A different answer: If there is no life after death, does it matter whether you are Hitler or Mother Teresa?
In “If there is no God, Dennis Praeger notes,
We are constantly reminded about the destructive consequences of religion — intolerance, hatred, division, inquisitions, persecutions of “heretics,” holy wars. Though far from the whole story, they are, nevertheless, true. There have been many awful consequences of religion.
What one almost never hears described are the deleterious consequences of secularism — the terrible developments that have accompanied the breakdown of traditional religion and belief in God. For every thousand students who learn about the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials, maybe two learn to associate Gulag, Auschwitz, The Cultural Revolution and the Cambodian genocide with secular regimes and ideologies.
For all the problems associated with belief in God, the death of God leads to far more of them.
So, while it is not possible to prove (or disprove) God’s existence, what is provable is what happens when people stop believing in God.
The number one reason, he says, is
Without God there is no good and evil; there are only subjective opinions that we then label “good” and “evil.” This does not mean that an atheist cannot be a good person. Nor does it mean that all those who believe in God are good; there are good atheists and there are bad believers in God. It simply means that unless there is a moral authority that transcends humans from which emanates an objective right and wrong, “right” and “wrong” no more objectively exist than do “beautiful” and “ugly.”
and second,
Without God, there is no objective meaning to life. We are all merely random creations of natural selection whose existence has no more intrinsic purpose or meaning than that of a pebble equally randomly produced.
He also writes, however,
If there is no God, the kindest and most innocent victims of torture and murder have no better a fate after death than do the most cruel torturers and mass murderers. Only if there is a good God do Mother Teresa and Adolf Hitler have different fates.
… and that set me thinking. Is that true?
As a traditional Christian, I believe that people begin to experience in this life the ultimate destiny that their personal choices hint at. Hitler, for example, became progressively madder and more murderous and finally committed suicide in a bunker, ending World War II in Europe. Mother Teresa lived to be 87 and fell asleep quietly after dinner, with the knowledge that many thousands of people had been helped by her Sisters of Charity.
True, she had many spiritual struggles, and I have written and spoken them. These struggles originated in the difference she experienced between the visions that first inspired her to reach out to the streets of Calcutta and the practical difficulties of making it happen. But even in this world, she was surely more blessed in poverty than Hitler was in power.
On that view, what happens after death is the maturing of a process that has already begun beforehand.
Mario and I were on Dennis Praeger’s show recently.
Also, just up at The Mindful Hack, my blog which supports The Spiritual Brain, a neuroscientist’s case for the existence of the soul (Harper One 2007)
Human evolution: But who decided that the Neanderthals were dumb in the first place?
Free will: Can you believe in it as a merely irrational preference?
Consciousness: Half an oaf is better than none?
Spiritual Brain sells out in Dutch translation
Religion: Why “evolutionary” explanations don’t really work
The difference between thinking and consciousness
Mind: Current science less and less precise as it approaches the mind?
Atheist bigots: Avoiding serious questions and targeting ignorant religious folk
L’Intelligence spirituelle : Introduction (en francais)
Brain: How much does brainpower matter to success? Some surprising answers, only one of which matters much
Neuroscience: Yes, we do think while we are asleep. And we solve problems too.
Neurotheology: Bad neurology and bad theology?
Consciousness: So familiar and yet so puzzling …
My name is Denyse O'Leary, born 1950, in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. I have been a journalist all my life. I began to publish books in 2001. I live in Toronto, and I have two daughters and two granddaughters, as of 2008. You can reach me at oleary@sympatico.ca | More from Denyse O'Leary
Stumble It!
August 30th, 2008 at 12:49 am
One of a family of rationalisations which tend to keep us on the straight and narrow path, Denyse, and good for us too. But it is a fairly off-to-the-side one.
I think I recommended Bernard Lonergan to you a while ago. “Insight: a Study of Human Understanding”. He gives far more powerful and reasoned arguement and indeed proofs of the existence of God.
Happy reading. Have a packed lunch handy.
August 30th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
I have a scientist friend who told me that Mother Terressa and Hitler were the same. And he meant it. We are, according to him, galactic anomolies, and therefore, carry the same value as a pebble or ameoba. Still, he lives as if there were meaning to life.
If there is no meaning to life, nihilism is the only logical philosophy to embrace.
If there is meaning to life, it lies outside of the meaning we arbitrarily establish for it, for if it is abitrary, everybody’s meaning they have selected will mean that it is a baseless meaning– it will be a subjective meaning.
The case for religion lies in the meaning of life. No meaning, be honest and proclaim that Nihilism is the logical conclusion. Meaning? There’s a God who has estabilished a reason.
August 31st, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Denyse said: “Neuroscience: Yes, we do think while we are asleep.”
I know it’s true. I read this entire article in my sleep.