Notice something interesting about the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings? Atheists are nowhere to be found. Every time there is a public gathering there is talk of God and divine mercy and spiritual healing. Even secular people like the poet Nikki Giovanni use language that is heavily drenched with religious symbolism and meaning.
The atheist writer Richard Dawkins has observed that according to the findings of modern science, the universe has all the properties of a system that is utterly devoid of meaning. The main characteristic of the universe is pitiless indifference. Dawkins further argues that we human beings are simply agglomerations of molecules, assembled into functional units over millennia of natural selection, and as for the soul--well, that's an illusion!
To no one's surprise, Dawkins has not been invited to speak to the grieving Virginia Tech community. What this tells me is that if it's difficult to know where God is when bad things happen, it is even more difficult for atheism to deal with the problem of evil. The reason is that in a purely materialist universe, immaterial things like good and evil and souls simply do not exist. For scientific atheists like Dawkins, Cho's shooting of all those people can be understood in this way--molecules acting upon molecules.
If this is the best that modern science has to offer us, I think we need something more than modern science.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 27)
1. Wow...Mr. D'Souza...you said a mouthful.
"If this is the best that modern science has to offer us, I think we need something more than modern science." Praise God.
Kris Howard at 1:31PM on Apr 18th 2007
2. your argument does not stand at all. where are the cops when the shooting first happened? where are the christians when the shooting happened? where was god when shooting happened? where the hell were you when it happened. yea thats what i thought, up here on at the computer screen writing a freaking blog. stop blaming everyone else for what has happened. you know what happened? the guy was crazy and no buddy knew, thats what happened. period. nothing else.
Lara at 1:42PM on Apr 18th 2007
3. This article by D'Souza displays all the intelligence of a clever sixth grader. What does any of it have to do with the truth or falsity of religious belief systems? Just a few cheap debating points.
David at 1:49PM on Apr 18th 2007
4. Religious types should be asking: "Why didn't some superpower (God, Jesus, Whatever) stop the bullets?" Atheists don't have to ask.
zeke at 1:52PM on Apr 18th 2007
5. So, your point really is that atheists already have the answer (evil/good/God/devil don't exist), and that's why they aren't called to commentate or officiate. In difficult and confusing experiences, people don't "get" concretes. That's why religious folk discount evolution - too provable, makes too much sense. Amazing and horrifying things can only be attributed to a higher power. But how conveniently those same people can disregard the question "why does your loving, powerful God allow this?"
Deborah at 1:58PM on Apr 18th 2007
6. We don't know why God does all that he does, but all of the believers can ask Him when we get to heaven. Then we'll say, "Oh! That's why!" and finally we will understand everything that our small brains could not perceive before here on earth. As for the nonbelievers, you will not get to heaven, so you will NEVER know. If you really want the answers to your questions in life, seek God! Otherwise you will be lost forever. Soul and all.
Tonette Howell at 2:04PM on Apr 18th 2007
7. Wow is right! In the aftermath of this tragic event, you make a comment about the absence of atheists? What kind of comfort could an atheist bring to anyone here? None whatsoever. Not because they don't have an answer but because their answer would do nothing for the grieving families. I'm not stating that I'm an atheist or a God fearing man, but do you blame Satan or evil when a child is depressed or hyperactive? Do the majority of Christians in America simply pray to God that their children will become happy, or do they turn to science and put the kid on some kind of pill that helps them feel better? I know plenty of Christians/Religious people that use science to help treat even the most minute mental problems. So, where do you draw the line? A child that commits suicide because of depression has a chemical imbalance, but a child that kills others is obviously Evil? And lastly, not to spawn a new topic, but how come God is always called upon AFTER the tragedy, to watch over the family and friends of those deceased but never even considered for causing the event, or not stopping the event. I'm guessing your comment is going to say something along the lines of...well God doesn't intervene on Earth, that's up to us. Well if God doesn't intervene prior to a tragedy, why would he intervene afterwards? I think that's a very legitimate question that each of you should ask yourselves. Most of you disillusioned religious people are constantly using double standards. In my personal opinion, the belief of an all loving God is nothing more than an insurance policy to help make you feel better because you can't stand the possiblity that this may be all there is. Whether or not there is a God, I truly don't know. What I do know is that if you're going to draw a line of Good vs. Evil, then that line is forever ongoing. As a matter of fact, if you are so much against an atheists belief in science, you should never visit another doctor again in your life. Which brings me to one last significant point. If a man is having a major heart attack and is quickly brought to the hospital and he survives, is it because of science and medicine or because of God? If you answer that God was behind the medicine, what about the heart attack victims that the science didn't work for, the ones who did die? Must have been some sort of evil huh?
Paul at 2:04PM on Apr 18th 2007
8. I think a better question would be "why do you suddenly hear from opportunistic zealots who only seek to push their own agenda when bad things happen"?
