Afterlife: Pinker's skeptical thought (Endings)

by David Turell , Wednesday, May 27, 2020, 01:13 (1640 days ago) @ David Turell

Answered by Dennis Prager:

https://rightandfree.com/news/2020/05/25/the-lockdown-evangelicals-and-the-afterlife-a-...

"Harvard professor of psychology Steven Pinker tweeted last week:

"'Belief in an afterlife is a malignant delusion, since it devalues actual lives and discourages action that would make them longer, safer, and happier. Exhibit A: What's really behind Republicans wanting a swift reopening? Evangelicals."

Having praised Pinker, let me now respond to his tweet.

"First, "Belief in an afterlife is a malignant delusion ... "

"I am not a Christian, evangelical or otherwise. I am a religious Jew who has written and lectured extensively on the afterlife. My belief in the afterlife is based entirely on a logical argument: If there is a just God, it is axiomatic there is an afterlife. There is little justice and fairness in this life, so if there is a just God, there has to be an afterlife. There is only one honest atheist response to this: "There is no God, so there is no afterlife. But if there is a God, you are right that there must be an afterlife." (my bold)

"So, belief in an afterlife is no more a "delusion" than belief in God. But it takes an unsophisticated arrogance to dismiss belief that the world has a designer and that intelligence must be created by intelligence as a "delusion." I was disappointed in Pinker, who I respect for his courageous comments and with whom I have dialogued on my radio show. His tweet reveals a truly shallow atheism.

"In fact, I would argue that it is atheism that is a "malignant delusion."

"Regarding the delusion part, I asked one of America's leading thinkers of the last half-century, the late Charles Krauthammer, a secular agnostic, what he thought of atheism. To my surprise, he responded:

"'I believe atheism is the least plausible of all the theologies. It is clearly so contrary to what is possible. The idea that all this universe always existed, created itself? I mean, talk about the violation of human rationality."

"And as regards the "malignant" charge, while there are, obviously, good individuals who are atheist, atheism is morally worthless. It makes no moral demands, whereas Judaism and Christianity posit a God who demands people obey, for example, the Ten Commandments. Atheism demands nothing; it only destroys the Judeo-Christian bases of morality in Western civilization, the civilization that gave the world democracy, liberty, women's equality and an end to slavery.

***

"To Pinker and his colleagues, Patrick Henry's famous plea, "Give me liberty, or give me death," the foundational principle of our republic, must sound truly foolish. It must have been the product of a malignant delusion."

Comment: The bold which expresses Prager's point of view is fascinating. It would raise the issue of whether the struggle, which makes life challenging and certainly interesting, was purposely created that way. Without the struggle life would be monotonous and boring, not worth living in my view. Heaven as a reword for struggling is at a child's level of thought. I'm surprised at Prager.