Mitchell Stephens' Imagine There's No Heaven: How Atheism Helped Create The Modern World is another superbly written and conceived discussion of Atheism, very much in
line with the recent appearance of several books by the pundits of atheist
thinking like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens.
Stephens'
pungent and eloquent style allows him to retain great clarity in discussing
this very contentious subject. His characterizations are finely nuanced and
there is no sign of any cavalier attitude or sense of superciliousness or
assumed superiority. Indeed there is less in this new study of gleefully
throwing unanswerable squibs at the beliefs of religionists, that has been the
wont occasionally of Dawkins, Harris, and more recently PZ Meyers. But such
challenges do also accumulate as the various thinkers and their arguments are
considered in their subsequent perspectives throughout history.
Stephens
keeps his cool by structuring this new and very informative study on a
cumulative articulation of the historical buildup of atheistic reasoning since
its earliest traces at the dawn of Greek Philosophy, identifying many of the
original framers of the mindset starting with the skeptics. Many examples of
atheistic arguments have had to be re-constructed from ancient debates that
resulted in an official vindication of spiritual belief, and thus the
condemnation of the atheistic author, frequently resulting in his removal or
death.
Although
he does not dwell on this issue, it is clear that the further we go back in the
history of these dissenting atheistic opinions, the more dangerous it was for any
individual to be harbouring them. It took the buildup of some sense of
tolerance on the subject in any given society to happen before any kind of
meaningful discussion could take place. The issue with tolerance becomes a
crucial theme here.
Stephens
begins to identify virtuous and vicious cycles of historical-social
development that impacted the
development in understanding and discussing unbelief. Either a given society
was interested in learning, observation and rational discussion, which allowed
atheistic ideas to flourish, or a society was closed-minded, authoritarian and
ideologically religious which was not only dangerous for such ideas but for the
individuals having them.
Although
so much ink has recently been spilled over the ideas about belief, even in how
belief itself works, Imagine There's No Heaven manages to come up with fresh material and
fruitful discussions that help in understanding some complex issues. Stephens' primary position that skepticism of a supernatural reality or afterlife comes
from a positive assessment of life and enjoyment of being alive, (which he
calls Anacreontic after Anacreon who first articulated this concept :
"Eat, drink, be merry, for tomorrow you may die…"), avoids the
characterization of the atheistic stance as a negative position. The way he
puts it makes it obvious it is the religionists who are the first ones to do
the denying of the obvious positive presence of subjective earthly life. All
thoughts to the contrary remain unprovable.
This
study becomes really absorbing during the Enlightenment, especially in
France at the end of the 18th Century, with a close description of the various
schools of thought that sprang up before the French Revolution in the
intellectual Paris salons of Baron d'Holbach, and the writings of the
encyclopedist Denis Diderot. Many minor figures are identified in their various
contributions and Stephens is always very careful to distinguish each thinker,
making it clear if they are deist, agnostic, or atheist, thereby making us
appreciate the fine points of those arguments. He
also makes it clear that the mayhem of the French Revolution, though informed
by atheistic attitudes, was not actually fuelled by atheism, but by complex
historical forces beyond its purview. Atheism has often been burdened by
linking it with the destructive side of revolutions, but he does not shy away
from these political connections and deals extensively with the role of atheism
in the development of revolutionary thought especially in the United States.
Stephens' history finally brings us to our own age, where he cites Dawkins et al for their important popular contributions to the topic. He considers the modern forms of secularism and defines a new form of soft secularism, where increasing numbers of people espouse vague, non-compelling spiritual concepts in the place of old-fashioned, firm, dogmatic beliefs. Beliefs that might as well not really be there beyond wanting to 'do good.'
Through all the vicissitudes
of support recorded in various demographic surveys throughout the modern age,
he is able to determine a gradual increase in people who try to do their
thinking free from supernatural constraints. Any who agree may hope it is a
growing trend.
Michael Doleschell keeps mostly to non-fiction, and is
deeply devoted to music and culture and never tires of history, and is
fascinated by science and the scientific method [as long as they are well
explained]. He broadcasts a program of Classical Music for 3 hours every
Saturday afternoon from noon till 3 on the U of G's Radio Station: CFRU.
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