Atheism and religious fanaticism

Religion without science is blind

Atheism boasts an impressive list of very influential advocates from Lincoln, Einstein, Hemingway and Benjamin Franklin to Charles Darwin, http://www.wonderfulatheistsofcfl.org/Quotes.htm. They include humanists and agnostics. The best of them espouse high ideals and actively contribute to the public good. Freethinkers all, seeking for answers and meaning to life.

And God, if there is One, is believed to have decreed that everyone have free will, the freedom to believe what he wants to believe and to live accordingly. We can believe in God or in religion or not and it will not be counted against us. Even Jesus, the Divine Master admits but clarifies, "Whoever rejects me and does not accept my teachings will, nevertheless, be judged according to the truths I have spoken." (JN12:48)  

Regardless of their unbelief and criticisms regarding irrational church dogma, some atheists, nevertheless, apparently believe in Jesus and his teachings. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, "There was only one true Christian, and he died on the cross." And realizing the importance of ethical behavior towards our fellowmen, Einstein is quoted as having written that: "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." Further, even as he is acknowledged by many as the greatest scientific mind of his generation, he was fully aware that he did not have all the answers. Therefore he advises us all to remain open saying, "The important thing is not to stop questioning."  

There are many wise, conscientious and productive atheists just as there are many enlightened and true believers. There are quite a few religious fanatics and fundamentalists and atheism has its own misinformed and wayward elements. But let us not be deceived and neither should we allow a few rotten apples to spoil all the remaining basketful.

THIRD ORDER — IMPERFECT SPIRITS  

From: The Spirits' Book 

Sixth Class — Noisy and Boisterous Spirits

Spirits of this kind do not, strictly speaking, form a distinct class in virtue of their personal qualities; they may belong to all the classes of the third order. They often manifest their presence by the production of phenomena perceptible by the senses, such as raps, the movement and abnormal displacing of solid bodies, the agitation of the air, etc. They appear to be, more than any other class of spirits, attached to matter; they seem to be the principal agents in determining the vicissitudes of the elements of the globe, and to act upon the air, water, fire and the various bodies in the entrails of the earth. Whenever these phenomena present a character of intention and intelligence, it is impossible to attribute them to a mere fortuitous and physical cause. All spirits are able to produce physical phenomena; but spirits of elevated degree usually leave them to those of a lower order, more apt for action upon matter than for the things of intelligence, and when they judge it to be useful to produce physical manifestations, employ spirits of subaltern degree as their auxiliaries. 

Seventh Class — Neutral Spirits

They are not sufficiently advanced to take an active part in doing good, nor are they bad enough to be active in doing wrong. They incline sometimes to the one, sometimes to the other; and do not rise above the ordinary level of humanity, either in point of morality or of intelligence. They are strongly attached to the things of this world, whose gross satisfactions they regret. 

Eight Class — Spirits Who Pretend to More Science than They Possess

Their knowledge is often considerable, but they imagine themselves to know a good deal more than they know in reality. Having made a certain amount of progress from various points of view, their language has an air of gravity that may easily give a false impression as to their capacities and enlightenment; but their ideas are generally nothing more than the reflection of the prejudices and false reasoning of the terrestrial life. Their statements contain a mixture of truths and absurdities, in the midst of which, traces of presumption, pride, jealousy and obstinacy, from which they have not yet freed themselves, are abundantly perceptible.

Ninth Class — Frivolous Spirits

They are ignorant, mischievous, unreasonable and addicted to mockery. They meddle with everything and reply to every question without paying any attention to truth. They delight in causing petty annoyances, in raising false hopes of petty joys, in misleading people by mystifications and trickery. The spirits vulgarly called hobgoblins, will-o'-the-wisps, gnomes, etc. belong to this class. They are under the orders of spirits of a higher category, who make use of them as we do of servants.

Tenth Class — Impure Spirits

They are inclined to evil, and make it an object of all their thoughts and activities. As spirits, they give to men perfidious counsels, stir up discord and distrust, and assume every sort of mask in order the more effectually to deceive. They beset those whose character is weak enough to lead them to yield to their suggestions, and whom they thus draw aside from the path of progress, rejoicing when they are to retard their advancement by causing them to succumb under the appointed trials of the corporeal life. Spirits of this class may be recognized by their language, for the employment of coarse or trivial expressions by spirits, as by men, is always an indication of moral, if not of intellectual, inferiority. Their communications show the baseness of their inclinations; and though they may try to impose upon us by speaking with an appearance of reason and propriety, they are unable to keep up that false appearance, and end by betraying their real quality. Certain nations have made of them infernal deities; others designate them by the name of demons, evil genii or evil spirits.

The human beings in whom they are incarnated are addicted to all the vices engendered by vile and degrading passions — sensuality, cruelty, roguery, hypocrisy, cupidity, avarice. They do evil for its own sake, without any definite motive; and, from hatred to all that is good, they generally choose their victims from among honest and worthy people. They are the pests of humanity, to whatever rank of society they belong; and the varnish of a civilized education is ineffectual to cure or to hide their degrading defects.

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