{"id":1631,"date":"2013-04-15T08:15:03","date_gmt":"2013-04-15T12:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/orthodoxyandheterodoxy\/?p=1631"},"modified":"2013-04-15T08:15:03","modified_gmt":"2013-04-15T12:15:03","slug":"it-cant-be-helped-atheism-and-the-problem-of-determinism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/orthodoxyandheterodoxy\/2013\/04\/15\/it-cant-be-helped-atheism-and-the-problem-of-determinism\/","title":{"rendered":"It Can’t Be Helped: Atheism and the Problem of Determinism"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/font>here is a certain term in Japanese whose history I very much dislike: shikataganai<\/i> \u2013 \u201cIt can’t be helped.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now such a concept is not completely alien to Western thought, we often remark how there is \u201cnothing one can do\u201d in certain situations, but the difference is that shikataganai<\/i> reflects the fatalistic ethos of Japan that the modern West has never quite so embraced. The word and its context are the result of the 17th<\/sup> century Tokugawa reforms which embedded Japan with a heretical Neo-Confucian sense of fatalism and materialism, a class structure which limited social movement and therefore promoted the aforementioned values, as well as a mass conformist mindset, all which still exert influence today in modern Japan.1<\/sup><\/a> It is this mindset, which can be drawn back to the time of Tokugawa Iemitsu, that has made the Gospel so hard to preach in Japan, regardless of denomination.2<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Yet, there is an observation I find to be quite ironic. Very recently Sam Harris, one of the so-called ‘four horsemen of the apocalypse<\/a>‘, released a book on free will, arguing that it is nothing more than an illusion. If materialism is true, that is undoubtedly correct.3<\/sup><\/a> In such a reductionist paradigm, since man is an amalgam of material systems, and since material systems are bound by the laws of cause and effect, man is merely a determined machine. We may perceive<\/i> that we are freely making our choices, but this is nothing more than a perception. Logically, every decision would be nothing more than the result of the antecedent state of the universe.4<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

However, and this is where I believe the ‘new-atheists’ do not understand the ramifications of their conclusions, if every decision is pre-determined then in what sense can we be utilizing ‘critical thinking’ or ‘rationality’? Any path of logical thought that one travels down, whether it leads to atheism or theism, is utterly pre-determined by the universe, since there is no way to transcend and somehow check perception against fact. Every justification, every reason, every intuition is a result of cause and effect, regardless of if it is true or not. Thus, on what grounds can theists be called ‘irrational’ if they have no choice but to believe that God exists? One cannot even use rationality if such a worldview is true.<\/p>\n

One would think that this would be cause for sober reflection in the camp of the ‘Brights<\/a>‘, but as far as I can tell it has not. This should be of no surprise, for such flippant disregard for the logical consequences of ‘the death of God’ are usually of little concern for most in the new-atheist movement, or so I concluded while I was still amongst them. It would often frustrate me that people who would tout moral relativism would become so worked up over ‘human rights’, as if such concepts had some actual substance. If morality has no ontological grounding, then arguing whether one’s rights are violated is no more inane than being upset that someone prefers red over blue, pink over purple, or, shockingly, the Red Sox over the Yankees (frankly, I shall die a Hartford Whalers fan). It is, after all, a zero sum game in which all our precious concepts are nothing more than the left-overs of a Christian culture that have perversely become the grounds for an anti-Christian culture.<\/p>\n

And that brings us back to free will—for that matter, all metaphysical values. Atheism cannot provide one with morality, existential purpose, and most certainly not freedom. Our culture, as David Bentley Hart most poignantly points out, has a nihilistic concept of freedom, that to will over the void is an act that is good in and of itself, and that all our values comes from this exertion.5<\/sup><\/a> This stands in contrast to how freedom was traditionally conceived, that one was to use their will to fulfill their telos<\/i> (purpose), to do that which was good, which for Orthodox Christians is union with the divine. One often sees the new-atheist movement pitching concepts such as ‘freedom from religion’, ‘determining one’s own purpose’, ‘not being a slave to dogma’, etc., but if there is no free will then what is the appeal? What dogma can I possibly rebel against if my very act of rebellion is utterly contingent on the universe: I would have no choice but to rebel<\/i>. Any self-made (and non-rational) ‘purpose’ I conceived would also be devoid of freedom, and any sense of freedom would be completely undercut by my total submission to nature. In fact, the language I am using is still dualistic: I would be nothing more than a pocket of nature itself, simply doing what nature does—for I am nature.<\/p>\n

Likewise, any notion of pursuing atheism for the sake of truth suffers from the same problem, not to mention the question of why we should<\/i> value truth in a non-consequentialist sense—that is, if truth is a positive value in itself. None of this, of course, proves the existence of God, but that is not my goal here. I am merely pointing out the utter absurdity of atheism, that if indeed atheism is true, and my conversion to Christianity was nothing more than another chapter in the sad tale of man’s enslavement to religion, then at least I can take solace in the fact that I had no choice to begin with, that my bowing before Christ was inevitable, and that it will not really matter once I am dead anyways. After all, shikataganai<\/i> \u2013 it can’t be helped.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Footnotes<\/b><\/p>\n

1<\/a> Keith E. Webb. Overcoming Spiritual Barriers in Japan: Identifying Strongholds and Redemptive Gifts<\/i>. (Next<\/i>Church Resources, 1999; 4th<\/sup> printing 2010), 34.<\/p>\n

2<\/a> Both Iemitsu and his father, Tokugawa Ieyasu, were responsible for the mass hunting and execution of the rapidly growing Roman Catholic movement in 16th<\/sup> and 17th<\/sup> century Japan.<\/p>\n

3<\/a> I define materialism here as the philosophical stance that only material objects and material systems exist (i.e., there is no ‘supernatural’). Atheism itself does not entail one to be a materialist, however since most atheists today are materialists, I will be using the terms synonymously.<\/p>\n

4<\/a> For a robust presentation of why materialism (rather, naturalism) entails both moral nihilism and epistemic nihilism, see R. M. Manion, The Other Side: Metaphysics and Meaning<\/i><\/a>. November, 1993.<\/p>\n

5<\/a> David Bentley Hart, Christ and Nothing<\/i><\/a>. October, 2003.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nick Calibey<\/b><\/a> is an Orthodox Christian convert who did his undergraduates studies at the University of Connecticut. He is currently the sextant at St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral<\/a> in Hartford, Connecticut, and plans on attending Holy Cross \/ Hellenic College<\/a> for graduate studies this September.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a certain term in Japanese whose history I very much dislike: shikataganai \u2013 \u201cIt can’t be helped.\u201d Now such a concept is not completely alien to Western thought, we often remark how there is \u201cnothing one can do\u201d in certain situations, but the difference is that shikataganai reflects the fatalistic ethos of Japan that the modern West has never quite\u2026 <\/i> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,31,32],"tags":[76,118,227],"class_list":["post-1631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-christian","category-secular-theology","category-secularism-non-christian","tag-atheism","tag-determinism","tag-materialism"],"yoast_head":"It Can't Be Helped: Atheism and the Problem of Determinism – Orthodoxy and 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