Empathy

Do not be harsh, for they know not what they do.

They have removed the animus from the world. They literally see the world around us as dark, silent, and unmoving. They use images of rocks to describe the dead world around them.

They removed the animus to a single shining spot that provides all the movement of the world. A God. They see the world as a hulk of lifeless material which is then animated through this one special actor who makes everything happen.

What a special actor it must be! The universe is big, and everything that moves, moves because of this one thing. The grandness can not be over estimated, yet it does so by removing all the animus from the world and placing it all in once place. That is fine if they want to see the world that way, however it is important to know this in order to understand how they see atheists.

Remember, for them, the world is cold, empty and motionless without God. They know that atheists reject God, and so from their point of view, without God, the world is cold, empty, and motionless. Therefor, the atheist's life must be cold, empty, and motionless.

Christians all can plainly see that atheists see the motion in the world, and they interpret that dichotomy as the following: atheists deny god, and since God causes motion atheists are denying motion. And yet there is motion, therefor the atheist denial is false, and similarly their denial of God is false as well. It is all bound up in a nice neat circular package, but nothing new there.

What I would like Christians to understand is that it is not that atheists deny motion, instead they see motion as part of the universe, and not due to God. The atheists see the animus in the world! They are not denying animus (life, spirit, meaning), but they are saying that animus (life, spirit, meaning) are not separated from the world. They see a universe that is itself alive, and they reject the idea that life itself is extracted and concentrated in a God outside the world.

This is a completely different worldview. I realize and respect that there are many different ways to view the world, so I am not saying this is the only possible worldview, I just want to present that worldview as clearly as I can.

Many materialists accept that many of the qualities that theists give to gods, are actually qualities of the universe itself. It has an ability to self organize. The universe is constantly creating new forms of existence. The universe has a kind of intelligence, nothing like a human intelligence, but nevertheless enough intelligence to in its way cause things to be created. People have personal subjective views of the world, and those views are entirely compatible with the material that exists -- there is no reason to think a separate substance is needed. The world is beautiful: Christians say that is because of God, materialist also sees it as beautiful, but not because some separate entity created it, but because the universe itself having these qualities that make it so.

To the materialist: people have minds, they have desires and goals, they learn, they talk to other people, they experience joy, sadness, and lust. Consciousness really is there, and it really is supported by the material, and not some ghost from another dimension. Life really does have meaning, and it comes from your relationship with the world, and not any relationship to God. All of the things you see as