The New Atheism

Strange though it may seem to conclude a discussion of modern trends and movements in religious thought with a reference to systems of disbelief, any analysis of contemporary spirituality would be incomplete without some recognition of a recent groundswell of oppositional voices representing those—particularly in the West—who view any and all religious ideas as delusional and politically dangerous.

Since the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, Western cultures have seen the rise of philosophical opponents of Christianity who have sought to refute the very basis of Christian faith by denying either the validity or the rationality of any and all theistic beliefs. Baron d’Holbach’s (1723-1789) The System of Nature (1770) is an example of this type of Enlightenment atheism in its most aggressive form. His argument against religion proceeds from the belief, supported by the science of his day, that the universe consists of nothing but matter and energy. From that premise it follows, d’Holbach insists, that there is neither a soul nor an afterlife, neither a heaven nor a hell, and that all ideas about God are nothing but human attributes projected onto a cosmos that obeys only the laws of physics. This argument on behalf of a materialistic antitheism remains the essential narrative of atheism today. In the words of the modern French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), atheism has left a “God-shaped hole”¹³ in the cultural consciousness of the West, and nothing, he argues, has emerged to fill that void.

That was the position of a number of later twentieth-century theological skeptics—known collectively as the “Death of God” movement—who took up the cry of the nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) that God was “dead.” God was dead, for them, at least in the sense that it was no longer possible, in the modern world, to maintain a belief in a Deity of rewards and punishments, of Creation and of a Judgment Day. In the words of one representative voice of this movement, Thomas J. J. Altizer (b. 1927):

We shall understand the death of God as an historical event: God has died in our time, in our history, in our existence. The man who chooses to live in our destiny can neither know the reality of God’s presence nor understand the world as his creation; or at least he can no longer respond... to the classical Christian images of the Creator and the creation.-⁴

In contrast to their eighteenth- and nineteenth-century counterparts, these religiously oriented “atheists” hoped that old images of a transcendent, omnipotent, and benevolent deity —which, they argued, are no longer supportable in an age of scientific skepticism and mass murder—will give way to a renewed faith in the creative potentialities of the human imagination. This faith-infused humanism is not Christianity, nor is it really compatible with the theistic assumptions that underlie any of the Abrahamic faiths. To its defenders, it represented instead a response to the nihilism that followed decades of global warfare, as well as an alternative to the fear that, without some form of life-affirming faith, humanity would finally succeed in exterminating itself.

More recently, a new school of polemical atheists (or “positive” atheists as they are sometimes called) has taken up d’Holbach’s campaign against religion in the name of both contemporary science and enlightened political values. Unlike their Death of God predecessors, they betray no sorrow over the loss of religious conviction among their secularized contemporaries.

Religious behavior is a writ-large human equivalent of anting or bower-building. It is time­consuming, energy-consuming, often as extravagantly ornate as the plumage of a bird of paradise. Religion can endanger the life of the pious individual, as well as the lives of others. Thousands of people have been tortured for their loyalty to a religion, persecuted by zealots for what is in many cases a scarcely distinguishable alternative faith. Religion devours resources, sometimes on a massive scale.... Devout people have died for their gods and killed for them; whipped blood from their backs, sworn themselves to a lifetime of celibacy or to lonely silence, all in the service of religion. What is it all for? What is the benefit of religion?¹⁵

For Dawkins, religion has no utility at all: it is merely a divisive social force, and its presence in society guarantees some form of conflict and, not infrequently, sectarian violence. For Dawkins, no religion is ultimately a religion of peace.

But on a very different level of intellectual dissent, Dawkins’s objections to religion—and those of fellow atheists such as Sam Harris (b. 1967) (The End of Faith, 2005) and Daniel Dennett (b. 1942) (Breaking the Spell, 2006)—spring from the perception that a religious worldview, and specifically belief in an Intelligent Designer, is untenable and that science provides a truer understanding of how the universe came into existence and how humankind evolved from less complex life forms. For centuries, Dawkins insists, religious authorities have made pronouncements on the nature of physical reality that have since been disproved and advanced claims of inerrancy on behalf of their sacred texts that are no longer believable and, in any case, mutually contradictory. And although scientists cannot answer every question the human mind can pose about the nature of reality, Dawkins concedes, they are bound by a self­correcting process of inquiry that will bring us closer to truth than any dogmatic system of beliefs that has ever been devised.