I don't have any answers to the tragedy that has occurred. The difference between you and me, though, is that I admit it.
If anyone seeks comfort in religion in terrible times, I genuinely wish them well. It's not my choice, but I don't presume to know what's better for anyone else. Just myself. People practicing religion does not offend me. But opportunistic zealots who take a national tragedy and use it to promote their own relgious agenda do.
John at 2:11PM on Apr 18th 2007
9. Deborah,
I'm a Christian and this is why I believe that my "..loving, powerful God allow this?" evil in the world.
"If God exists, why is there evil in the world? You know, this is a difficult stumbling block and question for many people. The simplest way to look at this question is to examine God's nature and his desire for mankind. Look at the logic. God loves us and wants us to love him back. And how could we love him back unless we have the freedom to not love?
God could have made us like robots who do nothing more than say, "I love you. I love you. I love you." But we'd be forced to do that and that wouldn't be real love. Love is a choice. And if you have a choice you have to be able to choose not to love and that in itself is the nature of evil. Evil is choosing not to love. So when God gave us the freedom to choose, he gave us not only our greatest blessing, but he also gave us our greatest curse because we can choose to do right or choose to do wrong.
The reason there's evil in the world is not because of God, but because God gave us the freedom to choose. Now the potential for love outweighs the existence of evil, because you see, evil is only going to exist for a short time, but love is going to go on forever. And all of the suffering and all of the death that we see in the world today are the result because man has chosen to make wrong choices."
Jacob at 2:12PM on Apr 18th 2007
10. Hope that helps you know from a believer's point of view! But about this article, I don't agree with the writer. I'm a Christian but I don't see the point in using a time like this to attack atheism - Christians shouldn't be "attacking" anyone in the first place. What we should be doing is praying for the victims and their families and keeping them in our thoughts.
Jacob at 2:15PM on Apr 18th 2007
11. Unlike SOME people I could mention, atheists do not feel any need to twist a horrible tragedy to support bigoted religious and political views.
Your words prove that you know absolutely nothing about atheists.
Mark at 2:16PM on Apr 18th 2007
12. Why did Cho shoot up the campus and take 32 down with him? Because there is evil in this world. He was a hurting individual who became numb to the devastating consequences of his actions, and he acted out his darkest fantasy. As long as free will exists, good and evil will battle. A loving God wishes us to freely choose His ways of righteousness, the golden rule, and to love our neighbor as ourself. Righteousness is a progression based on our choices and reponse to God's love and guidance. When we don't choose Him, we choose evil. Evil is progressive and we continue to choose and/or indulge selfishness; thus (at it's darkest level) innocent victims. If God took every degree of selfishness and/or evil out of this world, we would not exist.
He allows us to continue existing, wanting us to finally respond to the conscience he gave us as a meter to measure right from wrong, evil from good.
R M at 2:26PM on Apr 18th 2007
13. Is the author of this blog as blockheaded as he seems to me?
Call on your priests, ministers, bishops, imams, shamans, and clerics of any cloth if you really think they can make you feel better. What sort of inane "God of Love" allows events like this to happen if he/she has the power to prevent it? If "God" is to be called upon to give balm to the sore of heart and spirit, isn't this deity also accountable for the event in the first place?
If all of these religious believers were calling upon Zeus or Odin or Ra or Horus or some other god of the past, we'd probably consider them nutcases. But no one makes the same distinction when it's Jehovah or God or Allah. Why? There's no more evidence for the existence of the latter gods than there is for the former.
As an atheist, my response to the students, the faculty, and the families of the victims would be to offer compassion, patience, a hug, a shoulder to cry upon, a reassurance that in the main life is good even though it contains tragedy. Furthermore, my ethics urge me to show compassion and loving kindness to all my fellow humans and other forms of life on this planet we share. Perhaps if Cho Seung-Hui had more of that in his life, no one would be calling upon their mythological gods for succor.
You can wait around for your god to do something, but I suspect you'll be waiting for eternity. Me, I'm going out to do something real, like advocate for stricter gun control to get the kinds of weapons that Cho used more difficult if not impossible to acquire.
Les at 3:18PM on Apr 18th 2007
14. In times of tragedy, I turn to my family and the people who care about me for comfort. My family is not religious. It is the people who matter, not the religion.
Marv at 3:30PM on Apr 18th 2007
15. As an atheist, I find this little posting by Mr. D'Souza a complete insult. I am horrified and deeply saddened by the massacre at Virginia Tech. I can not imagine what the student body, faculty and parents of the victims are going through right now. If they need to find comfort through spirituality then I support that 100%. Never would I write an article condemning spirituality even though I am a non-believer.
I live in NYC, I witnessed 9/11 and I share the same sadness and grief as anyone.
Mr. D'Souza says we need "more than modern science". Well, at times like this the best thing we need is each other - especially the families who lost their loved ones at Virginia Tech.
Kelly O at 3:41PM on Apr 18th 2007