Tuesday, July 05, 2011

No such thing as atheism?

David Foster Wallace made the following powerful statement. Wallace was an avowed atheist, who committed suicide by hanging himself in 2008.

The full article appeared in The Wall Street Journal. He does not clarify or deny what he says here in the rest of the article.

Because there's something else that's true. In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.

And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship -- be it J.C. or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some infrangible set of ethical principles -- is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.

If you worship money and things -- if they are where you tap real meaning in life -- then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you.

I think Bob Dylan's Gotta Serve Somebody is complementary and explanatory.

Tim Keller cites this quote in his sermons.

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