No wise man, and no great artist, leaves God out

I can perfectly well understand why someone should be an agnostic. But to be an atheist — to deny flatly and without qualification the existence of God — is to me wholly unsympathetic. The depth of folly, indeed, and not without malice to us all. It makes little sense in reason. For if it is difficult, even strictly speaking impossible, to ‘prove’ the existence of God, in the sense in which we prove a theorem in geometry or the second law of thermodynamics, it is much more difficult to prove that he does not exist. More seriously, atheism necessarily demeans humanity. The point was powerfully made by Francis Bacon: ‘They that deny a God destroy man’s nobility; for certainly man is of kin to the beasts, by his body; and, if he be not kin to God, by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.’ To be an atheist is to take a low view of human life. It is not surprising that among the small but extremely noisy group of atheists that exist today, most take the view that modern science shows no essential difference in purpose or significance between Homo sapiens and a chunk of rock or a puff of dust — all are subject to the same inexorable laws of futility.

It is frightening to think what will become of our progeny if, in the not-too-distant future — say about mid-century — these destructive notions get a grip on a large part of the human race and become the received wisdom, as their protagonists strongly desire and are doing all in their power to achieve. I fear a world not just where respect and reverence for God has disappeared, but where all trace of his image has vanished from human minds, and more important, hearts. What kind of terrible creatures will we become? It is not as though the world is standing still, leaving time for reflection.