23/227. My book p. 70. Post No. 1289.
MY COMMENT :
It is a great pity that so many believers never question the brainwashing they received as children. They may not yet accept our atheist answers but people like myself, liberated from our illusions, will continue to try to get them to discover the questions that can lead them to illumination.
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That, indeed, is the question. I was flabbergasted to read what one of my dear old friends from school offered me as a reply to the recent revelation of my atheism. He was content to quote the “Green Catechism” of our Catholic kindergarten (he was five, I was four years old !) : “Who made the world ? God made the world.” And he went on to say : “And when I look around at the wonderful things in the world (the trees, the birds, the animals etc.), I have not found anything to shake my belief in a God”.
Alan, like me, is over seventy years old. He was a brilliant lawyer, a talented sportsman who still coaches youngsters and is generously engaged in all sorts of parish and social activities. But somehow he has remained immune to the questions French High School students have to discuss in their final exams in Philosophy. How did Australian, British, American intelligent, educated people manage to avoid asking themselves the basic questions ? How do they continue to find their Kindergarten answers acceptable ?
Mind you, the problem is not limited to Anglosaxons. Many Hispanics, Muslims, Jews and Buddhists continue to content themselves with childish answers to the questions they have yet to take seriously, or even discover.
Atheists, understandably, are tempted to throw in the towel. The challenge is just too much. But I consider that it is worthwhile to get believers to discover the questions and hopefully find that the answer is not infantile religiosity but enlightened atheism.
RIDENDA RELIGIO