Fundamentalist Atheism

Strange Notions is a new Disqus site run by Brandon Vogt to try to discuss Rationality and Reason with Athiests.

He may well succeed with some, but there is one subset of atheism he will never succeed with. On Richard Dawkin's spectrum of theistic probability, those with a score 6 and above often fall into something I term fundamentalist atheism. Many of them come from fundamentalist Christian backgrounds, if not in their generation, then within three generations of their recent past.

Fundamentalist Atheism starts with the assumption that the supernatural doesn't exist and that the natural world is all there is, and runs with it, denying any data to the contrary.

I've always been one to consider the natural to be a subset of the supernatural- that is the only real difference between the natural and the supernatural to me is the line of the shared scientific knowledge of mankind. A scientist, therefore, if he is to learn anything new about the universe, needs to have his primary focus on the supernatural- those items which are currently *beyond* natural knowledge, in hopes of bringing them into natural knowledge. As a theist, I am not threatened by that- in fact I celebrate it, for such explanations make my job as an evangelist easier, not harder, for the most part.

But the fundamentalist atheist can never be a true scientist- for he denies there is anything beyond *current science*. Like the feminist biologist I recently met who truly thought the science and engineering behind premature birth survival rates hadn't advanced since 1989 (and thus, was going with a viability line of 26 weeks for her personal morality surrounding abortion!). Such opinions are not based in reason, they are based in political correctness and being even more ignorant of morality than a Westboro Baptist. The really scary part for them is a universal God implies a universal morality, and that, they cannot even let themselves consider.

For such denial of the existence of "non scientific evidence", I see no possible way to dialogue.

But there is hope for the site. I recently ran into two very interesting comments, one on the site, the other in an Amazon book review. Apparently, anti-Catholicism and anti-Atheism are the last two politically correct bigotries. Anything a famous atheist tweets, any moral pronouncement by the Catholic Church, will quickly be criticized by secular post-Christian, post-modern society.