Atheism

[ancient_paztriot]

 

.................................

Hayagriva dasa: Fichte believes that true atheism consists in “… refusing to obey the voice of one’s conscience until one thinks that one can foresee the succes of one’s actions and thus elevating one’s own judgement above that of God and in making oneself into God. He who wills to do evil in order to produce good is a godless person.”

 

Srila Prabhupada: If you do not know God or His orders, how can you verify your duty? Do you simply manufacture your duty? Anyone can do that. First of all, you must understand what is meant by duty. Duty means following the orders given by your superior, but if you have no superior, if you have no conception of the Supreme and His order, how can you knwo your duty? Of course, you may imagine your duty. Is this what he advises?

.................................

Hayagriva dasa: Comte distinguishes between atheism and Positivism in this way: “Atheism, evenfrom the intellectual point of view, is a very imperfect form of emancipation; for its tendency is to prolong the metaphysical stage indefinitely by continuing to seek for anew solutions to theological problems instead of setting side all inaccessible researches on the grounds of their utter inutility… The true Positivist spirit consists in studying the How instead of the Why.” Since religious questions can never be answered, they had best be forgotten.

 

Srila Prabhupada: How can man forget? If man does not believe in God, God comes as death. How can man counteract death? From Bhagavad-gita we understand that God appears as death for the atheists, and in this way God convinces the atheists, “Here I am.” No one can avoid this. No one can become independent by atheistic speculation.

.................................

PS:

Hayagriva dasa: Comte equated intellectual and moral improvement with material progress. He writes: “A nation that has made no efforts to improve itself materially will take but little interest in moral or mental improvement.”

 

Srila Prabhupada: The standard of material improvement is not actually fixed. One person may be satisfied with certain material conditions, while another may be dissatisfied with the same conditions. The question is, “What should the standard of material life be?” As far as Vedic civilization is concerned, the material necessitites are eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. These are present in both the animal and hman kingdoms. Standards, however, vary, according to different cultures.