Christmas in a Cold Climate

Richard Robinson in his fine book, An Atheist’s Values,OUP1964, writes:

We often hear talk of ‘Christian values’. Those who use this phrase are confident that everybody knows what Christian values are. But I do not know what they are. For example, I am puzzled whether thrift is a Christian value in view of the fact that, whereas thrift is often praised by people calling themselves Christian, it is rejected by Jesus in the gospels. [4] 

I too am often puzzled by a lot of things that I have heard people calling themselves Christian say. But I am often even more puzzled by the actions of so-called Christians. What I have to say about Christians applies to other upholders of other religious doctrines also. But in the spirit of Christmas, and based on my childhood experiences with self-professed Christians - family members and others, I’ll stick with the thoughts, sayings, and actions of Christian brothers and sisters.

My atheism isn’t militant in any way. Years ago part of my job as a commercial loan officer involved my supervising loans that my bank had made to churches. In order to supervise these loans I had to go to church services. Some of the services were very moving in that the parishioners seemed to be quite moved emotionally and the music, as provided by the choir, soloists, and instrumentalists, was also very moving and pleasing. The sermons were usually unobjectionable and to some point or other. None of these proceedings bothered me in the least.

Now if I’m asked to partake in religious practices, if I’m asked to pray, for example; I won’t do it. I wouldn’t ask a Christian believer to engage in my non-militant atheist practices - I can’t imagine what said practices would be or what they would consist in; but for the sake of argument, let’s imagine that I participated in atheist practices.

In connection with my banking supervisory practices I was called upon to attend church functions - dinners &c. Often the question was put to me What religion are you, Mr. White? Being quite precise, I couldn’t say, I’m an atheist (note here, that’s “atheist” with a small “a”) - in my view my non-militant atheism isn’t a capital-letter religion at all. I just don’t believe that there are any gods (small “g”) at all. There were plenty of gods back in the day - Greek gods, for example; but we got rid of them. 

Rather than being totally misunderstood by my interlocutor regarding his or her What religion are you? question; I would answer something also the lines of I was raised in the Congregationalist church and I have been working my way back to it, etc. And this reply seemed to do the job.

It’s quite amazing that people I have known who called themselves Christian seem to know quite a lot about atheism, and, especially, what God (capital “G”) has in store for an atheist such as me - burning in God’s Hell, for example. There are quite substantial engineering problems involved in transporting a soul to Heaven or Hell - especially re-identifying the soul once it arrives in either non-spatial place. But surely the Christian’s God has a plan, so I won’t worry about the soul-technology. And of course people calling themselves Christian have a privileged and special relationship with their God, a relationship that doesn't obtain for the rest of us.

I'll grant that the existence of the universe, as we presume to know it, is strange and quite mysterious; but whatever problems we have in understanding its origin, persistence, and term prospects are not explained by postulating a Christian (or any other) God or gods.  

As a non-militant atheist, liberal, and philosophical anarchist I am particularly worried about cultural and political intolerance as practiced by people I know and have known who call themselves Christian - Christians who profess and practice racism, segregation, misogyny, class warfare, ethnic and religious hatred, Country Club Christians (CCC). Not only was I called upon to attend church services as a bank commercial loan officer, I was called upon to attend country club services - CCC services; so I know what I’m talking about. The segue from CCC services to Church services continues to be too easy. Again, I emphasize that intolerance such as I have noted is certainly to be found in other religious, social, and cultural groups and nations; but I am talking about what I know first hand - the under-reported news.

There’s wisdom to be found in Professor Robinson’s An Atheist’s Values. It’s available at no charge at the site linked below.

http://borici.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Atheist-Values.pdf

Merry Christmas to one and all.