Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The Honorable Atheist (II)


Relativism gets a very bad press from most moral philosophers.  The ‘freshman relativist’ is a nightmare figure of introductory classes in ethics, rather like the village atheist (but what’s so good about village theism?)
-- Simon Blackburn, Being Good (2001), p. 19

Both Chesterton and C. S. Lewis knew the value of the honorable atheist -- nay, valued him beyond what even his fellow unbelievers might offer, since both of them saw both the inflexible rectitude…. and the immortal soul.  We likewise have honored him  here.

Re-reading Blackburn’s delightful treatise on ethics -- epigram after epigram (as above), yet deep to boot -- we were reminded of Chesterton’s outstanding story “The Hammer of God”, in which both the village atheist, and the village Puritan, get their due.  (Spoiler alert:  Neither one of them was the murderer.)   My sage advice to you young folks (meaning:  everyone under eighty) is to drop whatever it is you are doing and read that wonderful bit of detective fiction, featuring that noted clerical shamus, Father Brown.

No comments:

Post a Comment