Ian Robinson
Convention topic: *Atheism as the Logical Conclusion to a Spiritual Quest
Ian Robinson is President of the Rationalist Society of Australia and for a number of years edited the Australian Rationalist.
He worked for more than twenty years as a senior curriculum officer, researcher and professional development officer with the Victorian Education Department and wrote their basic curriculum document, The Primary School Curriculum: A Guide for Victoria Schools (1979).
Before that he was a Tutor in Philosophy at the University of Melbourne and then Lecturer in Education at Coburg Teachers’ College. He has a long list of educational publications.
He was Buckley in the cabaret group “Buckley, Hope and Nun” performing at the Flying Trapeze Café and elsewhere. He has acted in and directed a number of plays including at La Mama and the Pram Factory. His one-act play “The Fountain of Love” won the 2006 National Playwright Competition; his fantasy story “The Crypt of Fleeting Hope” was published by Penguin; and he wrote the chapter on Bruce Doull in Footy’s Greatest Players.
He is married to Logie-winning actress and artist Maggie Millar. He currently writes plays and teaches writing and editing at Chisholm Institute.
*Abstract - That science leads to Atheism is generally accepted. This paper argues that any rigorous and exhaustive attempt to embark on a spiritual quest, that is, to find answers to the ‘big questions’: why is there something rather than nothing? what is the meaning of life, the universe and everything? is there a providence that shapes our ends? and so on, leads ultimately to Atheism just as surely. Thus those pre- and post-modern Christians -– such as Karen Armstrong and Terry Eagleton in the UK, and Frank Brennan and Barney Zwartz in Australia – who side-step science and claim immunity from the science-inspired critique by Richard Dawkins et al, are still vulnerable to the logic of their personal quest for ‘spiritual truth’, which, if followed honestly and scrupulously, must lead them to the conclusion that there is no god, not of any kind, and that Jesus is not their saviour. Simply put, the end of all our exploring will be to arrive at Atheism pure and unadorned. Not to do so can only be the result of intellectual dishonesty.
