Atheism-Shattered Faith - Essay Example

According to Michael Martin, negative atheism refers to “not having a belief in God or gods” (Martins 221). On the other hand, positive atheism is “the belief that there is no God or gods” (Martins 221). As it appears, atheism can be weak or strong. One who is skeptical of the existence of God or gods would be considered a weak atheist while someone who explicitly believes that there is nothing like God is often perceived as a strong atheist. Therefore, the generalization made by the author that atheism is “the belief that God doesn’t exist” does not explore atheism in its entirety.

Using Jainism, Martin illustrates the concept of atheism from the perspective of different scholars.  For example, E. Royston Pike notes that Jain theology is nonexistent making Jainism atheistic. The idea of God, spirits, and demons are all refuted. However, Jainism believes that there are supernatural beings: Tirchankaras (good men made perfect).  Similarly, J. Jaini asserts that Jainism believes in Godhood and numerous gods, but is atheistic in that they do not believe that the gods created the universe (Martins 222). All this evidence makes the claim in “Atheism-Shattered Faith” that atheists believe that there is no greater power in the universe invalid. A qualitative difference exists between weak and strong atheists. While some atheists believe that God or all gods do not exist, others are of the opinion that only specific deities exist, for example, the Christian God. They do not make an absolute rejection of the idea of the existence of God.

Buddhist philosophers like Jainism reject the idea of crowning God as the creator. According to them, if the universe is traced back to God, then several questions are invited such as ‘where did God come from?’ Fozdar argues that God is the absolute reality behind nirvana and the laws of karma. According to him, Buddhists rejected not the idea of the existence of God, but believed in a personal God who can speak using commonsense (Martins 226). This further shows that atheism is not just absolute disbelief in the existence of God as the essay “Atheism-Shattered Faith” claims because other atheists believe in the existence of specific gods. Atheism constitutes rejecting the existence of God or gods in a narrow or broader sense whereas a narrow sense is a disbelief in the existence of all gods. There are indeed atheistic religions and atheism does not necessarily mean antireligious (Martins 229). An atheist can admit that certain principles of a religion are correct but reject that God-sanctioned such principles.

God is usually perceived as a supernal creator. God makes man in accordance with a procedure and a conception. In philosophic atheism, the essence comes before existence. However, atheistic existentialism holds that if God is not existent, then there exists one being whose existence is prior to its essence. In many cases, people use logical reasoning to question the existence of the supernal creator, God. For instance, Jainist philosophers enthusiastically criticized the opinions of Nyaya philosophers in their bid to use logical reasoning to disapprove of the notion that God exists (Martins 223). This situation is similar to the author’s attempt to disapprove of God’s existence using his experiences. Using logical reasoning, the writer does not understand if God really exists because his prayers to him are not answered as he expected. This leads to weakening faith, which he also points out to have been experienced by the neighbor.

In investigating the link between the absurd and suicide, Camus argued that a man’s action is determined by what he believes to be true. As such, the belief in the existence of absurdity must therefore direct his conduct (Camus 3). Religious skeptics find a reason to reject the existence of God through evil. In the article “Atheism-Shattered Faith”, the author becomes skeptical about the existence of God because of the problems that happen around him. When the grandfather is sick in the hospital, the author prays to God so that he can be healed and relieved of his suffering. He expects immediate answers from God and when he gets the news that his grandfather is dead, his hopes in God get shattered. Humanity comes before religion. More often, people get blindfolded and accept the idea that God does not exist because of evils that befall them. The fact that there exist atheistic religions proves that atheism and religion do not oppose each other. Atheists can often support given aspects of theistic religions from aesthetic and moral perspectives.