How To Be An Agnostic
and an atheist they go nowhere fast. Having said that, he was
interested in theological debate: if God-talk can avoid getting
hung up on ‘proofs’, then it can become a way of critiquing
human knowledge, of refl ecting on the human condition.
Examining what people take to be divine is valuable because
it reminds them that they are made lower than gods and
that aspirations to god-like knowledge will remain just that –
aspirations. Then, if this can be stomached, the attitude it nur-
tures itself becomes a valuable source of insight. With such
humility, the vain attempt to ‘overcome’ is ditched, and the
challenge to understand is taken on. And this, in turn, is what
makes life worthwhile. It produces the best kind of human
beings, people who are not merely ignorant, but recognise the
ways in which they are. To this extent, they become wise and
lovers of wisdom. To put it another way, the unexamined life is
not worth living, negatively because it would be deluded, and
positively because examining all those other things in life –
character, intuition, friendships, loves and fundamentally ‘who
am I?’ – gives life shape and meaning.
Marginal belief
To the extent that he reframed theology as an anthropocentric
activity Socrates was heterodox for his times. Consider the issue
of the gods and goodness again. It was common to regard the
gods as somewhat arbitrary when it came to the goodness of
their deeds. When Zeus and his wife Hera argued on Mount
Olympus, Zeus would do a monstrous thing one day and Hera
some good, and then, after an argument the next day, Zeus
would do the good thing and Hera some horror. Who could tell
how it might turn out? Similarly, when a city-state sought the
assistance of its divinities in times of war, the plea was not the
modern-day sentiment ‘our cause is right’, with the implica-
tion that God must be on our side. Rather it was ‘you owe it
to us’, because of all the sacrifi ces your citizens have performed
for you.