrand Russell in PROLOGUE. WHAT I HAVE LIVED FOR. .
Among other things, I came upon the following quote from the famous atheist (agnostic?)Bertram Russell, which I shall post after a few comments. If you recall, I posted a while back on an issue that had been bothering me - according to the church, without Christ, there is no peace, purpose, or hope in life. I didn't believe that this was true.
I have also, in various conversations with different people, repeatedly heard them voice the belief that without belief in God, life would be consumed in materialism or hedonistic pursuits. I also didn't believe that this was true. I can think of lots of better things to collect than material possessions if this life is all there is (and even if this life is all there is, it's pretty fantastic, and I have nothing but gratitude for having the experience of living it); I would rather spend my time collecting knowledge or experience or collecting and nurturing a select few relationships.
In short, if I believed there was a God, I would live almost exactly the way I would live if I believed there was no God. With that thought, here's Russell on the subject of life:
WHAT I HAVE LIVED FOR.
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy -- ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness -- that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what -- at last -- I have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me. ---- Bertrand Russell in PROLOGUE. WHAT I HAVE LIVED FOR. .
posted by jessica rabbit at 10:03 AM
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