Re: [Marxism] Review of Ron Aronson's *Living without God: New Directions for Atheists, Agnostics, Secularists, and the Undecided*

[Jim Farmelant <farmelantj@xxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 7 May 2009 19:41:31 -0700 "Paula" <Paula_cerni@xxxxxxx> writes:
> Jim, thanks for this useful review. I haven't yet  had a chance to 
> read 
> Aronson's book; these comments are only on the basis of your 
> article.
> 
> The weakness in Aronson's argument, if I understand it correctly, is 
> that he 
> presents us with a choice of 'perceptions'. Should we perceive 
> ourselves as 
> isolated individuals, or as interdependent people? But the way we 
> perceive 
> ourselves inevitably arises out of the way we actually are.  The 
> autonomy 
> myth, like all myths, is not just a myth. It is the ideological 
> expression 
> of a social reality that in actual practice sets one against all.

I don't think that Aronson would have any disagreement with
that.  Although Aronson calls himself a post-Marxist, I think
he still retains an understanding of how consciosness is shaped
by social being.

> 
> What Aronson and the New Atheists don't seem to realize is that 
> modern 
> religion is largely a practical response to this social 
> fragmentation. 
> Believers form communities and help each other through their 
> churches and 
> organizations - because they can't easily do it anywhere else. 

While that's largely true of the New Atheists, Dan Dennett
in his way has some understanding of the social functions
of religion, although I agree they tend to treat religion
as simply a set of bad hypotheses that people irrationally
cling to in the face of overwhelming evidence to the
contrary.


BTW in the next issue of the Journal of Religious Humanism,
I have an article on the New Atheism. That same article
was published in German translation over a year ago in
the journal in the German humanist journal, Aufklärung und Kritik.
That article is available online at:
http://www.gkpn.de/Farmelant_Atheismus.pdf

> It's 
> a 
> welfare system by another name.
> 
> The intellectual critique of religious 'perceptions' has been done 
> many 
> times already. We may update or add details to it, but it will never 
> be 
> enough, because religion is generated by social faults and not by 
> faulty 
> perceptions.
> 
> (In case you missed it, here's a piece I wrote about this: 
> http://www.stateofnature.org/atheismIsNotEnough.html).
> 
> Paula 
> 

> 
> 
 
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