Evil Little Monkeys (And the Things They Can’t Live Without)
A few people in my social orbit have passed along a recent article by Jen Gerson on the demise of the “New Atheism.” I suspect this is because I devoted my master’s thesis to critiquing the movement way back in 2007-08 and people (rightly) assume that I retain something of an interest in the movement. I did not really expect the New Atheism to age well. And it has not. It seems to have, like everything else post-2010, descended into the black hole of identity politics (could a movement whose key voices are older white males really have expected to survive the last decade?!). Additionally, it turns out that people seem to need more to go on existentially than the cold, dreary world of scientific materialism. Again, not exactly a stunner.
Jen Gerson seems to be something of an agnostic, so far as I can tell. But she concedes this last point easily enough, if with a hint of wistful longing for the irreligious world that will never be:
The vision of a secular humanist society rooted in pure science and rational values is a beautiful and noble ideal every single bit as lovely in principle as every other utopian fantasy that will never come to pass.
We aren’t capable of creating a purely rational society because we aren’t rational beings. We are just evil little monkeys throwing shit at each other, and we have to accept that about ourselves and learn to work with it.
Well. That’s easily the most memorable description of human nature that I’ve come across this week. It’s rare to come across someone with a lower anthropology than me, but I of course agree that we are irrational creatures driven by evil instincts (I still think we’re a bit more exalted than monkeys, though…most days, anyway). It is undeniable to me, based on any honest reading of scripture, history, current events, politics, human psychology, or any other domain that human beings are a wild and unruly collection of conflicting desires and motivations and inclinations, many of which are incalculably stupid and destructive.
I do not, however, share Gerson’s longing for a “secular humanist society rooted in pure science and rational values.” I don’t think this would be beautiful or noble or lovely (one could argue that twentieth-century history, in particular, has quite depressingly revealed just how ugly and unlovely societies ostensibly rooted in science and reason can be). I actually don’t even think Gerson longs for this. Science and reason are hugely important and have brought innumerable benefits to our world. This is undeniable and must be celebrated. But it doesn’t do nearly enough to address the full range of what animates and inspires this weird human animal.
Elsewhere in the piece, Gerson says this:
Humans who seek to live together in a shared society need unifying moral narratives and worldviews. Atheism may be true, but strict materialism is insufficient as a worldview to meet our collective longing for identity, meaning and purpose.
Without this, we struggle to cohere as a community. We’re left perfectly free and untethered by dogmas and tradition, but also atomized and isolated, utterly vulnerable to predatory political movements, hysterias, moral panics and conspiracies — anything to do what religion does, to fill the gap, to make us feel important and part of a tribe and alive and righteous.
I made a quick list of the things that Gerson notes that we can’t seem to live without:
- unifying moral narratives
- identity
- meaning
- purpose
- feelings of importance
- belonging
- righteousness
It’s an interesting list, isn’t it? I might want to explore and nuance one or two of these a bit. I might want to add a few to the list. But the thing that each one of these things has in common is that they are impossible to derive from “pure science and rational values.” It’s not that we just haven’t figured it out yet, that science will one day get us there. It’s that these are not the kind of thing that science could ever yield. Like, in principle. We are talking about things like value and connection and meaning and morality and a narrative — i.e., a story — that could validate all of this. Science and reason can find their place in a story, but they can’t reveal or create one. They just can’t.
This is something that the New Atheists could never really seem to figure out. It seemed literally beyond their comprehension that science and reason could be really, really good at some things but not at the really big existential things that mattered most. And if a worldview doesn’t have a coherent answer to the things that matter most? Well, these tend to fade away. The wisest among us have always realized that the things most beautiful, noble, and lovely in our world are not the sorts of things that can be proved.
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Well written and as always you brilliantly articulate and defend your point with a concise, logical progression of ideas…but again, I believe you miss the more important point that our adversaries, do not.
Identity politics as defined by the postmodernists, IS the new religion. Ask yourself this, doesn’t the cultural messaging of the latest iteration of, group identity, feminism and homosexual discourse attempt to satisfy the bullet point list you provide. Meaning, purpose, feelings of belonging and importance and rightousness? I would even go so far as to say this new religion even attempts to (re) define truth and privide mission.
Do you disagree with my assessment? Say so, if you do. If you agree or can at least acknowledge there is some degree of legitimicy in my observations, then what are we to say? What are we to do?
For me the answer is clear. This cultural moment is being directed by a false faith, by ideas antiethical to our understanding of truth and the values of love; of Jesus Christ.
We must confront the false Gods of self idolotry and the false religion(s) they manifest and not the, ” rabbit hole” of New Atheism.
Our enemies don’t believe in atheism any more than you or I do. They are much more dangerous than that. They believe in a false God.
Of course identity politics functions as a religion. So does/did the New Atheism. That’s kind of one of the main points of the post. So do the countless other things people use to fill the God-shaped hole in our hearts, and our desires for meaning, identity, righteousness, etc. Of course much of this is a form of self-idolatry. I’ve been saying this for years in all kinds of different ways on this blog (and elsewhere). The fact that you seem not to have noticed this makes me question how carefully you read.
