debate-points, semantics, philosophy, science-and-religion, purpose-of-lifeWhile similar to the questions Is atheism a religion? and Does atheism require faith?, the question I want answered here is a narrower one.
What I’m after is, does any particular atheism require some conceptual element or metaphysical force with the effective implications of a deity?
Some examples might be a situation:
In any of these situations it could at least potentially be argued that there is a theological element, however disguised or transfigured, and however alien from the traditional religious spiritual experience. The experiences disclosed in the writings of what I consider to be ‘serious’ atheists display a close concern for spiritual life; though certainly there is present in them a call for a freedom of mind and heart that a traditional religious understand would desire to prohibit, a more ‘progressive’ religious understanding can easily sustain these radical deviations.
Perhaps I am soliciting too much, and being too superficial here. But I think the question is interesting and I’m wondering what you guys here might make of it:
Is (any particular) atheism a (transfiguration of) theism?
Please note: in order to clarify my intent I’ve ended up modifying the question substantially as of 2/14/11. The initial question rather baldly posed a paradox (is atheism a theism?) and also ineptly strung together loose references to a handful of figures (Deleuze, Badiou, Nietzsche) in a way which belied the nuanced complexity and divergence between each of their thinkings. I still consider this a serious question, as superficial and confused it may be. I’ve tried to rectify some of these problems as best I can, though the question could likely still be much clearer. I have removed entirely the reference to Badiou as it seemed to be particularly confusing. (I especially apologize if I’ve offended anyone with my naivete, and I’m thankful to Solus in particular for restoring my faith in this community.)
Wikipedia, first line of the respective articles:
Atheism, in a broad sense, is the rejection of belief in the existence of deities.
Theism, in the broadest sense, is the belief that at least one deity exists.
So they're mutually exclusive. (Or, if you prefer, we could also look at the words: The prefix a- means not, and as p and not p is always false...)
Well, you could propably find some who are willing to define belief in non-sentient forces that could be perceived as "supernatural" as compatible with atheism. And you could probably find some willing to define it as theism in an extremely broad sense. But generally and for all practical purposes, the answer is no.
Atheism, by definition is the rejection of theism.
However, I think there are some situations where groups and individual atheists use authoritarian tactics and magical thinking to advance a power structure.
Examples:
Marxism/Leninism/Stalinism is atheistic in principle, but depends on a hefty dose of magical thinking in politics, psychology and economics. The best example of this is the ‘triumph’ of Lamarkian Evolution in Soviet Biology.
Ayn Rand & Nathaniel Branden turned the Nathaniel Branden Institute into a cult of excessive reverence for Rand’s interpretive position on what ‘reason’ constituted.
Thus, I think atheism also includes a certain level of skepticism and the rejection of magical thinking/hero-worship. If I accept every word that falls from the mouth of Richard Dawkins as unalloyed truth, I’m a theist. I’m just using atheist language, concepts and figures to describe my theism.
Well, there are those wacky Raëlists, who worship as-yet-undiscovered aliens but stridently reject other forms of deity-worship or supernaturalism. That’s about the closest I can think of to a “theist kind of atheism.”
Brett makes some good points about particular atheists co-opting magical thinking and other forms of theist control.
Beyond that, I think any belief system which reduces at any point to “there’s this, like, stuff, and it interacts with us somehow, but we can’t point to it, or prove it, or interact with it, or measure it in any meaningful or consistent way” is theist at heart. You can call it nature, fate, karma, the music of the spheres, or a head of lettuce named Ralph, but it’s a deity all the same.
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