Nowa sytuacja: porażka ateizmu i konieczność religii

Abstract

The author of the article, writing to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the German Edition of “Communio”, ventures the following thesis: atheism was defeated and, therefore, is ultimately doomed to disappear. Still, on analysing thoroughly the contemporary reality it must be admitted that atheism has achieved some success. Many studies show a continued decline in the number of churchgoers in Europe, and it seems, in every country with Christian roots. Also, atheists managed to convince the public that we do not need religion when it comes to explain the world. On the practical level, modem political thought has come to show that societies can take organized forms without reference to a superhuman principle of legitimacy. Moreover, agnosticism is some product of atheism. Thus, science has to limit itself to a precise determination and mathematical description of relationships between phenomena. It cannot ask why this that exists is what it is, and why it is what it is.. Despite its successes atheism, even in its mildest form, hides a terrible lack, a certain “disease to death.” Atheism has nothing to say about some basic question and even basically thrives on the avoidance of any response to the question of the ultimate meaning of human existence. Next, the author argues that the defeat of atheism is a direct consequence of its success. These “successes” have led atheism to self-destruction. Specifically, at present humanity has the possibility of self-destruction: through the pollution of the environment; man has the ability of instant self-annihilation in a nuclear war. With the help of modem methods of contraception, each generation can decide whether there will be a next generation or not. Nowadays people doubt their own legitimacy: they are no longer convinced that they are authorized to acquire land and to use it, they are not even convinced of their superiority over other living beings; they are no longer even sure if they differ in any relevant characteristics from other living creatures. Man needs a reference point, which could justify his presence on earth. The basic content of religion is the existence of a supernatural instance, which could confirm the existence of mankind. This instance, by the famous formula of St. Thomas Aquinas, placed at the end of the five roads leading to the recognition of the existence of God, called “evidence for the existence of God,” is: quod omnes nominarti Deum. Specifically, this means that we need the sort of mankind that could reconcile faith and reason. We need this not as a setting to beautify human life or in order to improve the social life, but in order to allow the continuation of human history in general.