Philosopher Thomas Nagel wrote in his influential book The Last Word: ‘I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that’.
This was a mature and self-reflective comment made by a man of intimidating intelligence. Nagel is a convinced atheist. But he is not so obstinate as to ignore the insightful arguments for religious belief. In fact, these arguments force him to examine his own motivations for being an atheist.
Blasphemy Day
Compare Nagel’s considered position with the slogan: ‘There’s nothing wrong with God that a dose of reality won’t cure’. This was entered into a competition organised on ‘Blasphemy Day’. The goal of the competition was to produce the slogan most likely to ‘challenge’ religious believers. Most of the entries were so offensive that mainstream journalists were unable to print them. On the same day young sceptics were encouraged to take up ‘The Blasphemy Challenge’ by uploading comments to YouTube.
