The Binary of Responsibility
I have been listening to atheists a lot lately. I’m not sure exactly why. I have a basic commitment, bone-deep, to fairness. I remember hearing Dennis Miller say once that he spends about two-thirds of his reading on his own position and philosophy and one third on the other side. I don’t know the optimal ratio, but that is fair-minded. It always rankles me when Christians are unwilling to subject their faith to the truth-tests inherent to living human life in a consistent and admirable way. So, because I watched a Christopher Hitchens short all the way through, youtube thinks this is the sort of thing I like. Gimme gimme, algorithm.
I don’t mind watching atheist clips in the least. They can be intellectually stimulating if there is a sharp interlocutor. Sometimes the arena is ethics, history, or Biblical theology--where my opinions may be imperfect but are at least earned and coherent. Sometimes the arena is biology or physics, where I must confess to being outgunned and sit on the sidelines as a curious spectator.
I watched one video in which Carl Sagan, a posthumously beloved astrophysicist and ambassador of science education, was asked about his potential belief in a Higher Power. I have to imagine he had been asked this question or variants thereof many times. Diplomatically, Sagan averred on the direct query of divinity-- he perhaps didn’t want to offend anybody with too overt an atheism (he seems to have been a robust agnostic and to have pilloried anthropomorphic views of God). But he did say that if we are alone, we are responsible for the planet. There is no one coming to save us.
This was received with raucous approval from the audience. It does not, however, strike me as a particularly meaningful or complete reply. I say this because sober responsibility applies in each of the conceivable scenarios. If we are alone, we must cobble together our own solutions because ‘there is no Planet B’, etc.
If we are not alone… on the Christian construal of this scenario, we are beholden to a morally perfect and omnipotent Creator to whom we must give thanks for both life and redemption. It is a fairly basic tenet of the salvation-historical system that Christ returns with salvation but also judgment (cf. Hebrews 9:28).
And certainly, on this side of death and eschaton, we are responsible to treat fellow humans in just, equitable, and non-malevolent ways. Different accounts of how this responsibility works would radiate from the center here, but very few would decline this basic premise in principle.
Responsibility inexorably attaches itself to human activity, whether we believe in a Judge or simply the consequences of our own actions. Those who believe in a Deus, myself included, must avoid the temptation to believe in a deus ex machina.