(Clearwisdom.net)

(Continued)

Part 1: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/4/25/60043.html
Part 2: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/4/27/60092.html

4. Atheism is an Exceptional Boundary Case in the Realm of Theism

In discussions about atheism and theism, the atheists often tend to believe that they are more realistic, and thus they feel their perspective is more justified. After all, theistic views cannot be concretely seen or touched. Atheism and theism seem to be incompatible, like fire and water. However, there are some interesting phenomena when we investigate atheism and theism from a broader or world outlook.

For example, from the perspective of the Buddha school's broad outlook, there exist phenomena such as other dimensions, reincarnation, high-level beings and retribution for good and bad deeds. Misfortunes such as poverty, illness, and disasters are often attributable to the field of karma. Physicists are always searching for a unified field theory. Different religions have different understandings, and different followers within the same religion also have different levels of understanding. Theism, then, can be said to exist with a wide range of levels of understanding. When that understanding is reduced to what can be concretely seen, that is, "one dimension, one lifetime, no high-level beings, and no retribution for doing good and bad," it becomes atheism.

That is to say, from this view, atheism might be understood as a reflection of the lowest possible understanding of theism.

From this broader or world outlook, we would be able to understand that atheism is much more limited than theism. Atheism does not have any greater reason or more compelling arguments and validity than theism does.

In fact, viewing the world from a theistic perspective is much more profound and broad than viewing the world from an atheistic perspective (an extreme view that exists only at the lowest level limit of possibilities within theism). Many things that modern science is not capable of explaining become easier to understand. For example, modern medicine acknowledges only this current lifetime or existence of a person. At most it considers some genetic or inherited factors. However, according to the theism of the Buddha school, a person has many lives. The illness of this lifetime could result from previous lifetimes. And a person's life also has its manifestations in other dimensions. The reason of an illness could be from having done bad deeds in history. Such a perspective is much broader than only looking at this one lifetime.

In opening up the field of perspective and exploiting new views in science, atheism actually confines people's thinking, and obstructs mankind's intuition and creativity. If people don't believe there are other dimensions, they will not pursue discovering the beings or existence there. When they don't believe there is reincarnation, they won't bother to think about past lifetimes or pay attention to actions in their current life in order to be responsible to their future existence. Under CCP rule, atheism is taken as the fundamental theory, and the theistic perspective is dismissed as ignorance and eliminated. The CCP artificially sets up a forbidden zone in scientific research. Western science is breaking through the old paradigms and talking about multiple dimensions and multiple universes. However, many such paradigms still remain at the level of abstract mathematical concepts.

Historically, in both the west and the east there were quite a few representatives of atheism. Wang Chong in the Donghan Dynasty (who wrote Lunheng), Fan Zhen in the Nan Dynasty (who wrote Theory of Deity Extinction), and Xiong Bolong in the beginning of Qing Dynasty (who wrote Wuhe Collection) have all questioned and contradicted the phenomena of gods and ghosts. Many western philosophers such as Ludwig Feuerbach (The Essence of Christianity), Benedictus de Spinoza (Theological-Political Treatise), and Bertrand A. W. Russell (Religion and Science) also criticized theism and religion.

Atheism, as one possible view within a world outlook, is a subject of study in the western world. People there are openly free to do academic research, including the study of atheism. This is a typical display of a normal or free-thinking society. But the CCP uses atheism as a political tool to rule the people and attack or control people's beliefs. When a dictatorship uses atheism in this manner, it is transformed from an optional viewpoint or subject of study to a powerful and brutal killing weapon.

The Communist Party came to power through violence and wants to use violence to overthrow all of the existing social systems so as to materialize its ultimate society. Therefore, the Communist Party has, from the beginning, been against "heaven, earth, and humanity." Only by excluding "gods" can it freely use any kind of violence without restraint, and this is the only way the Communist Party can proclaim its own man-made paradise on earth.

The five thousand years of Chinese civilization were given by the gods and it has produced the cultures of Confucianism, the Buddha school, and the Tao school. So the Chinese people's belief in gods and Buddhas can be said to be deeply rooted. In China the CCP has carried out its atheistic education for dozens of years, and continues to do so even today. This is because it is very difficult to completely erase from people's minds their belief in gods and Buddhas. The CCP's extreme atheistic belief is nothing but a political specter that was spread to China from Europe. However, CCP officials have claimed that Chinese society, which has several thousand years of history of believing in gods, was historically dominated with "atheism." Some CCP scholars have even taken from the theories of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi (both Taoists) as well as from the essence of Taoist cultivation (that "the Tao comes from nature") in their atheist basis of materialism, which is really far from the truth.

Without the restraints imposed by the gods, the CCP, which defies any human or divine laws, will then be able to claim itself as god and do whatever it wants.

