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Two kinds of atheists exists, positive atheists who make a conscious decision that they are atheists, and practical atheists who are atheists but do not refer to themselves as such. The attack from atheism attempts to disprove the possibility of God's existence. Friedrich Nietzche is one of the most well-known atheists. Being a nihilist, Nietzche believed that reason was unconvincing and incapable of discovering the truth, so he convinced people by appealing to their emotions. Nietzsche believed in a theory of relative values, in which one person is more important than another, a relative morality, in which we have no right to defame something that someone else thinks is just and right. Nietzsche thought that the general masses were weak-minded and docile, and believed that every now and then a powerful leader came along (what he called an Ubermensch, or Superman) who influenced everything the masses did and believed. Nietzsche condemned Christian and Jewish morality as promoting servility and mediocrity when he belived war and superiority should be glorified. Another famous atheist is Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes was an adamant materialist, which means he believed that nothing exists beyond physical matter. According to Hobbes, all we need to understand the universe are the laws of nature. Hoddes' most shocking teachings are that free will does not exist and that we cannot change our future (a notion called fate, or destiny).
Scientism is viewed as a contant challenge to Faith, but the Church recognizes science's importance and believes that if a conflict arises between science and faith it can only mean that either the scientists or the theologians have made a mistake. Faith and science have had a rocky past, but their relationship has come a long way since the Galileo trial. The relationship began in unreflective unity, and then moved into reflective disunity in the Renaissance and reached its high point in the Enlightenment. However, the two are moving toward a more reflective unity today. The Church maintains that science has its limitations, such as its presupposition of the uniformity of nature, its emphasis on empirical knowledge, and the fact that the scientfic method does not guarantee certitude. Due to these limitations, it would be best if science sticks to its field - the study of matter and measureable data - and religion sticks to its field - the explanation of unmeasureable things. Stephen Jay Gould calls this concept is known as Nonoverlapping Magisteria, or NOMA for short.
Dehumanization is the act forgetting a person is a human being. Father Joh F. Kavanaugh, SJ focuses on companies' dehumanization of consumers, saying that "our very meaning is wrapped up in the economics of production and consumption of more products." The video The Merchants of Cool also focuses on big corporation dehumanization, and shows how companies try to get close to teenagers to find out what they want before competition so they can sell that product for much more money.
1. The idea of Nonoverlaping Magisteria, or NOMA. Stephen Jay Gould's concept that science and religion are not in conflict because their fields do not and should not affect one another makes a lot of sense to me. I belive that NOMA proves that scientism is definately not a challenge to Faith because it is a completely seperate field and therefore cannot affect religion.
2. The dehumanizing properties of consumerism as seen in The Merchants of Cool.The images presented to teenagers make them think that sex and image is more important than Faith. It's very terrifying to realize the brain-washing that the media puts out that tells guys to objectify women and women to become promiscuous sex-crazed seductresses. Here are some examples of the media's brainwashing:
Pop sensation Fergie's video for her hit song "Fergalicious" involves her wearing a skimpy bathing suit and jumping out of a large cake while singing about how "she makes the boys go loco"
The greatest challenge to Faith in our life here and now is the images presented to us through the television set. MTV , VH1, and several other channels broadcast shows with little to no plot and fill them with sexuality. Dating shows like I Love New York, A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, and Flavor of Love are perhaps some the most sex-filled shows on the air right now. Teenagers watch these shows and think that that is how they are supposed to act, discarding their Faith and morality in order to become what television tells them is "cool": such as having constant premarital sex and a seperation from your family.
Pink's music video for "Stupid Girls" shows the ridiculousness of of the image young girls are told to portay via television.