It is a worth reading article by Susan Jacoby, an atheist. She encourages atheists to show their positive, emotional and softer side. In the last few days, we heard atheism mostly based on negativism and vile attacks on religion.Viler the attacks, higher the slogans of Bravo and praise!

I think she should have condemned the extreme views of atheists like Dawkins and Hitchens. Unfortunately most of the views and tone of the language we heard in our Forum was closer to Dawkins. I have difference of opinion with author’s views, but I appreciate her demeanor and approach.( F. Sheikh)

Some excerpts;

“It is a positive blessing, not a negation of belief, to be free of what is known as the theodicy problem. Human “free will” is Western monotheism’s answer to the question of why God does not use his power to prevent the slaughter of innocents, and many people throughout history (some murdered as heretics) have not been able to let God off the hook in that fashion.

The atheist is free to concentrate on the fate of this world — whether that means visiting a friend in a hospital or advocating for tougher gun control laws — without trying to square things with an unseen overlord in the next. Atheists do not want to deny religious believers the comfort of their faith. We do want our fellow citizens to respect our deeply held conviction that the absence of an afterlife lends a greater, not a lesser, moral importance to our actions on earth.

Today’s atheists would do well to emulate some of the great 19th-century American freethinkers, who insisted that reason and emotion were not opposed but complementary.”

The author talks about Robert Ingersoll, the Great Agnostic of 19^th century.

“He also frequently delivered secular eulogies at funerals and offered consolation that he clearly considered an important part of his mission. In 1882, at the graveside of a friend’s child, he declared: “They who stand with breaking hearts around this little grave, need have no fear. The larger and the nobler faith in all that is, and is to be, tells us that death, even at its worst, is only perfect rest … The dead do not suffer.”

“We must speak up as atheists in order to take responsibility for whatever it is humans are responsible for — including violence in our streets and schools. We need to demonstrate that atheism is rooted in empathy as well as intellect. And although atheism is not a religion, we need community-based outreach programs so that our activists will be as recognizable to their neighbors as the clergy.”

“Finally, we need to show up at gravesides, as Ingersoll did, to offer whatever consolation we can.”

To read full article click on link below;

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/opinion/sunday/the-blessings-of-atheism.html?pagewanted=1&ref=general&src=me

Posted by F. Sheikh