Critics of the “New Atheists,” as Dawkins and those who echo his arguments have been dubbed, often observe that the zeal and certitude that this intellectual community displays are remarkably similar to the dogmatic certainty of traditional religionists. In place of God and revelation, these atheists (their critics say) substitute a materialist worldview and an empirical process of inquiry, thereby turning science into a kind of surrogate religion, with its own peculiar dogmas from which no one in the scientific community is allowed to dissent.— Defenders of the atheist position reply that scientific theories are always open to disconfirmation, which religious beliefs are not, and therefore any similarities between the convictions of scientists and those of religionists are either exaggerated or mistakenly applied. Of course, the future of this debate, like the future of the global phenomenon we have termed “religion,” has yet to be written.

The variety of religions in the modem world suggests that, despite the influence of secular thought and the challenge of scientific rationalism, religious cultures continue to be bom anew, to survive and even flourish. Whatever needs religion may be thought to satisfy—the desire to identify oneself with some greater being or power, for example, or an unsatisfied curiosity about humanity’s place in the universe—the teachings and social organization of faith communities continue to draw adherents all over the globe. Even those who are reluctant to identify themselves as persons of any particular religious faith or creed can be seen to express an interest in “spirituality.” Certainly, no one who has lived through the first decade of the twenty-first century can doubt the enduring power of religious ideas and emotions or fail to see how they continue to shape our world.

Whether future generations will see the present time as an Age of Faith or an Era of Disbelief cannot possibly be known, but the sheer diversity of religious expression, accompanied by a persistent and global tendency to reach outside of one’s culture for spiritual stimulation, makes predictions about the “death of God” and the demise of religious experience improbable at best.

SEEKING ANSWERS

What Is Ultimate Reality?

Virtually all of the new religious movements we have studied reveal a desire to move beyond the world of common, material existence, and many of them attempt to reach out to some higher plane of reality. For example, the followers of Paul Twitchell (the founder of Eckankar) believe that there are two distinct levels of reality and that through techniques of spiritual ascent we can access a higher plane of reality and release the soul from its imprisoned condition in the material world. Followers of Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada, whose teachings have their origin in Hindu mysticism, also believe that the soul can achieve release and return to its Creator—in this case the Hindu god Krishna. The Hare Krishnas, as they are commonly known, engage in devotional and meditative practices designed to raise the individual consciousness to the level of divine awareness and self-transcendence. For Christian communities, however—and especially those influenced by Adventist thought—ultimate reality is to be found in the biblical God and the soul’s deepest longing is to be united with him. That union, for Adventists, will occur once this world has vanished or been destroyed, to be replaced at last by the Kingdom of God.

How Should We Live in This World?

New religious movements emerge in response to a rapidly changing world, in which traditional certainties about society and culture are subject to swift and sometimes brutal challenges. Each of the broad categories of movements we have studied in this chapter has developed tenets by which adherents should live in this world and with each other. Some alternative Christianities, such as Christian Scientists, hold that human life can be made better by first acknowledging that we are spirit beings rather than simply material organisms.

What Is Our Ultimate Purpose?

Virtually all religious communities invest human existence with some ultimate end or purpose, though not all rationalize that belief by appealing to the will of a higher power. Scientologists, for example, believe that, as a species, we have the potential to attain enlightenment and to allow the true self (or “thetan”) to grow in understanding. Similarly, practitioners of Transcendental Meditation believe that the enhancement of well-being through the meditative unification of body and mind will enable all of humanity to become one with the creative intelligence that lies behind everything in the universe. For members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or Mormons), however, the purpose of human life is defined in more nearly Christian terms: to return to the Heavenly Father after death and even to become divine oneself, by embracing the teachings of the Mormon Church. Ultimately, all people, Mormons believe, will enter one of the eternal kingdoms and enjoy immortality. Members of the Unification Church (or “Moonies”), another alternative form of the Christian faith, similarly believe that the goal of life is to advance beyond our present fallen state and to enter a condition of spiritual purity, guided by the teachings of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, whose messianic role (like that of Jesus) is to lead the world back to God.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

For Review

1. What does the term esoteric mean, and why is it applied to movements like Eckankar?

2. What are “engrams,” and how do Scientologists claim to be rid of them?

3. What is New Thought, and which religious communities embody its principles?

4. Who are the “Moonies,” and who does the founder of this religious community claim to be?

5. What is the Gaia hypothesis and how is it related to the principles of spiritual ecology?

6. What did nineteenth-century Unitarians and Universalists reject in traditional Christian thought?

7. On which points of faith does the Bah’ai community differ from mainstream Islam?

For Further Reflection

1. How sharply do Adventist churches differ in their outlook from “mainstream” Christianity? Are they more “world renouncing” or are they simply closer to early Christian thought?

