Common Sense Atheism

I can’t remember the last time I cried due to pain or loss. Years ago, I guess. I live a very happy life.

But I do cry for joy sometimes.

Yesterday it was listening to Minchin’s “White Wine in the Sun” that did it. Or sometimes my eyes well up when I consider the vastness, complexity, and beauty of the universe. Or even when listening to Muse sing epic songs about rising up to fight corrupt powers:

Come ride with me through the veins of history;
I’ll show you how God falls asleep on the job.
And how can we win when fools can be kings?
Don’t waste your time, or time will waste you.

No one’s gonna take me alive!
Time has come to make things right.
You and I must fight for our rights!
You and I must fight to survive!

Or:

Change everything you are and everything you were.
Your number has been called.
Fights and battles have begun…
Your hard times are ahead.

Best! You’ve got to be the best!
You’ve got to change the world.
And you use this chance to be heard.
Your time is now.

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This is what it means to be an enchanted naturalist:

Hat tip to Sabio.

A reader contacted me, using the phrase “carpe diem quam minimum credula postero” as her email signature. I had only ever heard “carpe diem,” so I googled the rest. Turns out it’s the full line of the original source for the phrase “carpe diem” – a Latin poem by Horace (died 8 BCE).

Here’s the context:

Don’t ask what end the gods may grant to me or you, Leuconoe.

Don’t play with Babylonian fortune-telling, either.

It is better to endure whatever will be.

Whether Jupiter has allotted to you many more winters or this final one…

be wise, strain the wine, and scale back your long hopes to a short period.

While we speak, envious time will have already fled.

Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the next.

We don’t know what the next day will bring. Thus, it is wise to seize this day.

This is the day to chase your dreams. This is the day to make a difference. This is the day to give and take whatever happiness you can.

Moreover, if there is a next life, we don’t know what it will bring. So:

Carpe vitam. Seize this life.

This is the life in which to chase your dreams. This is the life in which to make a difference. This is the life in which to give and take whatever happiness you can.

Carpe vitam.

When I had my crisis of faith, I felt like I was losing everything. Without God and the promise of immortality, what was the point of it all?

I’ve written before that in some ways, there is less purpose without God, and in some ways there’s more. And though I personally find naturalism to be enchanting, I know many people find it disenchanting. They think naturalism leaves them in a universe that is ultimately indifferent and absurd, and their two options are cynicism and postmodern irony.

Are cynicism and irony the only plausible responses to a universe without intrinsic meaning or value?

A growing crowd of passionate persons would say “No.” Their movement has been dubbed the New Sincerity.

What is the New Sincerity?

Jesse Thorn, host of The Sound of Young America, describes it in his Manifesto for The New Sincerity:

What is The New Sincerity? Think of… Evel Knievel. Let’s be frank. There’s no way to appreciate Evel Knievel literally. Evel is the kind of man who defies even fiction, because the reality is too over the top. Here is a man in a red-white-and-blue leather jumpsuit, driving some kind of rocket car. A man who achieved fame and fortune jumping over things. Here is a real man who feels at home as Spidey on the cover of a comic book. Simply put, Evel Knievel boggles the mind. But by the same token, he isn’t to be taken ironically, either. The fact of the matter is that Evel is, in a word, awesome…

So now, dear reader, you’re in on the Next Big Thing. Something more Hedwig than Rocky Horror; more Princess Bride than Last Unicorn; more Bruce Lee than Chuck Norris. Something new, and beautiful. So join us.

Our greeting: a double thumbs-up. Our credo: “Be More Awesome.” Our lifestyle: “Maximum Fun.” Throw caution to the wind, friend, and live The New Sincerity.

There’s nothing ironic or cynical about Evel Knievel. He’s just awesome. Sincerely awesome.

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