When atheists grovel at the doorstep of religion

There's been a growing sentiment among some of my fellow atheists, spurred by one Jordan Peterson, around the idea of finding new meaning in religion without all that pesky dogma and superstition. But why would anyone do that?

Now, let me first clear my throat by saying that I sympathize with all my fellow primates who are in search of purpose in their lives. What destinations we reach, if we reach any at all, are entirely up to us, as individuals, treading along beaten and unbeaten paths. We're a flawed species and so the way we approach everything will be flawed as well. However, there comes a time when you have to ask yourself if you haven't lost your way in your quest for meaning.

I recently watched a thought-provoking video by YouTuber Mouthy Buddha (embedded above). In it, he talks about the failure of atheism to fill the vacuum of values and meaning left by the abandonment of religion. He suggests that one may be misguided in relinquishing the supposedly worthwhile aspects of it, such as virtues and identity, along with its less savory chunks like dogma and superstition. We are, in essence, throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Well, if the baby would grow up to be a dictator, you'd probably do good to throw it out. But I digress.

First and foremost, what is this magical vacuum of values that people speak of and why is it so hard to fill it up? Supposedly, when one sheds off their religious identity, there is nothing underneath. Who you are as a person -- your likes and dislikes; your motivations, goals, dreams; your morals and ethics; your emotions and feelings; your relationships with other people; your understanding of the world and all the things that inhabit both within and without suddenly dissipate into nothingness once you call yourself an atheist, or even just a non-believer.

Now, someone might stop me here to tell me that this is not what is typically meant by the vacuum of values, but then I would likewise stop them and ask them what else is there for this vacuum to displace? Sure, all of those things I mentioned above may be thrown into disarray but are they really gone? No, they are not, and you can piece them all back together by yourself. It might take a lot of time, it might not, but it is far from impossible without religion.

If anything, religion is precisely the path you shouldn't take. After all, you've worked so hard to break its chains only to voluntarily weld them back together and put them back on. Except this time you've convinced yourself that they are only "metaphorical" -- you're simply deriving the cultural values of it without all the supernatural baggage. Don't you think that's a bit disingenuous? This is basically cafeteria religion for the atheist diet, where everything's dogma-free but just sanctimonious and woo-ey enough for the modern palate.

That's cowardice, plain and simple. You may be right in thinking I'm being conceited, but I'd say that it's exactly the opposite. By claiming that religious values and meaning can fill this void, you're extolling religion for virtues it never truly possessed. If you think you need religion to find purpose and meaning in your life, then let me ask you this: how do you know which religion is the right one? Which parts of it are "good" and which are "bad"? What do you keep, what do you discard and how do you go about deciding that? Who gets to decide these things?

The answer is that you are the one who decides that or at least you should be. Because what type of identity and values can you call your own if they are not yours to begin with? Sure, some of them might be common among a great group of people, but the prism of your worldview, no matter how shattered it may have become, will always filter what you like and don't like; what you agree and disagree with; the people you get along with and the ones you don't; what you consider "good" and "bad"; "benevolent" and "malicious"; ethical and unethical; moral, amoral and immoral; and so on and so forth. If there truly was a void there, with what tools would you be able to fill it up?

Reason? Emotion? Empathy? Solidarity? Those are things that don't go away just because a part of you has changed. When you remove weeds wrapped around a plant, there's still a plant there. It might be barely living or perhaps even dead, but the solution isn't to put another milder sort of weed there; the solution is to try and revive it or plant new seeds in its place.

Use that reason, emotion, empathy and solidarity to build your own identity, discover your own purpose and reach your own conclusions about which values to uphold. Yes, you can search for those in religion, too, but you don't need to. In fact, you shouldn't. Not because I say so, but because in doing so you will be giving yourself up to that which had already failed you once before. Do you want to make that mistake again? Do you really believe that what it offers you is better than what you can make for yourself? I, for one, think you can do better than that. I think we can all do better than that.