Bishop Barron on The New Atheists — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:11yeah just recently I heard about this
3. 0:12there's a campaign in Europe to raise
4. 0:15money to put these placards on the side
5. 0:17of buses I think in London and Genoa
6. 0:19some other places and the placards say
7. 0:22there's probably no God so stop worrying
8. 0:24and enjoy your life and there's versions
9. 0:27of that like you know relax there's no
10. 0:28God don't worry about it well here
11. 0:30strikes me it's another example of
12. 0:32course of this campaign this steady
13. 0:34campaign of the new atheism against uh
14. 0:37religion in general but Christianity in
15. 0:39particular and I've spoken out against
16. 0:41this many times and what I notice is how
17. 0:44kind of Flip popular and deeply
18. 0:47unintelligent this form of atheism is
19. 0:50and what I want to do first is contrast
20. 0:51it with what I think is a much more
21. 0:53serious version of atheism go back to
22. 0:55the mid 20th century and the work of the
23. 0:57existentialists Jean Paul sard and
24. 1:00Albert kamu and others well they
25. 1:02disbelieved in God I mean they argued
26. 1:04strongly against the existence of God
27. 1:05but they were more serious about it they
28. 1:08weren't just playing at atheism they saw
29. 1:10to the bottom of it they knew that we
30. 1:13have in us a deep desire for fulfillment
31. 1:17truth goodness Justice in other words
32. 1:20for God but since there is no God then
33. 1:23as sart said ABS life is absurd life is
34. 1:27meaningless they knew that there there's
35. 1:30a tension between our desire for God and
36. 1:33God's
37. 1:34non-existence now the existentialist
38. 1:37ethic was in the face of this storm in
39. 1:40the face of this terrible Darkness you
40. 1:43assert your own Freedom you assert your
41. 1:44own will and you say nevertheless I will
42. 1:46go on okay now I don't think for a
43. 1:49minute they're right about the
44. 1:50non-existence of God but at least the
45. 1:52existentialists were serious about their
46. 1:55atheism they saw the implications of it
47. 1:58I think what we see now in a lot of the
48. 1:59new atheism is a kind of frivolous or
49. 2:02superficial or childish atheism a kind
50. 2:04of playing at
51. 2:05atheism and I think if you go back to
52. 2:07the Bible you will find an answer to
53. 2:11both these forms of atheism the
54. 2:12frivolous and the serious forms in the
55. 2:15Bible you will find passages every bit
56. 2:18as dark as anything in Jean Paul sart or
57. 2:20Albert kamu or the existentialist look
58. 2:23at a number of the Psalms and you'll see
59. 2:25a very deep sense of how dark and and
60. 2:29often me meaningless life seems but the
61. 2:32best example of this is the book of
62. 2:34calth calth is an old
63. 2:38guy
64. 2:40whizzed done it all seen it all
65. 2:44experienced it all had it all coava
66. 2:48presents himself as a kind of ancient
67. 2:50combination of Brad Pit and Barack Obama
68. 2:53he's someone who's had everything sex
69. 2:55pleasure money power everything in his
70. 2:58conclusion he
71. 3:00says all is wind and chase after the
72. 3:04wind or the older translation vanity of
73. 3:07vanities all is Vanity now it's a very
74. 3:11perceptive book all things that we want
75. 3:14in life pleasure money power honor all
76. 3:16the usual things he's had them he's had
77. 3:19them do they satisfy him
78. 3:22no he he experimented with them all you
79. 3:25know and and probably for a moment
80. 3:27enjoyed them all but he realized in his
81. 3:28old age none of them finally
82. 3:31satisfies and this gives us I think the
83. 3:34way past the atheist because Calen
84. 3:36doesn't say well therefore life is
85. 3:38absurd or well then just sort of enjoy
86. 3:40your life what he says is don't put your
87. 3:43trust finally in any of the goods of the
88. 3:45world rather trust in the Lord reorder
89. 3:50your life to God and then you'll find
90. 3:52true Joy think of a dog for example
91. 3:54who's eaten his fil who is properly
92. 3:57sheltered has a nice family around him
93. 3:59that dog is utterly content that dog
94. 4:01just Falls blissfully to
95. 4:05sleep we're not like that if as the
96. 4:09atheist claim we're just clever dogs
97. 4:11we're just animals with bigger brains
98. 4:14then we would be satisfied when we have
99. 4:17enough of of food and drink and sex and
100. 4:20pleasure and shelter and we should just
101. 4:22fall asleep blissfully like any dog but
102. 4:24the thing is we don't in fact precisely
103. 4:28when we get all those those things that
104. 4:31animals
105. 4:32want we're not satisfied we want
106. 4:35something more that's because we have
107. 4:38deeply ingrained in us a sense of the
108. 4:42limitedness of this world that there is
109. 4:45something more in fact our very wiring
110. 4:48for God proves the existence of God we
111. 4:52desire something which transcends the
112. 4:54limitations of this world means that we
113. 4:56have within us a sort of participation
114. 4:59in the eternal your hunger is not a sign
115. 5:01that food is a projection but your
116. 5:04hunger in fact proves the existence of
117. 5:06food your your hunger proves the reality
118. 5:09of food right it doesn't mean that
119. 5:11food's some kind of subjective
120. 5:12projection or an illusion so that our
121. 5:15desires are not are not um misleading us
122. 5:17our desires order us to realities so our
123. 5:20desire for God you know I'm going to
124. 5:22turn something around uh religion from
125. 5:25the time of Marx has been accused of you
126. 5:27being the opiate of the people you know
127. 5:29we just take this drug that will dull
128. 5:31our sensitivity to this world and so we
129. 5:32dream about heaven see I'm going to turn
130. 5:34that right around I think atheism is the
131. 5:37opiate of the masses I think atheism is
132. 5:39a kind of drug what do it what does it
133. 5:41mask it masks this desire that I'm
134. 5:44talking about let's just pretend I don't
135. 5:46have a desire for anything beyond this
136. 5:48world I'm going to be satisfied within
137. 5:50this world I would submit to you You'
138. 5:52got to take a drug to convince yourself
139. 5:54that that's true you got to take
140. 5:56something that will dull your
141. 5:57sensitivity to your deepest long longing
142. 6:00that's what atheism is you want the
143. 6:02Opium of the masses it's precisely this
144. 6:03trivial atheism that says oh just you
145. 6:06know relax enjoy your life take this
146. 6:09just pretend there's no God see people
147. 6:11accuse religious people all the time of
148. 6:14dreaming up this fantasy world see but
149. 6:17atheism itself is a kind of fantasy
150. 6:20world wouldn't it be nice if there's no
151. 6:23God and I can simply find my
152. 6:24satisfaction in this world wouldn't it
153. 6:27be nice if there's no abs abolute moral
154. 6:30demand wouldn't it be nice if I could
155. 6:32determine my life see I'll turn the
156. 6:34tables in that argument say well you're
157. 6:36denying God out of your deep
158. 6:37psychological
159. 6:39need stop taking the drug that dulls
160. 6:42your sensitivity to the very deepest
161. 6:45longing of your heart it's religion that
162. 6:47says stop taking the drug and wake up
163. 6:52[Music]