If atheism is right, then we need to face the following three facts

1. We are the result of undirected evolution.

2. Much that happens in our lives is outside our control. In particular, we age and die.

3. The universe, understood to encompass all that exists, is indifferent to us.

Hence, atheism must try to address (1)-(3).

We are the result of undirected evolution

· As we saw, this is not bad news, as it explains the prosocial tendencies we have. However, prosociality is parochial, and universal prosociality is a cultural conquest sometimes aided and sometimes impeded by religion.

· The fact that we are animals gives us hope to obtain a scientific understanding of the springs of our behavior and to be able to improve ourselves. In this context, leaving behind the idea that our current status is the result of some prideful action our ancestors performed against the gods seems a precondition for scientific understanding. Religion, here, probably makes things worse than they need be.

Much that happens in our lives is outside our control. In particular, we age and die.

Postponing the topic of death, our abilities, our accomplishments, or failures, owe much to what is beyond our control. This is distressing but Wielenberg has argued, it also constitutes the basis of the atheistic concept of humility. Humility can be understood in two different ways:

a. As a lowering of one’s real merits, a form of misjudgment

b. As a recognition of the fundamental role played by factors F we don’t control in our successes

Since (a) is based on an error, it can hardly be (a part of) a virtue. By contrast, (b) amounts to the understanding of how things are. For the Christians, factors F are under God’s control, and therefore humility amounts to attributing to God some (many? all?) of our accomplishments. An atheist will attribute them to mere luck. Hence, the accusation of excessive pride launched against secular humanism results, as usual, from a caricature. Who is more vainglorious, the one who says that we are the product of evolution or the one who says that we (WE!) are in the image of the master of the universe?

The universe is indifferent to us

For some, this is hard to swallow. If atheism is right, there is no cosmic justice, and there is no end to how bad things can be. One’s life may be miserable and that’s that: no redressing of injustice or underserved pain and suffering. Or, if one is concerned with meaning, sometimes suffering is just that, for nothing. This may require some backbone to have the strength to persist in such unfavorable conditions. In short, to be an atheist requires courage, as there is no father in heaven to set things right. (Remember, however, that not all gods are nice; certainly, the god of scripture is not!).