page 3

Honest to God' at Congress

"The creed of the English is that there is no God, and that it is wise to pray to Him from time to time."

This quotation from Alastair MacIntyre's article on "Honest to God" was made by the Rev. J. C. Thornton, addressing NZUSA Congress. Speaking on ' Secular Christianity and Religious Atheism," Rev. Thornton said that the disagreement between Christians and Atheists was not always what it seemed. This is why there is such coniusion about Bishop Robinson's book.

Mr Thornton pointed out that if atheism means a denial of theism, there will be as many types of atheism as there are theism lienee all Christian are in a sense Atheist, because there is some type of theism they reject.

"If Mr A. is a theist and Mr B. an atheist, they may not necessarily disagree about what exists." They may only disagree about an appropriate attitude towards what exists.

Said Thornton: "It is one thing to believe in the existence of a supernatural being; it is quite another thing to call this being God." He suggested that an essential part of the term "God" is the meaning "worthy of worship" and it is here that the disagreement may exist. A decision as to whether a being is worthy of worship requires a value judgment about His characteristics, and the characteristics that for one person make the Being worthy of worship, may have a different effect for another person.

Critics of Robinson laid stress on the factual element in the dispute, said the Rev. Thornton, but Robinson himself stressed the evaluative element.

Rev. Thornton noted that it could be held that the factual element came before the evaluative element; that it was necessary to decide whether or not something existed before it could be decided if it were worthy of worship. He pointed out that this argument could be reversed to say that we would have to evaluate the characteristics we would require of God before we can say whether He exists or not.

Rev. Thornton suggested that the view, that the difference between atheism and theism was one of fact, came from the interpretation that theists and atheists had historically placed on their disagreement. For instance a theist usually holds that when, Christ comes a second time the atheist will be utterly refuted. Rev. Thornton said that this would not necessarily be the case, because if the events of the Last Judgment were to occur exactly as depicted by Michaelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, there would be good grounds for saying "there is no God." This is assuming the word God to imply "worthy of worship" because the atheist would say that there is nothing worthy of worship in a world where an omnipoten. Being orders the suffering of thousands as in the last Judgment.

Rev. Thornton concluded by saying that the one thing each of us fears is that those with whom we most violently disagree would express their ideas in a way which we would find acceptable.