2. If another World Parliament of Religion were held sometime in the near future, which religious communities would you like to see invited to attend? Why?

3. What is the appeal of religious movements that focus on the personality of a powerful and charismatic leader? Are such larger-than-life figures essential to the growth of new religions?

4. Are communities that embrace some form of “Ufology” (that is, a belief in the existence of extraterrestrials) really religious organizations? Is there a difference between communicating with angels, or other spiritual beings, and talking with visitors from outer space?

5. Of all of the religious movements we have studied in this chapter, which one appears to be the most “world accommodating”? What are the advantages in belonging to such a community?

Chapter 14 Self-Quiz

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Chapter 14 Flashcards

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SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

Barrett, David V. The New Believers. London: Cassell & Co., 2001. A comprehensive (and often polemical) overview of alternative religious movements, with extensive historical and biographical information.

Chevannes, Barry. Rastafari: Roots and Ideology. New York: Syracuse University Press, 1994. A historical analysis of the development of Rastafarian culture combined with field research into contemporary Rastafarian self-understanding.

Clarke, Peter B. ed. Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements. London: Routledge, 2006. Brief but comprehensive essays on new religious movements, arranged alphabetically.

Clifton, Chas S. Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2006. A carefully documented, chronologically organized account of paganism in North America.

Hinnells, John R., ed. A New Handbook of Living Religions. London: Penguin Books, 1997. A popular resource work, this provides a global view of the religious landscape with essays on all of the world’s principal religions, including new religious movements in Western and non-Western cultures.

Klemp, Harold. Autobiography of a Modern Prophet. Minneapolis: Eckankar, 2000. The present Eck Master’s account of his spiritual journey toward “God-Realization.”

Lachman, Gary. Madame Blavatsky: The Mother of Modern Spirituality. New York: Penguin Group, 2012. A thoroughly researched account of Mme. Blavatsky’s spiritual development and close analysis of her writings.

Lewis, James R., ed. The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. A scholarly survey of sociological research on some of the most widely studied new religions.

Lewis, James R., and JesperA. Petersen, eds. Controversial New Religions. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. A collection of essays focusing on new religions that have exhibited violent and antisocial tendencies.

Palmer, Susan. Aliens Adored: Rael’s UFO Religion. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004. Extensive background information on the UFO phenomenon, coupled with a largely sympathetic analysis of the Raelian movement.

Partridge, Christopher, ed. New Religions: A Guide. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. The most extensive collection of brief scholarly vignettes of new religions, combined with lengthier articles of a historical and analytical nature. Cross-referenced and arranged by religious “families.”

Roderick, Timothy. Wicca: A Year and a Day. Saint-Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2005. A detailed and reliable portrait of Wiccan beliefs and practices.

Schmidt, Leigh Eric. Rest/ess Sou/s: The Making of American Spirituality. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2005. In-depth biographical accounts of leading spokespersons for “liberal” religious causes and alternative spiritualities.

Stein, Stephen J. Communities of Dissent: A History of Alternative Religions in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. A readable overview of religious nonconformity in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America.

Urban, Hugh B. The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011. A thorough and remarkably objective view of L. R. Hubbard and Scientology’s place in American culture.

Click here for more suggested readings, weblinks, and other media for this chapter.

ONLINE RESOURCES

Hartford Institute for Religion Research

http://hirr.hartsem.edu/denom/new_reliqious_movements.html

A selective website maintained by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, which provides a wide-ranging list of NRM sites and journals.

Religion Facts

www.reliionfacts.com/religions

A compendium of brief articles on world religions, ancient and modern.

Click here for web links to sacred texts.

LIST OF KEY TERMS

astral voyages channeling covens

Elohim

engrams

Globalization

ISKCQN

Lughnassadh modernization Moonies New Age New Thought Second Great Awakening secularization seekers The Family

The Great Disappointment theosophy thetan

Ufology

Wiccan Rede

World’s Parliament of Religions yogic flying

Zhuan Falun