It seems that if a given post of mine doesn’t say something in the way you think it should be said, or if it doesn’t address the most pressing concerns that happen to be occupying you at the moment, or if I don’t frame things antagonistically enough, you feel a need to tell me this and to use it as evidence for my lack of faith or conviction or whatever else you think I am lacking. You have been doing this for a long time now. I’m not sure what more I can say at this stage of the game, so I often say nothing.
With respect, I read as carefully as I can.
I miss things sometimes. Here and in other relationships. I make mistakes. Sometimes I forget things. I can only say my efforts are sincere and honest. Usually my best, but not always.
The only antidote to my shortcomings that I trust in, is prayer. I pray and ask for God’s guidance before I respond…
Through prayer I am convicted that, “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion” or “lntersectionality” or “Identity Politics” however you choose to define the politic (not the words themselves) is the devil in it’s details. This creed is the work of Satan. It is the diseased soul that will be used, if left unchecked, to destroy billions of people.
The new atheism was always a self contradictory, mostly abstract discussion that served two purposes. One, as a diversion. Two to mock and goad believers into abandoning spiritual principals and prioritizing the very methodology we were arguing against. We didn’t come to them as Spirit. We came as rationalists. We seemed to think we could beat the devil at his own game…
My concerns, that I believe are spiritually informed, are significantly greater than your somewhat obscure (here) and matter of fact references to this ideology (elsewhere).
I see Satan, the AntiChrist and the final battle. I see a war that openly started in ernest during the Pandemic fraud and an army that stands against Christ and for Satan, preparing for the next assault.
I read you to say that you see a problem of much, much lesser scope. From my vantage point then, I see negligence on your part but to be fair to you, on the part of many, many, many other people and institutions. As an aside, though I was once a staunch defender of her, I no longer worship in the Roman Catholic Church. In the end, for this and other reasons, my Spirit could find no peace in her. My conscience was continually plagued.
I’m honestly trying not to pass judgement on you. I’m trying to discern, not condemn. It’ a fine line for me, at times. Sometimes I cross the line.
In the end, I resolutely believe it all comes down to what we hear from the Holy Spirit of God. To engage with the Spirit, to test all Spirits, to learn from the fruit of the Spirit.
To even begin to do that we must first, “die to self”. The ego is our spirit until we are willing to let it go and trust in the Holy Spirit of our Lord.
What does the Holy Spirit tell you?
Here’s the thing. The post wasn’t about “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion” or “lntersectionality” or identity politics or feminism or homosexual discourse or any of the other things you mentioned. I wasn’t talking about Satan or the Antichrist or some kind of final battle (which some people have been convinced was imminent for most of Christian history).
As I’ve said many times before, you’re free to leave comments that don’t address the post. Others (including myself) are also free not to engage with them.
Well I’m not so sure I agree with the conclusion you come to. Surprise, surprise. Lol
If I’m remembering correctly lol, the post, among other things, spoke of the new atheism movement and the human need for connection beyond a materialistic worldview. A perspective that even atheists, perhaps somewhat bregrudgingly, are now beginning to ackowledge. A worldview, ironicly, that could be described as something akin to the expression of a religious impulse.
I opined that I agreed with that premise, acknowledged how well it was written but argued that it was a less important point that you were making.
For me the greater concern was not that atheists were now acknowledging the shortcomings of their initial premise, as you say, the shortcomings and contradictions were obvious from the get go. Nor the fact that they were now ackowledging the reality of a relgious impulse but rather how, in my opinion, the movement was always just a placeholder for the idolatrous religion that was to follow and has since emerged; Identity politics. A term I believe you were first to use, here. A term that can be defined as or embraces components, of all the other terms I used subsequently.
So it seems to me we that we were talking or potentially could talk about all these ideas…until you say we weren’t…or couldn’t…and that’s ok. Your ball, your game…
In one way or another, and yes I do agree sometimes sinfully, this is all I’ve wanted to share here.
It isn’t enough for us to formulate the better rationale. It isn’t enough to win the debate. We cannot win that way ever! We cannot win a battle of wits, with Satan. Even when we appear to, Satan just has his underlings and those he uses, reject all sense and reason through grotesque appeals to the dark side of their hearts.
We must win hearts first, not minds. We must put on the armour of God unoquivically and unashamedly and by our lived example of a disciplined and modest lifestyle and the foolishness of our expression, allow the Holy Spirit, through us, to convict those Jesus calls to be His…
I’m convinced you’ll get where you need to go, to be the Apostle, Jesus wants and needs you to be. You’ll get there. Open your heart fully to the Spirit. You’ll get there.
It isn’t easy, I’m not there yet. I’m still struggling; more so with living a disciplined and modest lifestyle free of addiction than in my spiritual understandings….Satan get’s us all where we are vulnerable.
