Ugh, More Fundamentalists
This time though they are atheists. Sigh...
I posted a while ago on the subject how belief and atheism intersect. I have been meaning to do something of a follow-up post on the topic. Derrida's talk about believers battling with their own radical atheism leads me to wonder about atheists battling with believing. Is there a nagging sense of God lurking somewhere in Richard Dawkins?
I don't know about what Dawkins thinks about on his own time, and really, it's not my business, but Derrida's statement would seem to make sense in both directions - that is to say that both theists and atheist probably have to struggle with their metaphysics. It makes sense because both belief and atheism produce fundamentalism.
While there are too many definitions of fundamentalism (and even more connotations), one of its facets is externalisation. That is to say there is almost always a desire to impose values and beliefs on the broader community. Just as we learned last year that Pastor Ted Haggard externalised his battle with his homosexuality, perhaps we are tempted to externalise our other internal metaphysical battles?
I posted a while ago on the subject how belief and atheism intersect. I have been meaning to do something of a follow-up post on the topic. Derrida's talk about believers battling with their own radical atheism leads me to wonder about atheists battling with believing. Is there a nagging sense of God lurking somewhere in Richard Dawkins?
I don't know about what Dawkins thinks about on his own time, and really, it's not my business, but Derrida's statement would seem to make sense in both directions - that is to say that both theists and atheist probably have to struggle with their metaphysics. It makes sense because both belief and atheism produce fundamentalism.
While there are too many definitions of fundamentalism (and even more connotations), one of its facets is externalisation. That is to say there is almost always a desire to impose values and beliefs on the broader community. Just as we learned last year that Pastor Ted Haggard externalised his battle with his homosexuality, perhaps we are tempted to externalise our other internal metaphysical battles?
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posted by Dan at 11:41 PM
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