Is atheism the answer when god is the question?

Reading Schiller’s The Robbers from a contemporary atheist perspective

The question of whether god exists and criticisms of the socio-political effects of religious institutions is perhaps as old as god(s) and the institutions themselves.

Recent contemporary atheist texts by Richard Dawkins, Michel Onfray and Christopher Hitchens, present an aggressive case against the three dominant monotheistic religions and attempt to open a dialogue concerning the new secular society they believe we are already shifting toward.

Friedrich Schiller’s epic Enlightenment-era play The Robbers continues to resonate to audiences at the dawn of the twenty-first century and is a powerful representation of the recurring arguments in atheist discourse, contrary to Schiller’s stated intentions for the play.

Comparing Schiller’s The Robbers and these current atheist texts reveals some startling similarities that suggest atheism is the answer when god is in question.

To read the full thesis click here

OMG! intro

Edited by D B Valentine
Music composed by John Nesovanovic

OMG! - a performance art event exploring contemporary perspectives on religion, god(s), atheism, spirituality and the evolution toward a new post-religious society

OMG! was originally performed at Kings ARI Melbourne in 2008 to a live audience who documented the whole event as “co-performers”. The 5 part online mediatised version of OMG! is comprised of this documentation essentially creating a digital performance of the original event to be experienced in other temporal and spatial locations in cyberspace.

Is Atheism the Answer when God is the Question? : Reading Schiller's The Robbers from a Contemporary Atheist Perspective Click to read full thesis.


Thanks to Monash University Dept of English Communications & Performance Studies for their assistance in the development of this work.

Also thanks to Mick Diamond Laura Ogiel Sarah Walker Polash Larsen Jim McDonald Brooke Dellavedova Jeremy Bakker Joseph Zizys
©dbvalentine2008

This is No.1 of 5 video presentations

Coming Out... as an Atheist
(feat. Incubator)

Conceived performed & edited by D B Valentine
Incubator sound installation & Unangels Like Us composed by James Hullick

Coming Out as an Atheist is simply a declaration of my position on god(s) & religion. It is also inspired by, and a reaction to, contemporary atheist texts by Michel Onfray, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. - DBV


Incubator. Recursion is defined as a process that reiterates itself. Human evolution is recursive. No loop is eternal. No repeat truly literal. The laws of recursion demand that the process of recursion, itself must also pass. God is recursive.

Audience member reaction No. 1

Is it terror? I'm afraid he'll speak"

He's writhing... or is it praying?"

"Eggs in their bed of human hair"
"I'm afraid I'm most disgusted by these hatching heads"

"Now hes betrayed in red lipstick and fear, outstretched, eyes seem to silence the camera. I wish they'd all go away..."

"The ... of faeces makes us laugh. He seems to want us to see the faces in the pictures look at us... or him"

- Rob Baum

Audience member reaction No.2

"A man standing naked in the corner of the room seems to me the most pleasing way to start a show however fucked off he appears." - E.G.

This is No.2 of 5 videos

Porco Dio

Conceived & performed by Sandra D'Urso
Kor composed by James Hullick
Edited by D B Valentine

At the heart of this performance lies an ancient continental European curse Porco Dio, which states quite simply: PIG/GOD. Here we have two auspicious and conflicting diametrically opposed elements. Pig and God: each one sitting on the appropriate end of the Sacred to Profane continuum. I feel equally as alienated or distanced from God as I do from Pig and furthermore from my own biological or corporeal functions; and given that this perceived alienation and or distance is so extraordinary as not to be properly contained within a single sustainable thought, why not transform this perceived distance into a perceived proximity? So the proposition then becomes, "Not so far from God; not so far from Pig; not so far from my corporeal functions". - S.D.

Audience member reaction No.1

"I feel quite sick and saddened by the woman with the poor dead pig... pumping her breasts for a dead body. Its shaming"

"I didnt realize his ears would be transparent like lovely wings"

- Rob Baum

Audience member reaction No.2

"As to the pig woman: that post apocalyptic, butcher’s cheesecake pin-up, wet nurse: I found her disturbing. As soon as I see dead animals in art I inevitably end up pondering the numerous uses that animals have for humans: food, clothes, ingredient, transport, tool, sport, entertainment and theatrical prop. I guess the fact that this cold little pig was being cradled so lovingly highlighted- possibly for me alone- how fucked over animals have been and will continue to be for some time into the future. Besides that, the closeness of warm human body and thick, dead, slightly whiffy pig corpse was icky.

It was hard to place the image in any kind of context: what weirdass fucked up world has her as its nightclub entrance allurement girl? Where does this woman come from? Some place I never want to go." - E.G.

This is No.3 of 5 videos

One God Further
(feat. Incubator)

Conceived performed & edited by D B Valentine
Incubator sound installation &
Kor composed by James Hullick

One God Further explores notions of deicide, contemporary atheism and the anticipation of a broad post-religious discourse. It is also inspired by, and a reaction to, contemporary atheist texts by Michel Onfray, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.

Using the freedom to freely express this position in a pluralist society, I would like to put forward some open questions; what is left post-religion? What fills the gap? Us? How do we do it? What do we want? When do we want it? - DBV

Incubator.What does it mean to have a spiritual self in a technological society? Recursion is defined as a process that reiterates itself. Human evolution is recursive. No loop is eternal. No repeat truly literal. The laws of recursion demand that the process of recursion, itself must also pass. God is recursive.

Audience member reaction No.1

"And it could’ve been the champagne, or the fact that I had just sat through the Phantom of the Opera again, but there was something so satisfying and pleasant about watching that man get pissed on. I know it was meant to be the ultimate form of disrespect but the urine stream arcing down from the desk seemed to me like a babbling brook sparkling golden in the afternoon sunlight. Pleasant and warm. Perhaps it was that he was in a suit. Respectable piss. Well dressed piss.

The crap was another story. I felt for the Pope... It had a weird tinge. Slightly green and excessively slick. My ‘raised a Catholic’ sensibilities momentarily made me wonder whether the Pope really deserved such treatment but with a quick mental review it all came back to me. He’s the leader of an exclusive men’s club where they dress in absurd garb, play at make believe, and make up screwball rules, with not a thought as to how I might feel about that. He deserves that glistening round poo pyramid. He deserves that momentary view up DB Valentine’s arse before the final grim dark of faux faecal matter descends." - E.G.

Audience member reaction No.2

"I want (to) touch the things on the table... plant the cross" - Rob Baum

This is No.4 of 5 videos

SUICIDE SPIRITS

Conceived written & performed by Jessica Raschke
The Ballad of Jamie White composed by James Hullick
Edited by D B Valentine

Suicide Spirits is a performance installation of the forces that compel the suicide act: from chronic depression and self-loathing, to profound spiritual or religious rationales, or "divine duties", such as self-sacrifice to achieve matrydom. The pared back text-based work presents conflicting thoughts that occur in the course of a suicide attempt, and explores the interior territories of this confronting human act. - J.R.

Audience member reaction No.1

“The… female in the next room dancing to a silent poem. There is no cure for what she feels. Terrible room.” - Rob Baum

Audience member reaction No.2

"When I reached the final piece I stood for a good while enjoying the slow, staccato type revelation of insecurity and self-loathing that flashed across the screen. Being rhythmically released in little spurts of sentence, the effect on the written piece was of hearing the monologue spoken -in my head- by a melancholic and screwed up HAL-9000. It was sad and lovely." - E.G.

This is No.5 of 5 videos