Atheism's Gift to Christianity

Atheism, as it has always been, is not merely a denial of God but a criticism of the validity of any belief and religion. Atheism appears in many guises, and to help unravel its presence in our modern society, a priest, in a recent article in the Kyeongyang magazine, gives an overview of its growth as a movement throughout history.

Atheism as a movement appeared at the time of Christianity. Before and outside of Christianity there were no movements that denied the existence of God, he says. Denials would come from individuals but not from groups of atheists. The priest points to the appearance on the intellectual scene of empiricism, positivism, the 'enlightenment' ideas, materialist evolution, and the like, as the impetus which turned atheism into a movement in Europe. 

Since atheism as a movement appeared within a Christian culture, Christianity can be considered responsible for its appearance and growth.
 

In ancient times and in the middle ages, the nature and existence of a transcendent being who created mankind, the world and the universe was the central concern of most scholars in those days. Though conflicts in Europe were not missing, it was basically one culture with a belief in one God, which created the conditions for a similar worldview. However, at the end of the middle ages, with the discoveries of science and a new appreciation of our intellectual understanding, there was a breakdown of the old ways of understanding and a movement to the new.

The signs of this new atheism began to be seen in the breakdown of the old religious order in society. In the 16th century, the divisions within the Church, the fighting between religious groups, and the general upheaval within the world of belief brought in relativism and apathy. There were also discoveries of new lands, a new understanding of the universe, and enlightenment ideas began to change our thinking. The move toward secularization helped to bring atheism to the attention of many, beginning with the so-called intellectuals, mostly in academia. They generally considered themselves the enlightened ones, the priest says, and took pride in overcoming the "infantile state of a humanity lost in religion."

Theology and religion, in those days, were seen as the 'light' and 'shade' of the intellectual quest. There were theologians who became atheists, and atheists who became theologians. Feuerbach and Nietzsche both started off as believers, he says, and became atheists, prime examples, in his view, of our modern atheists; Freud and Marx were both influenced by them. The modern movement started with a small group of intellectuals and attracted many followers.  During the 19th century, its influence on society was substantial, and in the 20th century it became a strong  political force in East Europe.

In the 1960-70s theology was on the defensive. Intellectuals were pointing to the works of Feuerbach, who considered religion a  projection of our inner nature; to Marx, who considered it as opium;  and to Freud, who saw it as an infantile fantasy. It came to a draw, says our writer, and as we do not have the proof for the existence of God to convince atheists, neither do they have the proof for the non-existence of God. More important than proof for the existence of God for the Christian, he says, is a decision  and confession: a gift which they spend a lifetime to understand and give thanks.
 

Atheism has contributed a great deal to our theology, he says. (Which may be a surprising admission to some readers.) Because of their critical attacks, he says Christianity has been able to look at itself more closely and deal with a great many of the problems it has faced throughout its history, such as its tendency to individualism and idealism, to name only two. Atheistic criticism has become, he says, a part of the Church's legacy.
 

Looking over the history of the Church, seeing the problems and the scandals, we must, he says, acknowledge both the holiness and the sinfulness of the Church. As people of faith, we should dialogue with the atheists, for they help us to think clearly, stripping away the non-essentials.

He concludes the article with the words of a theologian, "The reason that the world is not changing is not because of any failure in the message of Jesus but because of our personal failures as Christians. The greatest refutation of Christianity is simply seeing the way many Christians live. The best way to promote Christianity is for Christians to begin living like Christians."

Life Without Emotional Expression

Can we have love without pain and sadness? These words introduce an  article in Bible  Life  by a priest who is on the staff of a religious education center. He shares his reflections with incidents in his life that brought these thoughts to mind.

Recently, after parking, his car in the diocesan parking lot he tripped over a block and bruised his left elbow and right knee seriously. While falling, countless thoughts were going through his head, he said, but he quickly got up and brushed off the mud and dirt from his clothes. There seemed to be no reason to be angry, he said, if no one was around to share his experience. What benefit would there be in anger, shedding tears or showing irritation, if no one would hear or see his suffering. That evening, because his accident was only known to himself, he felt he was not able to fully experience the pain of the situation.

Some 13 years earlier he had a similar experience. As a deacon at that time, along with two young persons and the assistant priest from the parish, he went on a week-long pilgrimage trip, on bicycles, to some of the Korean shrines. The priest took the lead and the two youths followed; he was at the tail end.
 
