On Atheism, Morals, and Education

Edward Moore (c) 2014

St. Elias Seminary and Graduate School (http://www.steliasseminary.org/)

patristics@gmail.com

In his book Atheism, Morality, and Meaning (New York: Prometheus Books 2002), Michael Martin mentions a study by Gorusch and Aleshire showing that the countries of Western Europe and Scandinavia, where less than 50 percent of the population profess a belief in God, have a significantly lower homicide rate than the United States, where nearly 90 percent of the population profess a belief (p. 29). As Martin states, this should give theists pause. His arguments are in-depth and lucid, but I think the reason for the readiness to declare oneself a believer in this country is due far more to cultural pressure and backwardness than to any authentic, personal conviction. Indeed, religious education -- and ALL education, for that matter -- is, in the United States, of the most appallingly superficial kind.

How many run-of-the-mill American 'Christians,' of any denonimation (or 'non-denomination') are capable of giving an account of the great Trinitarian debates of the early centuries and the impact these debates had on attitudes towards the individual person and his or her autonomy, dignity, and divine eikon and homoiosis (Gen 1:26 LXX)? How many have studied, in any depth, the history, languages, and theological development of their faith? I am not talking about Sunday school or basic catechism, but rather an objective, academic examination of the philosophical basis of the faith, in the manner of St. Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and even Tatian (in his own way), among many others. These early Fathers, by defending the faith, were forced to don the robes of the philosophers, following St. Paul when he visited the Areopagus and quoted from Cleanthes the Stoic, stating "in him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28) -- this being a direct quote from that 'pagan' philosopher's Hymn to Zeus. As I have stated before, the world -- and by extension our faith -- is a far more difficult and complex matter than most would admit, or wish it to be. And there is the rub. The myth of a primitive, simple Christianity (fostered by the various 'bible' churches that can be found in nearly every city, town, and hamlet in the country) have done much damage. The early church was divided, riddled with debate, and productive of the various approaches to Christ and His revelation that were later to be labelled 'heresies'.

The Gnostics, for example (of which there were many types; so many, in fact, that the term has become saturated and all but useless) have been described as the rationalists among the early Christians. Philip Schaff wrote of Gnosticism that it was "the Rationalism of the ancient church; it pervaded the intellectual atmosphere, and stimulated the development of catholic theology by opposition" (History of the Christian Church, in e-Sword Reference Library: www.e-sword.net 2013). In my own works on the subject (including a major article written with John D. Turner for The Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity) I have demonstrated how the various schools dubbed 'Gnostic' were of two main types: radical re-interpreters of Jewish scripture, and Middle or Neo-Platonists who felt a strong emotional and intellectual connection to emerging Christianity.

I made this brief digression simply to point out the wide variety of areas into which Christians need to delve for a full understanding of their faith. Why, some may ask, do I need to know all these things, when St. Paul preached only Christ crucified? Well, the death of a divinity (which is an ancient motif going back to prehistoric times [cf. Frazer's Golden Bough, which is still largely relevant]), and is not unique, in and of itself, to Christianity. One need only recall the drama of Osiris and Set, and the former's salvation by Isis; and as for crucifixion, the hanging of Odin on the tree of Yggdrasil. There is a very good reason why the Fathers labored so many points concerning Christ's dual nature, and the deeper -- indeed deepest -- meaning of His death. The unity of the Trinity, as exposited by some of our best contemporary theologians (many of them Orthodox), shows that the substance (ousia) of the Trinity is 'communion,' a unity of Love between three unique but united Persons. As the Orthodox theologian John D. Zizioulas has put it, "the substance of God, ‘God’, has no ontological content, no true being, apart from communion ... it is communion which makes beings‘be’; nothing exists without it, not even God" (Being as Communion, Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press 1993). We may view this as a trope for the ethical and moral expectations of thinking human persons (of which there are precious few), theist or atheist (and as Martin has shown in his book, a "nonobjective morality" is possible for an atheist), or as a truly divine mystery, unknowable in the present life.

I have often considered, in a rather Eunomian manner, this unknowability doctrine to be an excuse for intellectual laxity. [Eunomius believed that we are capable of knowing God as well as He knows Himself, according to Socrates, Church History IV.7.] So to return to my original point, regarding the excess of violent crime in our country, compared to Western Europe and Scandinavia, I will state boldly that a lack of intellectual curiosity leads one down a dangerous path of indifference to the accomplishments of humanity, and the greatness of the greatest among us, past and present. As H. L. Mencken once wrote:

If the average man is made in God's image, then a man such as Beethoven or Aristotle is plainly superior to God, and so God may be jealous of him, and eager to see his superiority perish with his bodily frame. All animal breeders know how difficult it is to maintain a fine strain. The universe seems to be in a conspiracy to encourage the endless reproduction of peasants and Socialists, but a subtle and mysterious opposition stands eternally against the reproduction of philosophers. In Defense of Women (1922, 106-107)

Indeed, the prevalence of medications for children with various 'disorders' like ADHD (and many forget that what is called 'hyper-activity' is in fact part of the natural mental growth-process of a child, especially between the crucial ages of two to seven) leads to intellectual dullness, if not outright torpor and dazed stupidity in later life -- something I witness daily in the degenerate city in which I am forced by present circumstance to dwell. Stupidity is the result of a lack of intellectual curiosity; this lack leads to indifference to others, and makes crime 'no biggy.' A teenager who prefers various types of sublimated aggression to the quest for mental growth will not necessarily become a criminal -- but he or she will become (whether Christian, atheist, or other) what H. P. Lovecraft called "a piece of flesh without intellect, a walking abortion." Education, at both the religious and secular levels, is the antidote for this disease of the mind.