Nietzsche's Abyss

Dinesh D'Souza writes in a recent Christianity Today on another well-known atheist, ethicist Peter Singer.  D'Souza writes:

Nietzsche's argument is illustrated in considering two of the central principles of Western civilization: "All men are created equal" and "Human life is precious." Nietzsche attributes both ideas to Christianity. It is because we are created equal and in the image of God that our lives have moral worth and that we share the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Nietzsche's warning was that none of these values make sense without the background moral framework against which they were formulated. A post-Christian West, he argued, must go back to the ethical drawing board and reconsider its most cherished values, which include its traditional belief in the equal dignity of every human life.

Singer resolutely takes up a Nietzschean call for a "transvaluation of values," with a full awareness of the radical implications.

Read the rest to see what those implications are.

Not to be Here, Not to be Anywhere

Over at the American Scene, Alan Jacobs posts a couple of posts on facing death as an atheist.

Within, he notes a curious non-chalance or even celebratory attitude of some atheists towards death.  He noted that biologist Richard Dawkins called the fear of death "illogical,"  and that fantasy author Philip Pullman wrote that some characters' deaths were like "vivid little burst of happiness [like] the bubbles in a glass of champagne."  But this is a confused metaphor: any pleasure from the champagne bubbles bursting is within the tongue of the drinker.  The bubbles are the object of the pleasure, not the subject, and this sloppy metaphor provides a way to gloss over their annihiliation with the foggy memories of past soirees.  Alternatively, such language could be used to imply the bubbles are subsumed into the greater whole of the champagne itself---the raindrops becoming part of the ocean idea--but this is pantheist, and not atheist, thought, and Pullman should be clear and honest enough to say so.

Jacobs posted a portion of a poem by a more circumspect atheist, Philip Larkin, entitled "Aubade." An excerpt:

The mind blanks at the glare. Not in remorse

- The good not used, the love not given, time

Torn off unused - nor wretchedly because

An only life can take so long to climb

Clear of its wrong beginnings, and may never:

But at the total emptiness forever,

The sure extinction that we travel to

And shall be lost in always. Not to be here,

Not to be anywhere,

And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true.

This is a special way of being afraid

No trick dispels. Religion used to try,

That vast moth-eaten musical brocade

Created to pretend we never die,

And specious stuff that says no rational being

Can fear a thing it cannot feel, not seeing

that this is what we fear - no sight, no sound,

No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,

Nothing to love or link with,

The anaesthetic from which none come round.

So, if you want to pursue atheism, you are free to do so.  Just be prepared to shudder; the reaper does not take kindly to glib snickering.

Weekend Link Roundup!

Hi everybody!

It's now time for the first weekend link roundup! The cowboy on the left is ready...how about you?

I know posting is a bit erratic, so here is the way I will try to work things around here...

Every Saturday, or there abouts, I will a Weekly Link Review, where I'll post links to things you might find interesting--or at least I find interesting.

This way, when you're on the internet, you won't waste it as I do (reading the best of Buckeye blogs) or in some of your favorite ways: pretending you're John Elway, reliving your favorite Star Trek moments, listening to 80's pop hits or their modern reinterpretations. Actually, those are some of my favorite ways to waste time, but I am too embarassed to admit them. Our little secret, ok?

Anyway, here are some interesting things you may want to check out:

The Porn Myth
Don't miss this one, but be forewarned! It gets a little PG-13 at times. It is a recent article by Naomi Wolf, a renowned feminist, who concludes that perhaps the sexual liberation of the 1960's wasn't all that groovy. The contrast between her Orthodox Jewish friend and the university student on the last page is remarkable. Perhaps there is more to church teaching on sex than prudery and repression.

The Pleasures and Perils of Fermentation
This is the one you want to read second, especially YOU, fellow college student! How do we have a God who is the Vine, but is not the god of debauchery? More to the point, how can we be people who enjoy the broadest freedom--the freedom to drink, and the freedom to abstain?

What Little Girls Should Get to Do
About girls freed from sex slavery in India...and yes, I know it is hosted on the blog of Jim Wallis, who can be fairly left-leaning, and that may cause some of you to hurl your breakfast. But please, try to read it before you spew Cap'n Crunch all over your keyboard, 'cause I bet that's hard to clean up.

God-cool Stuff
Another tale of outside-the-box ministry. See my other post Holy Smokes! for more good things.

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (of Atheism)
Noted philosopher Anthony Flew (whom I read in my one-and-only philosophy 101 course) recently became a theist due to the claims of intelligent design.

Well that is all for now. I will try to write something original in the next few days here.