Empathy, Morals, and Religion

 Have you noticed how so many conservatives are uncomfortable with atheists, or downright hostile to them, or anything in-between? What is going on with that? Atheists are clearly not vicious brutes, though some conservatives paint them so, and other conservatives seem to have convinced themselves that we are so. (I am an atheist, though I don’t go around broadcasting it. I take it as a private matter, and nobody’s business but mine.)

Why are these people so anxious that we should all join them, and be Christians?  At first, I thought they were following orders: “Go ye, to all the corners of the Earth, and ...”  They were words that the writers of the gospels put into the lips of Jesus himself.

But now, I think there is a different reason.  It is fear.  They feel that if all the world were Christian, there would be safety for each of them.  If there were any atheists around, they would be a source of danger.  Mind you: I do not assert this as my thought. I just think that this is probably a thought that goes through the minds of some Christians.

Many families spend a lot of time, inculcating the quality of empathy in their kids. The ability to identify with someone who is suffering, is a fundamental part of being a member of a good society. We must not teach our children to only come to the aid of friends and relatives. Until we consider everyone as equal recipients of our empathy, we cannot feel that we have a good society.

In the abstract, everyone would subscribe to this principle.

But when we see our children following through on their empathy, some of us are taken aback: because, sometimes we see them empathizing with those who seem, to us, as undeserving to be empathized with.  This is the framework of the parable of the Good Samaritan in the Bible.

“I want to go help that family!”

“Are you crazy?  They’re . . . It’s not going to be like our home, you know.  Their standards of hygiene . . .”

Sometimes, I suspect, some parents would like to set limits on just how empathetic their children are going to be.  They probably feel that their empathy training has succeeded too well.

This is where racism starts.  You can see that some people need help, but maybe not immediate, personal help.  And their problems have been brought upon by themselves.  They have nobody to blame but themselves, and their parents.

So some conservatives would dearly love to encourage some sort of limited empathy in their kids, and they flood to churches where the natural desire of people to help each other is channeled more narrowly; a more focused kind of generosity.  Help the pastor, and the church, and all things will be added unto you.

But even among the more enlightened of our people, there are some who are affronted when we think of helping people outside the USA.  Doctors Without Borders.  Amnesty International.  That habit of focusing generosity more narrowly raises its ugly head, and we think carefully, and hold back our resources.  It is only the most generous among us who think of everyone everywhere as coming within our circle of concern.

I have spoken with Republicans, and I have heard the opinion that they cannot help everyone; they cannot do everything, and it is that that they fight for.  To restrain the tendency for Democrats to ‘hand out money like candy at Halloween.’  But they have no difficulty handing out money to big businesses.

Finding a sort of empathy that is not twisted into racism is the primary challenge for atheist parents, as well as to teach our children how to empathize, and to fight the tendency to have others focus our empathy too narrowly.

Arch