Post by Occam's Spork on Feb 2, 2013 7:00:18 GMT 10
A way to determine whether a worldview is a religion is to look for certain characteristics that religions have in common. The framework that was set forth by Ninian Smart.
The dimensions proposed by Smart are narrative, experiential, social, ethical, doctrinal, ritual and material. *Not every religion has every dimension, nor are they all equally important within an individual religion.*
1. Narrative: Narrative is an important aspect of western Atheism. Richard Dawkins said, referring to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution:
“Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.”
Evolution is an explanation of where everything came from: the cosmos (came out of nothing at the big bang—nothing exploded and became everything); humans evolved from non-human creatures, hence humanity’s place in the cosmos is being just another species of animal.
2. Experiential: Many people have felt certain emotions when they participate in certain religious ceremonies. Atheists often believe that Atheism is freedom from religion, and some Atheists have reported feeling liberated after converting. Atheism also requires “faith” (using their own definition) that the laws of chemistry, physics and biology were once violated and life arose from non-life via chemical evolution.
3. Social: The social dimension of religion looks at the hierarchies and power structures present within the religion, such the Hindu caste system. In missionary religions, it also includes how people get converted and how missionaries go about their work. In the preface to The God Delusion, Dawkins says, “If this book works as I intend, religious readers who open it will be atheists when they put it down. ”What is being said is he hopes that his book converts “religious” people to his worldview – exactly what a missionary of any religion hopes to do. Communist countries often made the state religion Atheism, often to the point of persecuting (other) religions. Atheism is also taught to children in many schools in science classes as evolution. As atheistic philosopher Michael Ruse admits, “evolution is a religion”, and it could be considered the narrative dimension of Atheism. Thus teaching evolution is teaching Atheism.
4. Doctrinal: Doctrines are the beliefs and philosophies that develop out of a religion. The doctrines, ethics and goals outlined in the Humanist Manifesto, while being atheistic and accepting evolution as true, are opposite of what would be expected if they were solely derived from the evolutionary narrative. This is because Humanism also makes the assumption that humans are basically good.
In 1973 however, the Humanist Manifesto was updated because of the atrocities that humans inflicted upon other humans during the intervening years (specifically mentioned are Nazism and communist police states).
5. Ethical: Atheism is a morally relativist religion. Most Atheists adhere to one ethical system or another, but even Dawkins and Provine would admit, there is ultimately no foundation for morality, in atheism. But some have taken a step by creating ethical systems based on the evolutionary narrative and the principle of “survival of the fittest”.
6. Ritual: Ritual may be the only dimension which on the surface might appear to be absent from the religion of Atheism. It’s noteworthy, however that in recent years, the atheists’ public commemoration of the anniversary of Darwin’s birth each February (and even of the publication of his Origin of Species in November), along with calls for the general public to do the same, is rapidly becoming something of an annual ritual.
7. Material: The material dimension of religion includes all the physical things created by a religion such as art and buildings, and also natural features and places treated as sacred by adherents.
There are are two extremes in the range of ideas held by Atheists on the ‘material’:
-natural resources are here to be exploited because of “survival of the fittest” and humans are obviously the fittest species; or
-we should respect all of nature, particularly living things because to kill them is tantamount to murdering a cousin. This second view essentially holds that all life is ‘sacred’.
Conclusion: Contemporary Western Atheism unquestionably has six of the seven dimensions of religion set forth by Smart, and the remaining dimension, ritual, has also started to develop.
Thus it’s fallacious to assert, “Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair colour”. Perhaps a better analogy would be calling a shaved head a “hairstyle”. Other than the denial of the divine, there is little difference between Atheism and other worldviews typically labelled as religions.
The dimensions proposed by Smart are narrative, experiential, social, ethical, doctrinal, ritual and material. *Not every religion has every dimension, nor are they all equally important within an individual religion.*
1. Narrative: Narrative is an important aspect of western Atheism. Richard Dawkins said, referring to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution:
“Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.”
Evolution is an explanation of where everything came from: the cosmos (came out of nothing at the big bang—nothing exploded and became everything); humans evolved from non-human creatures, hence humanity’s place in the cosmos is being just another species of animal.
2. Experiential: Many people have felt certain emotions when they participate in certain religious ceremonies. Atheists often believe that Atheism is freedom from religion, and some Atheists have reported feeling liberated after converting. Atheism also requires “faith” (using their own definition) that the laws of chemistry, physics and biology were once violated and life arose from non-life via chemical evolution.
3. Social: The social dimension of religion looks at the hierarchies and power structures present within the religion, such the Hindu caste system. In missionary religions, it also includes how people get converted and how missionaries go about their work. In the preface to The God Delusion, Dawkins says, “If this book works as I intend, religious readers who open it will be atheists when they put it down. ”What is being said is he hopes that his book converts “religious” people to his worldview – exactly what a missionary of any religion hopes to do. Communist countries often made the state religion Atheism, often to the point of persecuting (other) religions. Atheism is also taught to children in many schools in science classes as evolution. As atheistic philosopher Michael Ruse admits, “evolution is a religion”, and it could be considered the narrative dimension of Atheism. Thus teaching evolution is teaching Atheism.
4. Doctrinal: Doctrines are the beliefs and philosophies that develop out of a religion. The doctrines, ethics and goals outlined in the Humanist Manifesto, while being atheistic and accepting evolution as true, are opposite of what would be expected if they were solely derived from the evolutionary narrative. This is because Humanism also makes the assumption that humans are basically good.
In 1973 however, the Humanist Manifesto was updated because of the atrocities that humans inflicted upon other humans during the intervening years (specifically mentioned are Nazism and communist police states).
5. Ethical: Atheism is a morally relativist religion. Most Atheists adhere to one ethical system or another, but even Dawkins and Provine would admit, there is ultimately no foundation for morality, in atheism. But some have taken a step by creating ethical systems based on the evolutionary narrative and the principle of “survival of the fittest”.
6. Ritual: Ritual may be the only dimension which on the surface might appear to be absent from the religion of Atheism. It’s noteworthy, however that in recent years, the atheists’ public commemoration of the anniversary of Darwin’s birth each February (and even of the publication of his Origin of Species in November), along with calls for the general public to do the same, is rapidly becoming something of an annual ritual.
7. Material: The material dimension of religion includes all the physical things created by a religion such as art and buildings, and also natural features and places treated as sacred by adherents.
There are are two extremes in the range of ideas held by Atheists on the ‘material’:
-natural resources are here to be exploited because of “survival of the fittest” and humans are obviously the fittest species; or
-we should respect all of nature, particularly living things because to kill them is tantamount to murdering a cousin. This second view essentially holds that all life is ‘sacred’.
Conclusion: Contemporary Western Atheism unquestionably has six of the seven dimensions of religion set forth by Smart, and the remaining dimension, ritual, has also started to develop.
Thus it’s fallacious to assert, “Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair colour”. Perhaps a better analogy would be calling a shaved head a “hairstyle”. Other than the denial of the divine, there is little difference between Atheism and other worldviews typically labelled as religions.