Airport philosophy
(Continuing in the vein of various objections I have to philosophical naturalism / secularism / materialism as a worldview…) While waiting in the airport departure lounge this morning, I couldn’t help overhearing a conversation between two businessmen. One of the phrases struck me. He simply said,
“I don’t deserve this kind of treatment…”
I wonder what Richard Dawkins would make of this?
I mean, just what kind of treatment does a randomly-come-together collection of molecules actually deserve? To be deserving of a certain level of treatment presupposes some kind of inherent worth. Where does this worth come from. If our whole purpose of existence is reduced down to such a cruel, pitiless fact that we exist merely to help replicate a string of molecules, then meaning, purpose, ‘deservedness’ and the like are neither here nor there; they should not even come into matters of life. However frequently human conscience and philosophical inquiry attempts to bring them to the fore, they are simply categories that shouldn’t exist.
Dawkins attempts to explain this troubling idea away logically by saying that he feels privileged to be able to understand the world… but the very definition of privilege is that it is granted by someone. Who granted this privilege? And why is it even such a privilege when it will all lead to nothing in the end anyway? Even the sun will die one day…
Not only do Dawkins and his followers fail to subvert the foundations of theism, they are unable even to justify their own existence without borrowing the categories and terms of a Judaeo-Christian system that is utterly based on God’s existence, his sovereignty and his benevolence.
When the most fundamental questions are all greeted with deafening silence, surely you need to start questioning the very foundations upon which you stand…?
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Tags: Atheism, Bitesize Ideas, Dawkins, Provocative Thoughts
