The Wind in His Fists

What I mean is, do they struggle with not being able to live up to a moral standard? Do they feel Paul’s tension within them:

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.

Or, is there no struggle for them. Do they simply consider whatever they do as “good”? Is there no “good” or “bad” so that it is not even an issue? I don’t know. I am sure it depends on which atheist you talk to.

But I struggle. I also know I would struggle if I were an atheist, that is, unless I were to abandon all effort at a “moral” life. Then, I suppose, the struggle would be over, or rather, lost.

Of course they sin in the absolute sense. Of course I do too. We all do. In fact, it’s pretty bad. Again, Paul…

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

I doubt they see this. If they are humanists, which in mind is not logically compatible with atheism, then we are OK. Humans are wonderful. Religion, that is the problem, spoils everything.

But I know there must be atheists out there who see some sort of human predicament. I read something about a quote from Dawkins, something about “struggling against our genes”. So I think they are out there, atheists who see a problem.

I see a problem.

Of course, there are possible naturalistic explanations, I know, but my question is, do most atheists even see a problem?

This is not a challenge. I was just thinking about it. I was reading Romans 1 the other day and got to thinking about the human predicament. And then I was reading over at Memoirs of an Ex-Christian, and came across this statement:

I have now reached a place of peace regarding my position, and have begun to build a new world view based on four beliefs: (1) my life is valuable for its own sake; (2) I’m not a second-class citizen in the universe, deriving meaning and purpose from some other mind; (3) I am not inherently evil, but inherently human, and (4) I possess the rational potential to make a positive difference in this world.*

Paul didn’t see it that way, that’s for sure. I can’t see it either.