The Portable Atheist

[Susurrus]

Quite a good compendium, everyone from emma goldman to h.p. lovecraft in there.

[eyeheartlenin]

Dear Susu and any one else who cares to reply: Lovecraft was an atheist? That's an interesting discovery, because I have thought for a long time that a great many features of the current fascination with horror stories, vamps, monsters, the itinerant undead, etc., are really borrowed from Christian nightmares, since Christianity is pretty explicit about the nature of ha-olam ha-ba, the "world to come," in a way that other religions seldom are, so if things somehow "go wrong," there is a lot of material for a writer to work with. If that's simplistic, please forgive me.

I had not imagined that a prominent horror story writer might be an unbeliever. I would have thought that atheists were immune to such nightmares. If the question interests you, I would appreciate any thoughts you have about the origins of Lovecraft's fiction, and whether you think that religion played a role in his creativity or was replaced by some other factor.

Any information will be appreciated. -- eyeheartlenin

[Susurrus]

Lovecraft was an absolute athiest, and this is reflected in his fiction: the "gods" are not divine at all, being instead ancient and powerful beings that humanity cannot understand. Humanity was just an accidental creation, and the elder ones use humans as nothing but tools. There is nothing but the scientific world at play in Lovecraft's fiction, and the fact that the universe is vast and uncaring and that human society's beliefs are false are the truly horrifying parts.

"All I say is that I think it is damned unlikely that anything like a central cosmic will, a spirit world, or an eternal survival of personality exist. They are the most preposterous and unjustified of all the guesses which can be made about the universe, and I am not enough of a hair-splitter to pretend that I don't regard them as arrant and negligible moonshine. In theory I am an agnostic, but pending the appearance of radical evidence I must be classed, practically and provisionally, as an atheist."

As for the inspiration, he drew most of it from night terrors(not nightmares, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_terrors ) that kept him from sleep as a child.

[x359594]

Dear Susu and any one else who cares to reply: Lovecraft was an atheist?...

Lovecraft was a militant atheist. He was an amateur astronomer and maintained an interest in science throughout his life. One of his non-fiction texts is called "The Cancer of Superstition."

A close reading of his work will show that the "Great Old Ones" and other beings are actually extraterrestials who are so anomalous that that human beings conceive of them as gods (with the exception of a few scientists.)

The idea that the Old Ones are supernatural beings comes from Lovecraft's disciple August Derleth, a believing Catholic. His spin on the Cthulhu Mythos was the cause of confusion for years in science fiction/fantasy fandom. After his death in 1971 a new generation of Lovecraft enthusiasts returned to a close examination of Lovecraft's work and made a distinction between what Lovecraft actually wrote from Derleth's interpretations and pastiches, naming the latter the Derleth Mythos.

[eyeheartlenin]

Friends: Thank you for your prompt and interesting responses. I had not thought of extraterrestrials and "ancient ones," but of course they could inspire fear and wreak chaos also.

The university I used to work at, which attracted really gifted young people, had a student organization called "Campus Crusade for Cthulhu," (sp?) and only tonight I discovered that Cthulhu was a Lovecraft creation, after I read the wikipedia article about the writer.

With my thanks to you both (I am in the IWW, too) -- eyeheartlenin