Returning from one of the shrines, on a bicycle, and falling behind the others, he peddled faster to catch up when a big freight truck passed by very close to him. The bicycle shimmied and spun out of control, with the front wheel hitting the side of the road, and he went flying through the air. He hurt his left shoulder and left knee much more seriously than he had hurt his body in the parking lot accident.  It was so bad he could hardly breathe. But there was nobody there to console him, to take care of his wounds, for his group was now out of sight. His whining would have been of no help, there was nothing else to do but get on the bicycle and continue on his way, pushing aside his pain and grievances. But all he could think about, he said, was meeting up with the group and "expressing the pain I felt when I fell so that i could truly experience the pain."  

There is of course the familiar scenes of children playing and falling and perhaps hurting themselves. Looking at their faces, they may seem ready to cry, but they don't. Only when their mother comes around do they begin to cry.  The pain is expressed in front of their mothers. The priest realizes that what he is saying sounds weird, but he believes the pain becomes complete only in the presence of  others. When we don't have anybody near, one does not feel the need to express the pain.
 
Our emotions come to the fore and take shape when we are with others, he says. Those who turn their back on the world and live by themselves will find, he adds, that their emotional life has become dry. They may not be hurting, but at the same time they will not be tasting the joy of happiness, and know the meaning of love.
 
In the last section of the Gospels, there is the passion and death of our Lord.  Many people appear who experience no sadness because of what is happening to Jesus; there is no close relationship and therefore no feeling of sadness. Sadness comes to us because of love. Without love, we do not have pain or sadness; we will lack feeling. The sadness of Peter because of his betrayal was possible because of his love for Jesus and the recognition of his own weakness. And the women "who beat their breasts and lamented over him" was only possible because of their love. We have no need to shun sadness if it comes naturally from a loving heart.

He concludes his article with the questions: How is it with me? Am I living a life without emotion? Is a life without sadness a happy life?  Would we be willing to live without love if we didn't have pain?

Abortion in Korea and St. Gianna

Why is the Church so strong in its opposition to abortion? Many in Korea would have difficulty  giving  a good answer.  Probably a better question would be: Why is there such a lack of interest to the question?  In Korea,  abortions are illegal in most cases, and yet it has one of the highest rates in the world, and is referred to as the  abortion kingdom. An article on the open forum page of the Catholic Times mentions that a wry smile comes over the face of those who say there are over 1000 abortions daily in the obstetrics and gynecology departments across the country.

The law, on the books since 1953, is still in force, the columnist says, but the atmosphere  is such that it is easily ignored. This became public recently when four doctors, arraigned  for performing 405 abortions, were given suspended sentences by the High Court of Daejeon, with no penalties. The Catholic bishops issued a statement on the decision expressing their disappointment and pointing out that the decision went against against the court's own constitutional laws.

The judge presiding over the case mentioned that a midwife had performed an abortion and was not prosecuted because the judge of the constitutional court said it was not contrary to the constitution,  and the judge used this precedent for deciding in favor of the four doctors. Here we have a case where the law is ignored and accepted by society. The Church sees this as a step to make abortion more frequent than it has been, and a green light for similar decisions, despite the law.

The columnist mentioned the case of Gianna Beretta Molla (1922-1962). She was canonized in 2004 by Pope John Paul II. He said at the canonization that she was an ordinary woman but with a meaningful message from a loving  God.

When she was pregnant with her fourth child, the doctors discovered a  growth in the womb and told her it was necessary to operate, otherwise her life would be in danger. She choose to ignore the warning and told the doctors to do everything to save the child. She waited 7 months and gave birth to a girl she called Gianna. For a week after the birth the mother was in serious pain, and died at the age of 39. She is the first woman in modern memory to be canonized as a mother.

She left four children without a mother, which for many would be reason enough to question the wisdom of what she did. But in her mind the child in the womb needed to be loved and respected and not someone you could randomly treat as you wished.

The position of the Church on abortion, not only in Korea but in most of the world, is not seen as reasonable when compared with the right of the mother to do what she feels is necessary. However, all our acts, whether religious or not, have eternal repercussions. There are consequences to everything we do, some intended, most not intended. This is true not  only of religious believers, but for all. Our actions have consequences.

