Well, it’s time to get back to having fun with ‘The Primates‘!

Today we’ll look at a common misconception some religious folk have, namely non-believers already know God or the gods exist, but just pretend they don’t. Let’s take a gander.

Today’s Comic

The Deconstruction

I believe this comic is a classic example of ‘projecting’. Some Christians will actually use the cartoon’s advice to allay the doubts of a faltering believer. The most classic example of this ‘fake it until you make it’ mentality is, of course, found in the ever infamous ‘Pensées’ by Pascal just after his famous wager:

But at least learn your inability to believe, since reason brings you to this, and yet you cannot believe. Endeavour then to convince yourself, not by increase of proofs of God, but by the abatement of your passions. You would like to attain faith, and do not know the way; you would like to cure yourself of unbelief, and ask the remedy for it. Learn of those who have been bound like you, and who now stake all their possessions. These are people who know the way which you would follow, and who are cured of an ill of which you would be cured. Follow the way by which they began; by acting as if they believed, taking the holy water, having masses said, etc. Even this will naturally make you believe, and deaden your acuteness.

Pensées Section III note 233, Translation by W. F. Trotter

Well, okay, so we can tell it’s probably a blatant projection. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t an accurate portrayal of the unbeliever; it could just be a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Now I won’t pretend to speak for all unbelievers. However, I am interested in the truth, and faking it until you make it does not, in anyway, reveal truth. At best it allows you to, as Pascal mentioned, ‘deaden your acuteness’ or fit in to a community.

Okay, but what if one actually doubts if they don’t unbelieve? Well, first, what if, as a kid, you doubted if Santa wasn’t real? Sure, you know your parents get you presents, but what if Santa was real and your parents got you presents to make you feel better? Using this reasoning, all your friends who also found out their parents got them presents rather than Santa could also be in the same boat and you aren’t any closer to disproving Santa. But you don’t have to disprove Santa. You just need good evidence to believe in him. Until that evidence is presented, you regulate Santa with elves, gremlins, and the Loch Ness Monster.

So to the doubting atheist (if such an entity exists), I would suggest reading. Not just things that support your world view. No, read and scrutinise claims from various religions and weigh their evidence. It’s okay not to know; there is so much we don’t know about this big, beautiful world. It’s okay not to know; that means you can do more research and thinking, and, at least for me, that is exciting. It’s okay not to know; don’t fake it, don’t pretend.

And I’ll say the same to the theist who is doubting. It’s okay not to know. If there is a god, you aren’t it. We’re just humans, struggling to learn and grow in our short time on earth. And that’s beautiful. And scary.

The Revision

Actually, since I’ve never heard an atheist say what was in the original comic but I HAVE heard it from theists, I’m just going to do a basic correction. I know this doesn’t represent all theists, but whenever I hear some use the phrase ‘you just gotta have faith’, it sounds exactly the same as keep pretending.

I’m sure this topic will appear again in a future ‘Primates’, so I’ll discuss the idea that Satan is confusing us and tricking us into unbelief in a future deconstruction.

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