DIARY: Rise of the New Atheists

In recent year's my always atheist notions have grown in intensity and the works of great thinkers such as Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and others, have rooted the desire to take a more active stance for a society free of superstitution where religion is firmly returned to a non-privileged position in human discourse.

I must admit to having had "crises of faith", and certainly went through a period as an agnostic and even (for a brief period) a spiritual agnost. It was my luck that the writings of front-line scientists and philosopher's such as Ervin Laszlo, and Charles Zeife, clearly demonstrated that most spiritual books that seem intuitively and tangible "real", can actually be explained quite readily by the latest scientific understandings.

Mysticisms move into Mainstream Science
The prime example is the much heralded Power of Now (and follow-up book "A New Earth") by Echkhart Tolle (born Ulrich Tolle) which I find endlessly gratifying to read, and very applicable to a spiritually sounder life. Luckily, Eckhart Tolle, while drawing on religious inspirations at times, does not claim his work to be religious, and even better, if you look at the latest theories of the universe (the range of theories that emerged from our developing understanding of Quantum Physics and its generally counter-intuitive statements about our world), its clear that the good mr. Eckhart only stumbled upon various ways to force a stronger engagement with the zero-point holofield in the quantum vacuum (called the "Psi-field" by Laszlo) on which all mass-energy (including us) in the universe floats.

In other words, everything in the universe is indeed connected, but most of these connections are not as yet fully measurable (which is why they have classically been defined as "mystical" or "religious" when they are indeed fully mappable by science).

New Atheism
Given the ills of religion that has been clearly demonstrated in works such as End of Faith, God is Not Great, and The God Delusion, and the rise of a new vision of the universe that will explain away every remaining mystical phenomenon (including, and wait for this: the origin of the universe), I think it's important as an atheist to ensure that our societies become as secular and freed of superstituous beliefs that cause division and delay scientific inquiry, and we must take an active role, as a group, to ensure this happens.

That being said, I eschew the term "New Atheist" as this is a delibirately labelling by religious interest groups used to showcase that Atheism is in fact just another belief (e.g. the "Faith of Science"). This is patently incongruent and a fallacy, and atheism is not an institution no more than, as Sam Harris witfully put it, people who don't believe in Astrologers are called "non-Astrologers".

Choosing not to believe something is not a belief in itself, it's a non-belief. For this reason I have joined up with the Irish Atheists, and joined the online communities of Richard Dawkin's Foundation for Reason and Science, and Sam Harris' Project Reason, as well as the emerging political Atheist group, "The Brights". (a name I happen to take issue with, as being an Atheist in no means insulates you from holding irrational and unreasonable beliefs, prime examples is Stalin who replaced religious beliefs by semi-religious dogmatic state-religion as well as belief in very spurious science). The goal of the group is noble, however, and I try to see beyond the naming.

It's worth mentioning that the board of Project Reason include not only the likes of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitches, but also other eminent thinkers and critics such as Ibn Warraq (Koran critic), Salman Rushdie, Peter Atkins and Stephen Weinberg.

With such people at the helm, I dare believe for a future where nothing is beyond, or protected, from rational discourse and every opinion is examined and indeed criticised based on the same set of parametres.

So for the religious that surely makes me a New Atheist, but I'm really just a non-believer. Holding irrational beliefs for the sake of it, is an unacceptable, and dangerous thing for any society to tolerate, and you do not need to look many year's back to see just how dangerous.

The Claim of the Chosen
The human brain, like everything else in existence, is connected to everything else in the universe through this quantum-based holofield that science now proposes (in the form of Psi-Field, Akashic Field, Zero-Point Energy Field and many other theoretical incarnations).

Recent studies show that we can indeed perceive things beyond our own brain (past lives, extrasensory perception, racial memory, emotions of others) just as most animals are tuned into the field through the Earth's magnetic field (fish using the field to navigate the ocean, birds using it to navigate through their migrations etc.).

Most are not conscious of this, however, and indeed cannot fully utilise it, but this doesn't mean the connection isn't there. What studies also showed is that certain states of consciousness such as trance, prayer, meditation, sleep etc. heightens the degree of connectedness we have to this field.

No doubt, all genuine "religious" experiences are results of people interacting with the all-connecting field at a higher level than they have previously been able to, making this a profound experience. It's therefore ironic, that is has, throughout history, been used as an argument for claiming that these same people discovered the "best path to God" (religion being defined as a "Path to God") thus causing the divisions and schisms we see today, when in fact they stumbled upon the very physical truth that we are all equally interconnected.

Again, the danger of not reasonably trying to deal with experiences and perceptions and analyzing it through rational discourse, shows, as this misbegotten conclusion in relation to the actual composition of the universe clearly shows. If only the first religious had drawn the lessons of contemporary scientists from their experience!