The importance of believing in God
Part 2: Maybe secularism can give a decent account of itself after all.
It’s difficult to see how secularism can give me anything like as satisfying a psychological package as belief in God can. But we will try.
Richard Dawkins, among others, has given us an inspiring vision that some people may find sufficient to live by. He focuses on the extraordinary unlikeliness of us ever coming into existence. He has a powerful image: imagine an eternity of darkness both before your life began, and after it ends. But now, for the period of your life, imagine a bright beam of light illuminating a breath-taking universe and a life of wonderful opportunities. How fortunate to be alive! You so very nearly did not come into existence, but, amazingly, here you are! Yes, your life will end in less than two handfuls of decades, but we must accept the realities of existence in this physical universe. Don’t think on the end; revel in the extraordinary wonderfulness of being alive, and – within the context of society in which you find yourself – use your time to the full. Not just in selfish pleasures – you don’t have to adopt the ideology that life is about maximising consumer pleasures and completing the world’s most impressive bucket list. You can be altruistic and compassionate – for these bring us to the pinnacle of what it means to live, while also exulting in achieving personal goals and rejoicing in the wonders of the natural world. Be wise; be realistic: you cannot do everything you wish, but you can do many things. You are not invincible and invulnerable, but you are lucky enough to be alive in the 21st century, in a democratic, peaceful, lawful society, with its scientific and technological wonders, its prosperity and its immense opportunities in a free, liberal society. Enjoy life! Be strong in spirit: it will certainly come to an end – and apparently all too soon, though in 80 or more years we will have time to do so much – and our life may be taken away from us through the carelessness, hatred or greed of others. But if we are lucky – and the chances are we will be lucky – and we are already so absurdly lucky to be here at all – just accept life as a temporary gift. Your consciousness came into existence, and it will go out of existence, but while you are conscious, embrace this outrageous gift that lucky chance has given you.
This is truly uplifting and inspiring, and achieves many of the goals that I set in order to live up to in a comparison with the religious person’s belief in God. It does give a framework of understanding for our lives. Many people may feel it’s a better framework because it is completely provable and therefore “honest” – certainly in the sense of not relying on any beliefs that cannot be proven. It provides a rationale for a moral and compassionate life, while also chiming in with the modern emphasis on personal fulfilment, the search for happiness, and the freedom to spend your life however you choose. I think we can easily see that people to whom “life deals a good hand” – so that they can indeed take advantage of the wonderful opportunities of life – and who have a strong philosophy of life to guide and strengthen them through trials and tribulations, could well be happy adopting Mr Dawkins’ ideology to live their lives by. Someone like me might want to say, “Ah, but you’re all on your own”, but the secularist can reply: “Yes, in a way I am – but that’s just accepting the facts of existence. And I turn that into a positive: it’s up to me to steer my course through life – I don’t “cry out to God” when times get tough”. And, they can add, that they’re not really alone, it’s simply up to them to nurture the immense resources of social relationships that life presents to us.
So, I’ve done my best to prove myself wrong and give a glowing account of how secularism can indeed provide a satisfying psychological pattern.
Is there a way to compare the two systems of thought?
Spiritual Devotion 