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It's time to explain, why I declare myself as a "soft-washed atheist". This can be best described by two genius short stories.
"Kissing Hank's ass", original publication by James Huber
Kissing Hank's ass, short movie by Jamal Qutub
I found to atheism in my twenties. At this time, when I was a young and wild atheist, "Kissing Hank's Ass" was exactly what I wanted: A great piece of satire, a fun story describing the logical inconsistencies of theistic faith in a bizarre analogy. The plot is especially making fun of Christian groups sending missionaries from door to door, like the Mormons or Jehova's Witnesses.
Soon I began to wonder: The truth is so obvious, why is God then still a thing? Isn't it time that mankind gets rid of these old beliefs? Shouldn't we show the people more videos like this? That would convince most of them, wouldn't it? Yes, back then I was quite naive.
Over the years, my approach to atheism has changed. Today I'm done with all these efforts to disprove God and convince others of it. The arguments are placed, everything is said about it, and still many people believe in God or at least in "something higher". That's okay, why shouldn't they? I think there are more important things to care about than the question, whether God exists and people should believe in it.
Nevertheless, about 90% of atheist content just circles around these arguments. It was fun reading when I had found to atheism, but the older I get the more I see it as a waste of time, In fact there is much more to read, to think and to explore than just this "Gretchenfrage".
Actually there are ideas, where it makes perfectly sense to assume a God, at least in a metaphorical manner. One well-known example is Albert Einstein's early scepticism on quantum mechanics, expressed in his famous quote "God doesn't dice". Another example is the second short story I want to present here:
"The Egg", original publication by Andy Weir
"The Egg", animated movie by "Kurzgesagt"
This disturbing and at the same time fascinating story is one of the best pieces of literature I have ever read. Spoiler alert: The next paragraphs are about the plot of this story.
This short story is special in many aspects. One brilliant detail is, that it is a dialogue between a man and God, narrated by ... God! In the end the story depicts worldview, which is an interesting combination of reincarnation and solipsism. I had never read about such a worldview before reading this story, although it has been known in philosophy by the term "panpsychism".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism
How should atheists deal with this story? Of course I am not here to give any advice. I just have the feeling that many atheists, especially those in the "young and wild" phase as described above, are so narrowly focused on debunking theism, that simply don't have any idea how to deal with it. It is no typical religious text, but it is about God, who is even a main character here. What should an atheist think about it?
Atheists tend to argue against religion with science. Indeed, the worldview expressed in "The Egg" can be easily put into question by scientific evidence, especially the theory of evolution. If the godly fetus to grow reincarnates as every human that ever existed, at which stage of human evolution did it start? Which species of Homo are included in this chain of reincarnation, only Homo Sapiens Sapiens, or also the Neanderthals, the Cro-Magnon, etc.?
The thing is, these questions miss the point. "The Egg" is no scientific work, it is philosophical literature. In contrast to "Kissing Hank's Ass", "The Egg" is not a story about God, but about life and the world, presenting a framework to look on it in an unconventional way, from a different perspective.
If you just focus on collecting the best arguments against the existence of God, you can't do much with this story. But when you are done with that and simply accept God as a figure of imagination and phantasy, you can enjoy the gifts of good stories like this one. That is how my religious views evolved, which I call "soft-washed atheism".
Feel free to respond or comment via e-mail:
CC BY-SA 4.0 Martin Marot-Perz, 2023-01-25
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