This is an excerpt from God Arises by Sheikh Wahiduddin. This is one of the answers of how the atheistic mind works. Yes, I realize that this might be long but to understand the society in which we live in, it is worth reading. In my view, the author is brilliant.
Prejudice of Atheist
The concept of God and religion will never fit into the narrow frame of their materialistic minds. Yet their dissatisfaction is not really due to any lack of sound reasoning behind religion. No, the actual reason for their disagreeing with us is that their prejudiced minds are not prepared to accept religious reasoning. Sir James at the end of his book, Mysterious Universe correctly remarked: ‘Our modern minds have a sort of bias in favor of materialistic explanation of facts.’
In his book, Witness, Chambers tells us how he was watching his little daughter one day, when he found that he had unconsciously become aware of the shape of her ear. He thought to himself how impossible it was that such delicate design could have come about by chance. They could have been created only by premeditated design. But he pushed this thought out of his mind, because he realized that the next step in logical sequence would have to be: design presupposes God- a thesis he was not ready to accept. With reference to this incident, Thomas David, former Chairman of Department of Chemistry, Stanford: ‘I have known many scientists among my professors and research colleagues who have similar thoughts about observed facts and physics.’
I confess that it is beyond my power to satisfy those scholars whose bias in favor of materialistic reasoning is so strong that they are unable to keep their minds open to self-evident facts. There is a particular reason for the bias, about which George Herbert, an American physicist had this to say:
‘Conviction of the reasonableness of theism and the tenuousness of atheism usually in itself does not cause a man to accept practical theism. There seems to be an almost innate suspicion that the recognition of God will somehow rob one of freedom. To the Scholar, who cherishes intellectual liberty, any thought of abridged freedom is especially dreadful.’
In the same sense, the concept of Prophet hood has been described by Julian Huxley as an ‘intolerable demonstration of superiority’. That is, the acceptance of someone as a Prophet implies his elevation to such a high status that his word becomes the word of God, giving him, in consequence, the right to impose his will on the people, the right to make people accept his word as law. BUT THEN that is what it means to be a Prophet, and when man is the creature and not the creator, he is in the position of being the humble slave of God, and not God, how can this situation be changed or avoided simply on the basis of concepts which are the result of ignorance or wishful thinking?
Cressy Morrison asks, with reason, in his book, Man Does not Stand Alone, ‘How much must man advance before he fully realizes the existence of a Supreme Intelligence, grasps His Goodness that we exist, assumes his full part in destiny and strives to live up to the highest code he is capable of understanding without attempting to analyze God’s motive, or describe His attributes?’
Things are as they are. We cannot change the hard reality: we simply have to acknowledge it, accept it, bow to it. Now, if we are not to adopt an ostrich-like attitude, rather to deny it. By denying the truth, it is man who loses. His denial of the truth in no way alters, harms, or diminishes it. The truth is the truth.
Prejudice of Atheist
The concept of God and religion will never fit into the narrow frame of their materialistic minds. Yet their dissatisfaction is not really due to any lack of sound reasoning behind religion. No, the actual reason for their disagreeing with us is that their prejudiced minds are not prepared to accept religious reasoning. Sir James at the end of his book, Mysterious Universe correctly remarked: ‘Our modern minds have a sort of bias in favor of materialistic explanation of facts.’
In his book, Witness, Chambers tells us how he was watching his little daughter one day, when he found that he had unconsciously become aware of the shape of her ear. He thought to himself how impossible it was that such delicate design could have come about by chance. They could have been created only by premeditated design. But he pushed this thought out of his mind, because he realized that the next step in logical sequence would have to be: design presupposes God- a thesis he was not ready to accept. With reference to this incident, Thomas David, former Chairman of Department of Chemistry, Stanford: ‘I have known many scientists among my professors and research colleagues who have similar thoughts about observed facts and physics.’
I confess that it is beyond my power to satisfy those scholars whose bias in favor of materialistic reasoning is so strong that they are unable to keep their minds open to self-evident facts. There is a particular reason for the bias, about which George Herbert, an American physicist had this to say:
‘Conviction of the reasonableness of theism and the tenuousness of atheism usually in itself does not cause a man to accept practical theism. There seems to be an almost innate suspicion that the recognition of God will somehow rob one of freedom. To the Scholar, who cherishes intellectual liberty, any thought of abridged freedom is especially dreadful.’
In the same sense, the concept of Prophet hood has been described by Julian Huxley as an ‘intolerable demonstration of superiority’. That is, the acceptance of someone as a Prophet implies his elevation to such a high status that his word becomes the word of God, giving him, in consequence, the right to impose his will on the people, the right to make people accept his word as law. BUT THEN that is what it means to be a Prophet, and when man is the creature and not the creator, he is in the position of being the humble slave of God, and not God, how can this situation be changed or avoided simply on the basis of concepts which are the result of ignorance or wishful thinking?
Cressy Morrison asks, with reason, in his book, Man Does not Stand Alone, ‘How much must man advance before he fully realizes the existence of a Supreme Intelligence, grasps His Goodness that we exist, assumes his full part in destiny and strives to live up to the highest code he is capable of understanding without attempting to analyze God’s motive, or describe His attributes?’
Things are as they are. We cannot change the hard reality: we simply have to acknowledge it, accept it, bow to it. Now, if we are not to adopt an ostrich-like attitude, rather to deny it. By denying the truth, it is man who loses. His denial of the truth in no way alters, harms, or diminishes it. The truth is the truth.
