In Defense of Atheism...

With but a limited time on the planet, why waste it on baseless suppositions? As Michel Onfray writes, of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, in his book In Defense of Atheism: “Not only do they celebrate ignorance, innocence, naivety, obedience and submission, the three religions disdain the texture, forms and forces of the world. The here and now is irrelevant”. For those gazing heavenwards, or anticipating the imminence of God’s kingdom, the present moment may indeed be a blip, a distraction, a minor temporal inconvenience, a mere dress rehearsal for a more important and long-awaited event. However, for those of us who prefer to live in freedom, not serfdom, the “here and now” is in no sense irrelevant. The righteous diminish the importance of the present moment until it becomes little more than a corridor linking their memories of the past to their expectations for the future. It is squeezed so hard between past and future that, like the grin of the Cheshire cat encountered by Alice in Wonderland, it almost disappears.