This is not a good moment for me to offend people, because it's important to attract friendly reviews of my new novel, Partners. One wonders if it matters. There is no urgent search for a dark tale set in 1975, no eager constituency for gun-toting white male wildcats on the wrong side of the law. To mention their atheism (and mine) is an honest acknowledgment, a sort of truth in book promotion, probably a mistake.
I do not object to other authors who ground their fictional tales in faith, nor do I doubt that it honestly reflects the truth of life as they see it. Heroism has been traditionally attributed to selfless sacrifice, transcendant inspiration, and faithful dedication to something larger than mortal life on earth. I join with my religious brothers and sisters who despise the grim grit of Beat Generation literature and the sly goofiness of Gen X icons. The meaning of life is not the number 42.
Most of the hippies and Boomers of my acquaintance operate on the fundaments of secular faith, in particular the Golden Rule, extending to others Christian benevolence, forgiveness, and equality. Their choice of sacraments and rituals are a bit different, but the Western world broadly agrees that aggression is wrong, democracy right, and discrimination a crime. It has become a widely shared article of faith that white men are despicable if they take advantage of women, although no opinion is dared to be thought concerning the behavior of blacks.
I suspect that all faith is driven by an anodyne puzzle. Why are we here? Materialists have no good solution, no matter how eloquently illuminated by science. At best, it dismisses Biblical accounts of Creation, but science leaves unanswered the question of why life should exist at all? Fantasies hypothesizing alien injections of knowledge in ancient Egypt or on Mount Sinai cannot explain how life arose from the Big Bang ex nihilo, something out of nothing.
The correct attitude toward life is to accept it, without speculation as to its origin or meaning beyond the plain fact of an individual lifespan and knowable conditions that advance or hurt one's survival. We were not endowed with the power of choice to please an immortal robot. We possess the practical faculty of human thought, sufficient to differentiate and perceive options in life, without reference to tales authored by ancient nomads.
Among the many choices open to man, one can certainly join a church or remain loyal to the tradition inherited from a clan that bestows material advantages to well behaved adherents. The surest path to poverty and defeat is to walk away from organized society. Atheism is no different than political heresy, unwilling to sing in a collective choir and pledge fealty to the marketplace of goods and services driven by opportunists. Undoubtedly, it requires diligence and sobriety to launch a successful product, develop and maintain infrastructure, organize a political campaign, and manage a legacy of paper claims to wealth and power. There are few denied a place at the collective table, unless they jump ship.
Right or wrong, treason is risky business. I have an acquaintance who is an Islamic apostate, a crime punishable by death. His example gave me courage and, although it is too dangerous to communicate or keep company with him, he animates the work I chose to do in life, in honor of the simple truth that honesty is a bright flame fueled by integrity.
https://youtu.be/HRGX2FiHOS0
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