Sake White

Wallace: What is your personal attitude about atheism? We have heard from certain atheists that the whole conception of God is unworthy of free men. They say that it’s almost, in a sense, contemptible for a man to fall on his knees before God. What is your attitude toward atheists?

Niebuhr: Well, you are asking two questions there. My personal attitude toward atheists is the same attitude I have toward Christians, and it is governed by a very orthodox text: “By their fruits shall ye know them.” I wouldn’t judge a man by the presuppositions of his life but by the fruits of his life. And the fruits — the relevant fruits — are, I’d say, a sense of charity, a sense of proportion, a sense of justice. Whether the man is an atheist or a Christian, I would judge him by his fruits, and I therefore have many agnostic friends. That’s an answer to one question. I might say that the debate between atheists and Christians is rather stale to me, because the Christians say, “You must be a Christian, or you must be a religious man, in order to be good,” and the atheists will say — as you quoted one of these atheists as saying — “It’s beneath the dignity of a free man to bow his knee to a god, as if he were a sinner.” The truth about man is that he has a curious kind of dignity but also a curious kind of misery, and that is what the various forms of agnosticism don’t understand. The eighteenth century always talked about the dignity of man, but I rather like Pascal’s words, “The philosophers talk to you about the dignity of man, and they tempt you to pride, or they talk to you about the misery of man, and they tempt you to despair,” and then, says Pascal — this was written in the Cartesian age — “Where, but in the simplicity of the Gospel, can you hear about both the dignity of man and the misery of man?” That’s what I say to the atheists. On the other hand, I also say, it is significant that it is as difficult to get charity out of piety as to get reasonableness out of rationalism.

As you can see, good stuff.

Not because of Wallace though.

Here is also the Journalist Code of Conduct that you may be interested in reading. Look at all those loopholes on how to crush and exploit people.

This post of mine is, of course, inspired by Neo’s post about how Mike Wallace said he would not even try to do anything to save soldiers if Mike knew they were going to be attacked.

For Libertarians or those that know of Ayn Rand, she did an interview with Mike as well. Youtube vids here.