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| Alain de Botton:Atheism 2 (A TED presentation) |
This video was sent to me by a good friend
who asked me to comment on it. Here is what I replied to her.
The talk was very interesting (and entertaining). The
Roman orator Cicero noticed that every nation has its gods. He took the consent
of all peoples to be a fact or truth of nature: that some deity must exist.
Romans 1:18-23; 2:12-16 indicates that the human heart has a knowledge of God
and His law--a knowledge that men may suppress, distort and deny. So if
secularism is admitted to be full of holes, and if religion provides material
to plug those holes, what does that suggest? Here's a word picture for what I
think is happening. Secularism has tried to put a hard brass dome over our
heads, a dome that is designed to keep anything immaterial or supernatural out
of our lives and thinking. However, the dome has holes and something from
outside keeps poking through. Not only that, but the thing that keeps poking
through turns out to be just what we need to be fully human. Why, therefore,
should one assume that secularism presents a complete picture of reality and of
human life? Is it not reasonable to ask if there is something more; something
outside the brass dome of matter and energy; something that not only can, but
must break through that dome? (I have used "secularism" instead of
"atheism" because many secular people are practical atheists, even if
they would not describe themselves that way.)
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