Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Iconoclastic shock

Wow. A very intense post from John C. Wright on the topic of Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass, and atheism in general. Once again, he perfectly captures my experience of atheism. Here's an excerpt:

That central image of God being stabbed and vanishing into dust is a paramount one to the emotional nature of atheists. The atheist (I speak from personal experience) feels like someone fighting a ghost. An atheist utters a simple and logical argument to show why no one should believe in God, and yet, for some reason, the belief in God persists. No matter how often you clobber the ghost, not matter how frail and insubstantial it seems, the damned thing just won't die.

It does not make sense. Reasonable people cannot believe such nonsense, yet, for some reason, everyone does, everyone you admire, all the great figures of history, all your ancestors. The stress of facing the impossible warps the mind: something has to give.

Read the rest. The comments are also interesting.

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