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At Oxford University's Sheldonian Theatre in England, there are flying angels on its painted ceiling. The painting shows truth chasing out ignorance.But whose truth? So asks BBC News education correspondent Sean Coughlan, in his report about a debate between a top atheist and top theologian held in this historic building.
Reading about their opposing philosophies got me thinking: Surely the question should not be whose truth, but what is the truth that chases out all ignorance? Because for me, it's the truth of love that chases out hate and intolerance (the biggest forms of ignorance).
One of the major subjects in the debate was human misery. In my opinion, religion and atheism actually unify by focusing too narrowly on this, as though by giving explanations for why bad things happen to us will somehow give out the truth to our existence. I won't deny it is a popular subject amongst us. Despair is cathartic, and popular culture has always embraced icons of despondency.
For example, the enduring popularity of Edvard Munch's masterpiece The Scream is a prime example that we are fixated on human anguish. Likewise, when we think of Christianity, the iconic image is of Christ whipped, stripped and hung up high in a tortuous pose of crucifixion. Indeed, the Christian theological term used for this suffering is the Passion.
When I think of passion, I do not think of icons that scream about the tormented psyche, I think of bodies joined together in beauty of spirit, in love and desire.
But this compulsion to look at things that trouble us is a fundamental part of the human condition. Ironically, many of our modern troubles have been the result of religion, which some would say is very good at creating conflict when there need be none. Religion is deep-rooted in our societies, and the suppressed acceptance of sexism, racism and homophobia in the 20th century can be attributed to our major religions.
Culturally, atheism plays like a depressing pop ballad, too, where at the extreme end of its spectrum it's destructively nihilistic. It's a form of non-belief belief that is ultimately self-defeating, because when we start to believe that "this is all there is", we then begin to wonder if living is worth it. If there is no reason for our suffering, apart from the law of the jungle (i.e., survival of the fittest), then it is a cruel world that some would rather not waste their time in.
Yet, as intellectual and logical atheism can sound to modern thinking, where it gets all too confused is about the deep mysteries of the human consciousness. And if there is such a thing as a soul, who does it belong to, God or us?
And what really unifies atheism and theology, is how they always mess with details to blur the bigger picture. To me the grand landscape of life is a portrait of love, and it is up to every one of us how we paint on our individual canvases. You cannot paint with a closed mind, or with merely an intellectual one.
My answer may be seem very simple to very complex questions, but then I was taught that the lie is always complex, it's the nature of truth to keep things simple.
And the simple truth is that love, in all its forms, is the divine design of life.
Yours in love,
