Since I’ve been talking about religion lately, I felt like I needed to mention atheism. In recent years, especially the last 10 years, atheism has been much talked about in public, and a number of books have been published in its defense and propagation. From my research so far I have determined that art comes from religion. And if some in current society believe that religion is not a real (i.e. “spiritual” non-materialistic, invisible things simply don’t exist), but that it is a human supposition forced on people through society, then where does that leave art?
A very quick history of atheism goes like this – according to anthropologists, every known human society has some kind of rituals and beliefs that attest to the existence of an invisible (spiritual) world. The first records of atheism come around the 6th-5th centuries BC. In the 6th century BC in India, a school of thought called Cārvāka begins to explain the world in purely materialistic view. In the 5th century BC in Ancient Greece, certain philosophers state beliefs that no gods existed at all, and others start to try to explain the world in purely materialistic way. From these ancient Greek thoughts comes the contemporary understanding of atheism. During the Middle ages atheism was virtually nonexistent, but with the Renaissance and the re-introduction of Ancient Greek thought in Europe, the term atheist comes back. It isn’t until the end of the 17th century that a philosopher would claim to be an atheist again. Today, surveys show that atheism is present mostly in the so-called developed countries, with few exceptions, and that in the so-called developing world under 10% of the population claims to be atheistic. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism)
What does that have to do with the arts? Well, if religion is man-made and not necessary and not helpful, then all the artistic activities that we know and that have come to us from religious activities should be deemed meaningless and useless in our contemporary society. Yet creative and artistic activities seem to fill the daily life of the common citizen more than ever – from TV to internet radio to graffiti on the streets! And still I find much of “the art” today very hard to enjoy and relate to. Why do I feel so stuck?
History shows that atheism has never originated within the formation of a society. It only appears in well-established societies with a long history of religious beliefs. This is one of the reasons why I cannot reasonably accept the philosophy of atheism as real – as an accurate description of reality. I not only believe that an invisible reality exists, but also that understanding the invisible world is key to creating enjoyable art.
I have another reason, a personal one, to not accept atheism as real. I will tell you about it next time.
Art and the Invisible 