Atheism For Dummies (For Dummies (Religion & Spirituality)) (51 page)

Through the careful reading of ancient Confucian texts, some philosophers in this period were able to get a clear enough view of the original to see that it was worth restoring, and Neo-Confucianism was born.

The purpose of Neo-Confucianism was to restore the clear thinking and practical ethics of Confucianism for the betterment of Chinese society by cleansing it of supernatural and mystical ideas. One of the most important Neo-Confucians is Chang Tsai (1020–1077), and his most influential book was
Correcting the Unenlightened,
which presented his vision for restoring rational Confucianism.

Just as it had been a thousand years earlier (see
Chapter 4
),
t’ien
was an important focus for Chang’s generation. The word translates loosely as “heaven,” but
it literally means, “that which causes the world to be as it is.” If a philosopher believed in gods,
t’ien
was the gods. For secular philosophers like Chang and Xun Zi, it meant natural, physical laws and principles.

Not surprisingly, Chang’s book reads a lot like
De rerum natura.
They were both talking about the nature of things, and both doing it without gods. After the gods have been set aside, the natural world begins to reveal itself much more clearly and sensibly.

The two books have another similarity. Just like Lucretius started by slaying the “hideous, glowering” beast of religion, so Chang knew he had to be decisive in getting the gods out of his readers’ minds before he could describe the Confucian system. When I say “t’ien,” he wrote, remember that

T’ien makes things happen on Earth without sharing the concerns of people.

T’ien is without consciousness or sympathy.

T’ien doesn’t act with purpose, and it never has.

It was a big step in the direction of understanding the world naturalistically.

I’m sure that Chang, like most people, would have preferred to live in a universe that cares about people and is responsive to their needs. But he thought it best to see the world as it really is and respond accordingly, instead of seeing it as he wished it to be and wondering why
t’ien
never seemed to pick up the darn phone.

Chang felt that human nature is essentially good, but that people are at their very best when they’re in harmony with
t’ien —
the principles of the natural world.

Most important for a secular philosophy, Chang emphasized that rational explanations are at the heart of even the most mysterious or bizarre things. If something seems mysterious, he said, keep asking questions until you get to the source of it — and there you will find a rational explanation.

Chang Tsai and the other Neo-Confucians succeeded brilliantly in bringing secular Confucianism back to life. By the 13th century, it was back on top as the ethical and social compass of Chinese culture.

Appreciating Unorthodox Believers

The first challenges to religious ideas often come not from outright unbelievers but from
heretics
— believers who see the shortcomings of traditional beliefs and practices and are willing to bang the drum to get things fixed.

A special kind of courage is required to bang that drum from inside the temple. As I say in
Chapter 5
and elsewhere, heretics were usually considered a much bigger threat to the Establishment than complete nonbelievers because heretics were much more likely to end up splitting the church into separate movements in competition for the souls (and pennies) of the faithful.

The period from the early Renaissance to the French Revolution was brimming with courageous heretics, including

Michael Servetus, a Spanish theologian burned in 1553 for opposing infant baptism and believing God to be a single being, not three

Giordano Bruno, a Dominican friar burned in 1600 for his (accurate) belief that stars were actually other suns circled by “innumerable worlds”

Baruch Spinoza, a Dutch philosopher kicked out of the Jewish community in Amsterdam in the 1650s for supposedly “abominable deeds” and “monstrous heresies”

Spinoza’s expulsion order by the Jewish authorities was especially intense, including a magnificent series of curses that sounded (ironically) like Pharaoh cursing Moses in
The Ten Commandments:
“Cursed be he by day and cursed be he by night,” said the order. “Cursed be he when he lies down, and cursed be he when he rises up; cursed be he when he goes out, and cursed be he when he comes in. The Lord will not spare him; the anger and wrath of the Lord will rage against this man, and bring upon him all the curses which are written in this book, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven” . . . and on it goes. No one was to speak to him, or approach within ten feet, give him a place to stay, or (most important of all) read anything he wrote.

So what did he do to earn this expulsion? He wasn’t an atheist, but his views departed so far from Jewish orthodoxy that he may as well have been. He didn’t believe the soul was immortal, for example, didn’t believe God intervened in the world, and didn’t think the Old Testament came from God or applied any longer to the Jews.

All three of these heretics, along with countless others, had their works placed on the Catholic Church’s Index of Forbidden Books — a feather in the cap of any heretic worthy of the term.

Praising Folly with Erasmus

In 1509, while on holiday in England, a Dutch monk named Desiderius Erasmus wrote an incredibly courageous little book. It was no scowling, accusatory broadside against the Church, like Martin Luther would write eight years later. No, this was a howling,
laughing
broadside against the Church, and all humanity — one that quickly became a continental bestseller.