The Church, with its long common memory, senses this in its history, "We reap what we sow." We are either building a culture of life or one of death. The columnist, in conclusion,  quotes  the saint Gianna:  " Beautiful words are not sufficient. We have to show the loftiness and beauty of our faith by witnessing to what we believe."

Expressing Movement in Art Without Arms

What does an electrical engineer do when he loses both arms, is fitted with a prosthesis, and his young son asks him to draw a picture? If he's Chang Woo Seok (Peter), he becomes an artist. Nearly killed in 1984, when over 20 thousand volts went through his body, he underwent 12 operations and was finally given a prosthetic replacement for arms.The Catholic Times tells us his story. 

Wanting to please his son, Peter  picked up a pen with his artificial arm and thus began his career as an artist. With the encouragement of his family he began to study the art of calligraphy, and from there he moved on to ink sketches of the nude figure, followed by an interest in the graceful movements of athletes, which he wanted to capture in his ink drawings. He says it was after the accident, and his own difficulties in moving his artificial arms, that he became interested in the beauty and mystery of movement.

At this time, he also found religion, and his paintings often include scriptural quotes. He says he is happier now than he was before the accident. He believes that if we change our habitual ways of thinking, we can learn to accept and benefit from everything that happens to us.

He has had 36 individual exhibitions, has traveled around the world, and given demonstrations of what can be accomplished with artificial arms. He will have an exhibition at the end of the month here in Korea, which will give artistic expression to  bodily movements often found in traditional Korean music, such as the Samulnori, made with four different kinds of percussion instruments-- gongs and drums.

Going to the Internet and writing, "Korean artist Chang Woo Seok" in the search engine, you will get examples of his many ink paintings.. He has developed a way of painting movement into his ink sketches because he uses his whole body to paint. Without the handicap, it's unlikely that we would see this unusual aspect of his art, which is present in much of his  work.

He says he intends to continue traveling around the world, exhibiting and doing his ink sketches. "I want to feel their cultures," he says, "and to paint their movements. I want all those that attend my exhibitions to be open to feel in whatever way they want. However, more than anything, I want to go along with what God has planned for me, and to continue for as long as he wants."

The Power of Walking

The Sk-Ryu-Ni trail in Jejudo is background for the article, which appeared recently in the magazine With Bible, on combining the benefits of spirituality and walking  The writer, a priest who has studied spirituality and has walked the Sk-Ryu-Ni trail, tells us what he finds sacred about such a common activity and how it can refresh both body and mind. Walking even when one knows it will rain is a common experience of those who love to walk, he says, and the fragrance coming from nature, permeating the whole body, is a memory they want to return to often. They would also like to see, he adds,  the construction of more walking trails in the future.

In the past, there was no need for this kind of effort but today many of these paths have disappeared. They remain, for the most part, because of the interests of tourists. When they began to disappear, he doesn't know, but laments the fact that all the beautiful places seem to have turned into golf courses or other recreational facilities. People who now want to take a leisurely walk can do so only on asphalt or concrete roads. This can be seen by some as progress, by others as destruction of our environment, and as a breakdown of the vital connection between humans and nature, and between the natural world and its inhabitants. And we become, the priest says, like secondary elements, cogs on a wheel.

The Chinese character used for path or road also refers to the truths necessary for life, for self-improvement.  Those who are walking for the sake of walking are communicating with themselves, and are aligning their bodies, he says, with the rhythms of nature. Those who use their cars to arrive at their destination do not have this communication or rapport. Only those who walk are able to hear the internal voice and become one with nature. The sounds, sights and smells of those in cars cannot be compared, he says, with the sounds surrounding  someone walking in a natural environment.

He laments that with the improvement of our transportation system and the ability to arrive faster to our destinations, we have also, in his eyes, become more isolated and alienated. He refers to how Le Breton expresses it in his book In Praise of Walking, "When we walk we are set free from the original requirements of our gaze and not only from the space that we occupy; it also allows us to go inside to search for the way." To walk this way we are improving our lives, seeing the internal  map, and seeking the right way, the priest says.

There are many different roads, different ways presented in the Scriptures. There is the way of the Samaritan who helped the person lying on the side of the road, and the way of the priest and the Levite who both walked past him. There is the way of the 11 disciples and the way of Judas. There is the way of parents who can choose among multiple ways to raise their children--good ways and bad ways. When we ignore the right way or walk the wrong way, there will be confusion and suffering.

