Recently, we had the pleasure (that Dr. Gregg might call perverse) of discussing the literature and philosophy of Ayn Rand. So often Rand is attacked for her "godlessness", her "dogmatic atheism". Her motivations in this instance are not to attack the believers of God, but instead to build up the believers of men. That faith that so many put into God, she directs toward man.
She rejects religion, not merely because of the obvious irrationality of it, but also, as her journals indicate, the bloody and bigoted history of religion. By definition faith is a denial of reason. As the great influence of her youth put it: "Faith: not wanting to know what is true." (Friedrich Nietzsche). Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking. Those who peddle faith as absolute truth are intellectual slave holders, keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned and justified so much lunacy and destruction. The pages of history are stained by the blood of countless religious or at least partly religiously motivated conflicts. This is the system Rand rejects. She sides with Jefferson who said "Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man."
I haven't the patience to write out a full theological discourse from Rand's perspective, especially when it will be so flatly rejected as many of her positions have been. Instead I'm just going to toss up a few quotes that fall under her perception of religion. If you catch me in the center or around campus please sit down and discuss with me (unless I'm studying for Farrier's test, Eric Kiser). I look forward to the heated discussions these quotes will undoubtedly fuel.
"An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral!"
-Spencer Tracy as Henry Drummond (Clarence Darrow) in Inherit the Wind
"In spite of all the yearnings of men, no one can produce a single fact or reason to support the belief in God and personal immortality."
-Clarence Darrow
"I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time."
-Friedrich Nietzsche
"Is man one of God's blunders or is God one of man's blunders?
-Friedrich Nietzsche
"Their are people who want to make men's lives more difficult for no other reason than the chance that it provides them afterward to offer their prescription for alleviating life; Christianity for example."
-Friedrich Nietzsche
"---Insert any line from The Anti-Christ here (book by Nietzsche detailing the weakness that Christianity fosters)---"
the list goes on and on, but I will end on my personal favorite
"One who seeks peace of mind and tranquility of soul believes; One who would be a disciple of truth inquires."
-Friedrich Nietzsche (yes, again)
She rejects religion, not merely because of the obvious irrationality of it, but also, as her journals indicate, the bloody and bigoted history of religion. By definition faith is a denial of reason. As the great influence of her youth put it: "Faith: not wanting to know what is true." (Friedrich Nietzsche). Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking. Those who peddle faith as absolute truth are intellectual slave holders, keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned and justified so much lunacy and destruction. The pages of history are stained by the blood of countless religious or at least partly religiously motivated conflicts. This is the system Rand rejects. She sides with Jefferson who said "Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man."
I haven't the patience to write out a full theological discourse from Rand's perspective, especially when it will be so flatly rejected as many of her positions have been. Instead I'm just going to toss up a few quotes that fall under her perception of religion. If you catch me in the center or around campus please sit down and discuss with me (unless I'm studying for Farrier's test, Eric Kiser). I look forward to the heated discussions these quotes will undoubtedly fuel.
"An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral!"
-Spencer Tracy as Henry Drummond (Clarence Darrow) in Inherit the Wind
"In spite of all the yearnings of men, no one can produce a single fact or reason to support the belief in God and personal immortality."
-Clarence Darrow
"I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time."
-Friedrich Nietzsche
"Is man one of God's blunders or is God one of man's blunders?
-Friedrich Nietzsche
"Their are people who want to make men's lives more difficult for no other reason than the chance that it provides them afterward to offer their prescription for alleviating life; Christianity for example."
-Friedrich Nietzsche
"---Insert any line from The Anti-Christ here (book by Nietzsche detailing the weakness that Christianity fosters)---"
the list goes on and on, but I will end on my personal favorite
"One who seeks peace of mind and tranquility of soul believes; One who would be a disciple of truth inquires."
-Friedrich Nietzsche (yes, again)