But I’m going to get there too. Jesus wins! Victory for all who perservere. ❤️
The post was a reflection on a phenomenon that I had spent time writing about earlier in my life, about the deficiencies that were obvious then and have been borne out now, about the limits of scientific materialism, about the longings of the human heart, about the religious nature of all the things that matter most.
You’re free to take all this in a culture war direction. I don’t find it as interesting. There are plenty of people very engaged in that conversation that I’m sure would love another reader. Trust me, I understand that you’re convinced that I don’t understand the spiritual stakes or that I’m focusing on less important points or that I don’t realize that we’re at war or that I haven’t opened my heart fully or that I lack confidence or that I’m failing in my vocation or that maybe, with enough encouragement, I’ll “get there” some day or whatever else. I get it that you think this. Like, I really get it. Three or four hundred more words in a comment isn’t going to move the needle on how much I get it. I simply don’t agree. Or, where I do agree, I choose a different approach. At some point you’re just going to have to accept this and move on.
You’re such a good writer, I like you better when you get a little emotional.You remind me of my excesses and my exasperating repetitiveness. You make me laugh, in a good way. 😀
I once read a man, whose name I forget, speak of the great difficulty and discomfort he experienced translating the works of the Apostle John. He said something like, “John reads like relentless cachaphony; a tattoo of repetition”…Hey, who knows maybe I’m in good company. 😁
So ok have it your way, I’m a bit of a dick and it gets on your nerves sometimes. Gotta be some truth to that, you’re not the only one in my life standing in that line up.
But that aside, surely you don’t mean to suggest that you have acheived complete spiritual formation. I’m sure you would agree that, like most of us, you are still a work in progress.
As for culture wars, I would make the case that the war is always spiritual but like most wars it is made manifest through culture. Gotta go where the fight is if we hope to save souls, though I would caution greater care than I have at times, exorcised. Satan is always there to tempt you. You can easily be tricked into thinking you’re saving souls, when really all you’re doing is losing yours.
Prayer, prayer and more prayer….
Believe it or not, I stay because your work helps refine my Spirit, my work, my mission in life. I stay for admittedly selfish reasons.
I used to think, somewhat arrogantly I suppose, that I had something of value to offer you in return, I don’t think that much anymore.
Who knows, maybe I ‘m a cross to bare that teaches you patience. Lol
You gotta laugh sometimes.
Peace be with you, Ryan. On the whole, reading your work had been a comfort and a blessing to me.
I’ll pray for you and your family.
No, I do not mean to suggest that I have achieved complete spiritual formation. I would have thought this would be rather obvious for anyone who has read this blog as long as you have. I am very much aware that I am a work in progress, a sinner in need of grace.
The part that I find confusing and frustrating is that you seem to expect from this blog and from me quite a bit more than is appropriate. You feel very free to comment on what the things I say or fail to say or don’t say the way you would say or don’t connect to other things you’re very concerned about says about my spiritual vitality, my prayer life, my vocation, my conviction, my faith. This gets wearisome. Each one of us is a great deal more than we see or reveal online. I think one should be very wary of making the kinds of pronouncements you do about other people’s faith and spiritual lives based only a little glimpse into their lives.
I agree that people today are hungry to have lives with purpose, purpose that Western culture does not offer.
The older philosophies, taking their cue from Aristotle, saw everything as having a purpose, but modern science set this aside to explain the things themselves apart from any purpose. This loss of purpose has extended from things to lives.
It’s not an accident that one of the best selling books published in my lifetime is The Purpose Driven Life. The words ‘purpose’ and ‘life’ right there in the title.
Absolutely, Chris. Culturally, we are not doing well at all without purpose. Science has delivered many good things, but was never the sort of thing that could carry the load existentially. We are lost, adrift, depressed, anxious, addicted… the list goes on. We are literally dying for lack of purpose.
It isn’t personal.
A few (very recent) quotes. If I had the time to scroll through many of your previous comments, I could find many more:
Each one of these is, a) personal (I don’t know how anyone could interpret them otherwise); and, b) presumes a great deal more knowledge of my spiritual life and practices than could possibly be discerned from words on a screen.
Ok, there is some unavoidable overlap between the personal and the spiritual and my spiritual observations are at times poorly expressed.
One day you’ll be in your 60’s and if things are going well for you, you’ll be less bothered or offended by what others say about you.
Unless somebody threatens your well being and has the ability to make good on the threat, take it in stride and even ask yourself if the critique has some merit or value. A little humility goes a long way.
It helps me lol and I can be as arrogant as they come.
In any case, let’s not go down the path of passing judgement. I say what I say to you because I honestly discern it to be so. If I’m wrong, as you say, ignore me. If there is something worth considering, pray about it.
So, you aren’t interested in the culture wars? In their purely political contexts, neither am I.
Spiritually however, how can you read Romans 1: 18-32 and not feel called to participate? How should we respond to Paul’s closing statement in chapter 1?…”They know what God’s verdict is: that those that who behave like this deserve to die. And yet they do it, and what us worse, encourage others to do the same.”
Do we stand by, and say nothing? Are we not our brother’s keeper? What does the Spirit tell you?