The CCP has used two major means of spreading its atheism: propaganda and killing. Through the use of propaganda, the CCP has been trying to instill its atheism into people's minds via many aspects of thinking including politics, philosophy, etc. Under the banner of science, the CCP demonizes theism without even giving theists any opportunities to explain or support their view. Over the last several years, in cooperation with its persecution of Falun Gong, the CCP continues to order colleges and universities to strengthen their atheistic education and produce atheistic graduates.

Because the various religious beliefs, such as Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, and Catholicism have been passed down from remote ages in China or spread into China from foreign countries, it has not been easy for the CCP to directly outlaw and eliminate these religions. To achieve its goal of controlling and further eliminating the religions, the CCP has resorted to the approach of replacing them with Party-sanctioned varieties of Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, and Catholicism.

For those who do not accept the CCP's atheism, the means that the CCP adopted is to relentlessly suppress and eliminate them through genocide.

No. The advancement of science and technology in Western countries, where people widely practice theism, far exceeds that in China. When Jiang Zemin visited the United States, he asked President Clinton, "Why is science so advanced in the U.S. and why do so many people believe in religions?" This is a classic example that precisely depicts the CCP's ignorance.

Most free societies and scientists generally and reasonably believe, "There are no forbidden areas in science." However, this does not apply to the CCP's idea of science. No one can touch those areas that exceed what the CCP can tolerate in its politics (rather than the objective truth). Isn't this a hindrance to the free development of science?

He Zuoxiu and other CCP political ruffians who do evil things under the banner of science have said that people do not need to cherish or be afraid of nature; and, instead, one should dare to challenge nature. However, when nature starts to avenge the attitudes and actions of those arrogant atheists, they will then know how insignificant humans are.

No. On the contrary, under atheism, the morality in Chinese society has dropped down to a terrible and dangerous level. In China the frequent appearance of poisoned foods in recent years has already exceeded the limit that was described by the ancient taboo that "one cannot poison people no matter how immoral one is." The incident of toxic baby milk powders that were produced in China and caused the deaths of infants has further attested to the fact that the current lack of "honesty and trust" has become the most severe morality crisis in the history of Chinese society.

No. Living in a society where there is no honesty, no trust, no spiritual sustenance, and no inner strength (things that are typically derived from people's belief in gods), people cannot have happiness. When an elderly person, who believes in "atheism" (owing to the CCP's propaganda) and who is entangled in illness and sufferings, is about to die he sighs in despair, "How nice it would be if the gods really did exist," a wish that comes from the bottom of his heart. However, believing in the nonexistence of gods and no future life, one has no choice but to face the horrible fate of hopelessly waiting for death. The CCP's "atheists" are now also starting to talk about "caring after death, Ultimate care (concerns)" However, the CCP previously believed in "nothingness after death" (from Bertrand Russell), so where does the issue of "caring after death" come from? "Arranging the things to be taken care of after one dies" has nothing to do with the theists' "Ultimate care" (which is a theistic belief that "souls do not perish").

In a society where the people do not believe in God, it is very easy to launch a mass campaign against a spiritual group and keep it going.

For several dozens of years the CCP has been promoting its absolutely atheistic education, during which the untrue is taken as truth and people are made to believe that they "have science protecting the body and have the truth in their hands." Owing to this type of education, many people deride and ridicule, from the bottom of their hearts, those who believe in gods, and they think that the theists are as ignorant as described in the CCP's propaganda. They even feel pained for or sorry for the people who believe in gods. This mindset has provided excuses for many people to become numb about (and even help the evil to do the evil things) when the CCP and Jiang's gang are brutally persecuting people for their beliefs, including Falun Gong.

Milan Kundera, a writer in the twentieth century, made the famous statement, "Man Thinks, God Laughs." Atheism, as a theory closest to what humans see on the surface, is a normal phenomenon in the human world. Here I do not intend to negate atheism, but instead to encourage the atheists, when the CCP dictators are frenziedly trampling and demonizing theists' faiths, to refuse to cooperate with the CCP and give theism a living space.

Belief in gods is mankind's recollection of its prenatal nature and it is the "spark of soul" from mankind's subconscious connection to gods. Regardless of how hard the atheists rack their brains to denounce theistic beliefs, and regardless of how hard they try to negate the theistic beliefs, all their efforts are meaningless to those who believe in gods.

The option to believe in gods or not is a human being's basic right and freedom.

Marxists had two prophecies, one is that the capitalist system would die and the other is that theism, or religions, would disappear. However, capitalism has not ended, and on the contrary, Marx's communism is at the point of extinction in the world. In the same way, religions have not disappeared, and on the contrary, there is a wide base of people who believe in gods, even in the countries that are the most advanced in science and technology.

Will all these issues be enough to make atheists think in a scientific manner?

March 25, 2005

Posting date: 4/29/2005
Original article date: 4/29/2005
Category: Open Forum
Translated on 4/6/2005
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/3/31/98146.html

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