Someone posted a link to this video (H/T http://www.aoiusa.org/blog/for-most-atheists-atheism-is-a-lifestyle-choice-video/) on my FB feed, and I found it one of the most interesting things I've seen in a long time:
Addiction itself bears witness to the deterioration of the human condition under the effects of Atheism. That is why the 12 Steps relies on the rebuilding of one's understanding of God in order to recover. Recovery hinges on one coming to believe in God not as the 'yes/no' proposition Dr. Cunningham speaks of, but the key to existence itself.
The nihilism of modern atheism has devastated Eastern Europe to this day, some 20 years after the passing of official Communism and Atheism. Western Europe is having a wealthier version of this social collapse, with plummeting birthrates and similar addictions problems. people are doping themselves because the atheistic world lacks meaning and stability, two things the human psyche cannot do without.
Say what you want about reality, humans simply do not do well without God. Modern atheists do indeed rely on Christianity to provide a God for them to reject, and yet rely on to provide essential meaning. This is why atheists don't turn to Plato and Aristotle for meaning: they open the possibility of a creative force organizing the cosmos. Atheists have Sartre and Nietsche... not too much hope for humanity in them.
I think those with significant time in recovery intuit what Dr. Cunningham is saying, and I think he articulates it well (I like the 'unpolished' feel of this video as a real conversation rather than a rehearsed and staged 'chat'). The concept of God that he puts forward is far more hopeful than the 'Jesus-or-hell' narrative that bogs down Christians. If you more closely read the Gospel of St. John, you see this bigger picture. It is an image of Genesis: a world imbued with God and meaning.
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