Abstract
This chapter argues that the cultural zeitgeist is one of the naturalism where the presumption of God and the resources of religion are either rejected outright or hermeneutically marginalized out of consideration. Because of this, agnosticism is functionally atheism as it interprets reality without any transcendental reference. Naturalism, as a cultural lens, is actually hostile to religion. This hostility comes in many forms, from biased forms of evidential demands to posturing an antagonism between science and religion, to framing religion as a delusion and anti-intellectual. The author demonstrates that such a framing of religion is both unfair to the evidence and fraught with incoherency. He further strives to demonstrate that theism is intellectually compelling as well as necessary in order to attend to the most important issues in the human condition.
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Notes
- 1.
For a comprehensive review of world religiosity, see Robert Putman and David Campbell, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010). For a brief synopsis of their findings, http://www.pewforum.org/American-Grace--How-Religion-Divides-and-Unites-Us.aspx, accessed January 29, 2013.
- 2.
As cited in Plantinga (1996), p. 16.
- 3.
Obviously, they would embrace energy, wave theory, dark matter, anti-matter, and the like, but put these as expressions of the physical universe and thus under this umbrella.
- 4.
See, for example, Hayek (1995).
- 5.
See also, Susan Blackmore’s declaration: “The history of warfare is largely a history of people killing each other for religious reasons” (Blackmore, 1999, p. 199).
- 6.
In my mind, the best and fairest book on this issue is Scott Appleby’s The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000). I also recommend Charles Selengut’s Sacred Fury: Understanding Religious Violence (Lanham: AltaMira Press, 2003).
- 7.
Hitchens (2007) will assert this as a condemnation minimally 14 times throughout God is Not Great, pp. 10, 17, 52, 54, 99, 115, 120, 130, 151, 181, 210, 219, 229, 240.
- 8.
As cited in Yancey (1998).
- 9.
The text and its editorial numbering are Blaise Pascal, Pensées, revised ed., trans. Alban Krailsheimer (New York: Penguin, 1995).
- 10.
See, for example, H.A. Lorentz, A. Einstein, H. Minkowski, and H. Weyl, The Principle of Relativity: A Collection of Original Memoirs (Mineola, NY: Dover, 1952); Erwin Schrodinger, Space–time Structure (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1950); E.F. Taylor and John A. Wheeler, Spacetime Physics, 2nd ed. (San Francisco: W.H. Freeman, 1966); John Randolph Lucas, A Treatise on time and Space (London: Methuen, 1973); and Roger Penrose, the Road to Reality (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
- 11.
I am not going to address the theory that Dawkins brings up by Lee Smolin who argued that black holes can produce baby universes. Dawkins concedes, “not all physicists are enthusiastic about Smolin’s scenario.” Actually, none are anymore. Hawking imagined potential wormholes spawning a new universe. This was the subject of a famous bet he had with James Preskill. In 2006, he conceded, “There is no baby universe branching off…. I’m sorry to disappoint science fiction fans…” This paper can be accessed through Cornell University. See http://arxiv.org/abs/hepth/0507171, accessed March 29, 2012
- 12.
Cited in Schweiker (2005, p. 270).
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Feldmeier, P. (2021). Agnosticism, Atheism, and Naturalism’s Imaginaire: A Defense of God and Religion. In: Pathak, K.M. (eds) Quietism, Agnosticism and Mysticism. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3223-5_6
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