The article brings up Antony Flew and a handful of others who become "faithful" (note that most convert to some form or other of deism which refers to a non-personal god who started things off and hasn't even looked at us since) after having been atheists.
Antony Flew's is a particularly sad story which I think might be the result of some form of senility. The really sad thing is that Antony Flew said that what had convinced him was intelligent design. Which is anything but intelligent. It mascquerades itself as science but is, just like other religious or dogmatic beliefs, unfalsifiable and therefore unscientific.
The article also refers to A.N. Wilson who claims that transcendent feelings cannot be experienced outside of the framework of a belief in god. Since such a statement is fairly subjective I'll have to resort to my personal experience when I say that this is wholly fallacious. I've had more frequent and more powerful transcendent, you could even call them "religious," experiences as an atheist than I'd ever had as a christian. And that's saying quite a lot.
It doesn't take a belief in a god, it merely requires that one observe the world around them and appreciate the vast wonders therein. To look up at the stars and ponder the scale of the universe and our relation to it, to look through a microscope and see the beautiful microcosmos that make up the very tiny world around us, gives us that feeling of being a part of something bigger than ourselves while keeping our beliefs constrained to those that can be verified with evidence. And since it was merely asserted in the article, and out of my own pithiness and lack of time, there are completely valid scientific reasons for appreciating art and music in a transcendent way.
Antony Flew's is a particularly sad story which I think might be the result of some form of senility. The really sad thing is that Antony Flew said that what had convinced him was intelligent design. Which is anything but intelligent. It mascquerades itself as science but is, just like other religious or dogmatic beliefs, unfalsifiable and therefore unscientific.
The article also refers to A.N. Wilson who claims that transcendent feelings cannot be experienced outside of the framework of a belief in god. Since such a statement is fairly subjective I'll have to resort to my personal experience when I say that this is wholly fallacious. I've had more frequent and more powerful transcendent, you could even call them "religious," experiences as an atheist than I'd ever had as a christian. And that's saying quite a lot.
It doesn't take a belief in a god, it merely requires that one observe the world around them and appreciate the vast wonders therein. To look up at the stars and ponder the scale of the universe and our relation to it, to look through a microscope and see the beautiful microcosmos that make up the very tiny world around us, gives us that feeling of being a part of something bigger than ourselves while keeping our beliefs constrained to those that can be verified with evidence. And since it was merely asserted in the article, and out of my own pithiness and lack of time, there are completely valid scientific reasons for appreciating art and music in a transcendent way.
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