He concludes with the ways our Blessed Mother took. Right after the annunciation she quickly walked the  mountainous  road to the home of Elizabeth. Because of Herod, Mary and Joesph took the road to Egypt to live in exile. They took the wandering road to find Jesus in the temple. During the public life of Jesus, Mary walked the roads in search of her son, and finally, the road to  the cross. She walked the ways that God had spoken to her in her heart.

The Greatest of these is Love

When Jesus sent his disciples on their first missionary journey he told them not to bring their money bags. A surprising condition in today's world and one we have  little sympathy for. A pastor working among the poor, in an article Bible & Life, gives us his thoughts on the difference between sharing and donating.

He often hears the words, "You are making light of our sincerity" from those who come to him offering money for the poor. Though he appreciates their generous spirit, he refuses the money.

And says, when he refuses to take their money, "What I have is all that is necessary. Poverty is not misery; you do with what you have. What is important is to love and be concerned. Help the priests around you. I have seen that when you help the poor with too many material things, you often deprive them of their humanity. Help those who are more in need. When I need help I will ask you, and you can then give."

Hearing  these words of the pastor, many are shamed, he says, and understanding their feelings, he feels uncomfortable saying them. But he reminds us: if we had seen the results of what material giving alone has done to many, we would understand his thinking. Much of what we give is not given to the whole person but only to the  material well-being of the person. Have you ever thought of how the material aid we give often has bad results? he asks.

We all have a desire to help those who are having difficulties. This is a good sentiment. But we have to think deeply on what is the best way to help. We at times have a good feeling of having helped but are not concerned with what may have been the unfortunate results of that generosity. Material giving for those in dire straits is proper and necessary. To help people get out of their serious state of poverty, with hope for the future is necessary, and not just to relieve them of their serious present situation. That is why love and concern is important in giving.

He confesses that at one time he was satisfied in just giving material aid. But living with the poor in these slums, he changed his thinking completely. True sharing comes from living together with them, he says. There is a world of difference between sharing and contributing material goods. He now says he understands not only with the head why Jesus came to live with us. It was to share love. Just contributing our material goods is not what is necessary. What's necessary is doing it in the way Jesus did.

In a busy life, this is often not easy to do. However, he hopes that we will not only be satisfied in giving of our material goods but reach out to others with our love and concern. More important than thinking how we can materially help another is sharing our lives with them, to be with them with love and concern.

Is the Dream Possible?

Working with others in a cooperative way to solve our common problems is a dream of many and the reason the coop movement has been so successful in much of the world.  Working for justice and the common good instead of for profit and growth is an ideal we should applaud and support.

However, many of these schemes never see the light of day, and many end up as failures, and yet without these dreams of a better future there would be few successes. The Peace Weekly recently profiled an entrepreneur who had such a dream: to start a citizen's oil company to both lower the price of oil by 20 percent and to put people to work in a healthy environment.

Many saw this venture of competing against the current four oil companies and their lobby as an impossible  task, but Lee Tyae Pok (Daniel) would consider it a David-Goliath scenario. The influence of the four oil refining companies on government and part of the mass media, according to the Peace Weekly, is a serious problem. Some of Daniel's foreign friends see the oil market in Korea as grotesque: Why do the intelligent Koreans allow this to continue? they wonder. Using a citizen's income as the measuring standard, the money Koreans spend on gasoline is one of the highest in the world.

He lists four reasons why it is possible to lower the price of oil about 20 percent: The current oil companies buy crude oil at a high price, they pay unnecessary royalties, they buy and use catalysts, they also, in collusion, raise prices unnecessarily.

Korea has, he says, only four refining companies, while Japan, with about twice our population, has 18 companies, and China has 650, which keeps the price down. He says our oil companies are using mafia tactics to keep the medium-size businesses from entering the oil market.

During the movement for democracy, in1981, he was sentenced to die. With the help, he says, of Cardinal Kim and many others he was pardoned. And last year, after 31 years, he was formally acquitted of any crime. He has worked for the alienated in society, worked also in government, and now wants to spend the rest of his life working to make his dream of providing oil at a cheaper price a reality. He asks for our support. He is a man with a noble goal and his efforts to achieve it deserve our support.