Can an atheist really be good?

Those are not at all to be tolerated who deny the being of a God...promises, covenants, and oaths, which are the bonds of human society, can have no hold upon an atheist. The taking away of God, though but even in thought, dissolves all.
- John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration
But can a person who does not acknowledge that he is accountable to a truth higher than the self, external to the self, really be trusted?
- Richard John Neuhaus, Can Atheists Be Good Citizens?
The Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky is often quoted as saying, “If there is no God, everything is permitted.” Similarly, the French existentialist Jean Paul Sartre has allegedly opined that "If there is no God, the only honest response is despair." We will allow those continental notables a bit of slack, as the exact sources of those quotes are difficult to pin down. Still, despite anything else those thoughts certainly convey ideas about atheism which an honest atheist should find hard to dispute.
If there is no God, everything is permitted. Sartre taught, rightly, in context, I would argue, that with no God each individual is god. Without a God of some sort as a philosophic basis for thought and action then everything is indeed permissible. The individual would have no need to consider other persons' rights. There would be nothing to measure them against if life, the universe, and everything were merely a personal domain.
Atheists will argue that this isn't true. An atheist can care about others, about right and wrong, about being responsible for themselves and his fellow man. Yet if what Sartre and Dostoevsky say is true, then the responsible atheist is being good only because he either isn't a real atheist or is, at the least, simply choosing to live better than his ideals require.
Why should it be any other way? An atheist after all believes (he must believe this as, again, a logical extension of his nonbelief) that we are accidents of the universe who came into being quite out of our control and will leave existence behind in a like manner. Where can you infer responsibility from that? You surely can't find dignity in it either.
I should point out that I am not talking about what many if not most atheists say atheism is but about where atheism, if true, must lead whether the adherents accept such conclusions or not. I will not dispute that most atheists lead relatively good lives. Yet that doesn't prove that atheism is true any more than a cold blooded murder by an avowed Christian would disprove Christianity. While it is generally good advice to question practitioners of given creeds when you want to find out what they believe, this cannot mean that they are in fact right about what they assert. There is a self interest involved in any creed, even Christianity, which may itself cast doubt on the veracity of the creed.
If atheism is true then the atheists who pay their bills on time, respect others, and plan for the future do so either because they're better than their premise requires or are just selfish about their comfort. There really are no other explanations for the 'good' atheist.

Thursday on the road.

A couple of things hit me as I drove through northern Ohio yesterday.
Just south of Toledo is an exit for Ohio State Route 582. The signage for the exit reads that 582 will take you to the towns of Luckey and Haskins. When passing I found myself thinking, 'Oh, that Luckey Haskins!'
A few miles down the road I came to Arlington. You know, the village with sibling issues. Anyway, I noticed a building for sale. The sale was being handled by Farthing Real Estate. So, I wondered, might the company be owned by Hobbits?
Come on, on long drives a guy has to find ways to entertain himself.

Governments are exasperating

Folks ask me why I do not trust government (they really do). Today I shall try to answer why. And I will try to be as neutral as I can, so I do not appear to be any of the isms I am constantly accused of being. Also, because I don't want to offend the dignity of our civil servants. They are, most of them I readily concede, only trying to make a living. I respect and understand that. So please forgive the choppy, roundabout language.

I traversed to a government agency today to transact business which my government demands that I transact. I arrived within their reasonable hours and waited to transact my business.

When my number was announced, I approached the counter. I offered my paperwork. They asked why I had presented them one particular paper. I answered, because I had understood it was expected of me.

They assured me that it wasn't necessary. All will be well. Then they presumed to work on my requests.

And they messed them up. Fortunately I caught the errors (there were three). The point is I had to tell them how to do their job before I could get out of their office. And I have no direct experience of how to do their job. They were supposed to be the experts.

Everything is straight now. I think. I won't actually know until my things arrive in the mail. But this was not the first time I have dealt with inefficient government and I doubt it will be the last. Bureaucracies tend to be inefficient and their hirelings tend to be less than stellar, whether by their fault or that of the bureaucracy itself. And that is one of the reasons why I don't trust government.

2001: A Birthday Odyssey

As many of you might already know, I just celebrated a birthday. And it was a good one too. My sons bought me some great DVDs and baseball tickets, and my daughter took me to a midnight showing of 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's perhaps my favorite movie.

By now I'm sure there has been a combination of eye rolling (from those who don't like the film) and nods of agreement (from those who do). Be all that as it may, I like the movie. A lot.

But how do you watch it? The best way is on the big screen. Yet that's true of most any film made for theaters. What, you may ask, in Marty's mind makes it such a grand motion picture?

I'm wont to argue that whether Stanley Kubrick meant it or not, he made a film which touches on the numinous in a profound and inspiring way. Arthur C. Clarke, who collaborated with him on the project, said at the time (the 1960s, when the film was made) that MGM had just made the first $10 million religious picture. I believe he's right, in a manner of speaking.

The fact is that stories take on a life of their own as they develop. 2001 touches on the mystery and awe inspired by all the great questions and great philosophers of history in an innovative and compelling way.

All that being said, and part of me can't believe that someone like me is about to say what I'm about to say, the best way to watch 2001 is to just let it overwhelm you. Allow yourself to drift into its universe; simply sit back and watch it, get lost in it if you will, accepting its pace and unusual qualities, and take in the accomplishments and limitations of humankind (mainly symbolically, but quite literally at points) roll out before you. And I believe the film will make more sense then.

Marty's birthday

Happy birthday to...me.

Yeah, I should be taking my morning walk. But I'm not. I'm sitting on my bed, typing on my laptop, thinking life is good.

And you know what?

Life is good.

Peace out.

Findlay and Arlington Ohio

In my travels, I often drive through Findlay, Ohio. Findlay proclaims itself, 'Flag City USA'. All right, let it be as they say. I have no reason to doubt it, even though I suspect it's just a ruse of some sort.

About 10 miles after Findlay is the little town of Arlington (also in Ohio). The sign welcoming you to Arlington also makes a proclamation. It announces Arlington as 'Flag Village USA'.

You know what I think?

I think Arlington has sibling issues...

Why the surprise?

One of the fascinating things about repairing drain cables and equipment are the the laments which I hear along the way. At times I wonder if people ever actually think about what they say.

Broken cables always just break. The operator never ever put too much pressure on it. Never ever. They were simply feeding it into the drain line and it broke. One fella even claimed, I am not making this up, that he just looked at his machine and the cable snapped. Of course, he was kinda ugly...but the point is that most cable breakages supposedly occur though absolutely no fault of the operator. Right.

A favorite of mine is the question, why did my machine break? It is often asked with incredulity. My normal answer is, I think, obvious. Everything is subject to break. Nothing made by human hands lasts forever. Your equipment, your cars, your refrigerator; they all break, and sometimes we just don't know why. Why are you be shocked by that?

Then there's the equally incredulous, it was working and then it just stopped! Again, why are you surprised? Everything works until it doesn't.

Sometimes I just sigh about it. Other times I blog about it. Today is your lucky day.