Ritröð Guðfræðistofnunar - 01.09.2008, Page 20

This problem was anticipated by Dostoyevsky in his great novel The
Devils. The most important character in the novel is Kirillov, who argues that
the non-existence of God legitimates all forms of actions. The importance of
this theme for Dostoyevsky is best appreciated from his 1878 letter to N. L.
Ozmidov, in which he sets out the implications of atheism for morality:18
Now assume that there is no God, or immortality of the soul. Now tell
me, why should I live righteously and do good deeds, if I am to die entirely
on earth? . . . And if that is so, why shouldn’t I (as long as I can rely on my
cleverness and agility to avoid being caught by the law) cut another man’s
throat, rob and steal?
In The Devils, Kirillov adopts a related line of argument: if there is no
God, it follows that he, Kirillov, is God. This puzzles Stephanovich, who
asks him to explain what he means. Kirillov responds as follows:19
If God exists, then everything is His will, and I can do nothing of my
own apart from His will. If there’s no God, then everything is my will, and
I’m bound to express my self-will.
Since the idea of God is a pure human invention, Kirillov reasons that
he is free to do as he pleases. There is no higher authority, to whom he is
ultimately accountable, or who is able to negate his totalitarian moral self-
assertion.
In one of his more bizarre creedal statements as an atheist, Dawkins
insists that there is “not the smallest evidence” that atheism systematically
influences people to do bad things.20 It’s an astonishing, na'ive, and somewhat
sad statement. Dawkins is clearly an ivory tower atheist, disconnected from
the real and brutal world of the twentieth century. The facts are otherwise.
In their efforts to enforce their atheist ideology, the Soviet authorities
systematically destroyed and eliminated the vast majority of churches and
priests during the period 1918-41. The statistics make for dreadful reading.
This violence, repression and bloodshed were undertaken in pursuit of an
atheist agenda - the elimination of religion. Atheist can be just as repressive,
18 Joseph Frank and David I. Goldstein (eds), Selected Letters of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, translated by
Andrew R. MacAndrew. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1987, 446.
19 Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Devils, translated by Michael R. Katz. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992,
691. This major work is also known by other names in English, including “The Possessed.”
20 Dawkins, The God Delusion, 273.
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